The Ashokan Prakrit dialects reflected local forms of the Early Middle-Indo-Aryan language. Three dialect areas are represented: Northwestern, Western, and Eastern. The
Central dialect of Indo-Aryan is exceptionally not represented; instead, inscriptions of that area use the Eastern forms. [2]: 50 [1] Ashokan Prakrit is descended from an
Old Indo-Aryan dialect closely related to
Vedic Sanskrit, on occasion diverging by preserving archaisms from
Proto-Indo-Aryan.
Masica classifies Ashokan Prakrit as an Early Middle-Indo-Aryan language, representing the earliest stage after
Old Indo-Aryan in the historical development of Indo-Aryan.[2]: 52
Dialects
There are three dialect groups attested in the Ashokan Edicts, based on phonological and grammatical idiosyncrasies which correspond with developments in later Middle Indo-Aryan languages:[3][4][5]
Western: The inscriptions at
Girnar and
Sopara, which: prefer r over l; do not merge the nasal consonants (n, ñ, ṇ); merge all sibilants into s; prefer (c)ch as the reflex of the Old Indo-Aryan thorn cluster kṣ; have -o as the nominative singular of masculine a-stems, among other morphological peculiarities. Notably, this dialect corresponds well with
Pali, the preferred Middle Indo-Aryan language of Buddhism.[6]: 5 According to
Turner, the inscription at Girnar is closer to
Marathi than to
Gujarati, and posits "Proto-Marathi" speakers previously had a more northernly presence.[7]
Northwestern: The inscriptions at
Shahbazgarhi and
Mansehra written in the
Kharosthi script: retain etymological r and l as distinct; do not merge the nasals; do not merge the sibilants (s, ś, ṣ); metathesis of liquids in consonant clusters (e.g. Sanskrit dharma > Shahbazgarhi dhrama). These features are shared with the modern
Dardic languages.[8]
Eastern: The standard administrative language, exemplified by the inscriptions at
Dhauli and
Jaugada and used in the geographical core of the Mauryan Empire: prefer l over r, merge the nasals into n (and geminate ṁn), prefer (k)kh as the reflex of OIA kṣ, have -e as the nominative singular of masculine a-stems, etc. Oberlies suggests that the inscriptions in the Central zone were translated from the "official" administrative forms of the Edicts.
Sample
The following is the first sentence of the
Major Rock Edict 1, inscribed
c. 257 BCE in many locations.[9]
this morality-rescript Khepiṅgala.LOC mountain.LOC Devānāṁpriya.INS Priyadarśin.INS king.INS write.CAUS.PTC
The dialect groups and their differences are apparent: the Northwest retains clusters but does metathesis on liquids (dhrama vs. other dhaṃma) and retains an earlier form dipi "writing" borrowed from Iranian.[10] Meanwhile, the l ~ r distinctions are apparent in the word for "king" (Girnar rāña but Jaugada lājinā).
References
^
abThomas Oberlies. "Aśokan Prakrit and Pali". In
George Cardona; Dhanesh Jain (eds.). The Indo-Aryan Languages. pp. 179–224.
^Jules Bloch (1950). Les inscriptions d'Aśoka, traduites et commentées par Jules Bloch (in French).
^Ashwini Deo (2018). "Dialects in the Indo-Aryan landscape". In Charles Boberg; John Nerbonne; Dominic Watt (eds.).
The Handbook of Dialectology(PDF). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
^Jain, Danesh; Cardona, George (2007-07-26). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 165.