Work

Animacy, postpositions, and the spatial cases in Niya Prakrit

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: In this paper, it is shown that (i) the synthetic ablative and locative case in Niya Prakrit have come to be restricted to inanimate nouns and pronouns, and that (ii) analytic formations with postpositions are used for animates: (pro)noun + paride ‘from’ for ablatival functions, and (pro)noun + vaṃti ‘in, at, to’ for locatival functions. In addition, it is argued that in the Khotan Prakrit document CKD 661 the postposition sag̲aj̲i /saγāźi/ ‘in, at, to’ is used in the same function as Niya Pkt. vaṃti.

Source: Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics

DOI: 10.1515/jsall-2025-0004

Author: Niels Schoubben

Institution: Leiden University

Language: English

Topic: Linguistics and language evolution

Subfield: Language and Linguistics

Field: Arts and Humanities

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,712

Funder: H2020 European Research Council