mī̃, I, instr. mī̃, myā, dat. malā, obl. madz; āmhī, we, instr. āmhī̃,
obl. āmhā̃; mādzhā, my, of me; āmtsā, our, of us.
tū̃, thou, instr. tū̃, twā, dat. tulā, obl. tudz; tumhī, you, instr. tumhī̃, obl. tumhā̃; tudzhā, thy, of thee; tumtsā, your, of you.
āpan, self, obl. āpᵃṇa, gen. āpᵃlā. This is also employed as an honorific pronoun of the second person, and, in addition, to mean “we including you.”
hā, this, fem., hī, neut. hē̃; tō, he, that, fem. tī, neut. tē̃; dzō, who, fem., jī, neut. jē̃.
kōṇ, who? kāy, what? obl. kāśa; kōṇī, any one; kā̃hī, anything.
In all these the plural is employed honorifically instead of the singular.
Conjugation.—In Prakrit (q.v.) the complicated system of Sanskrit conjugation had already disappeared, and all verbs fell into two classes, the first, or a-, conjugation, and the second, or ē-, conjugation, in which the ē represents the aya of the Sanskrit tenth conjugation and of causal and denominative verbs. Marathi follows Prakrit in this respect and has two conjugations. The first, corresponding to the Prakrit a-class, as a rule consists of intransitive verbs, and the second, corresponding to the e- or causal class, of transitive verbs, but there are numerous exceptions. Verbs whose roots end in vowels or in h belong partly to one and partly to the other conjugation. These conjugations differ only in the present and past participles and in the tenses formed from them. Here, in the first conjugation an a, and in the second conjugation an i, is inserted between the base and the termination.
The only original Prakrit tenses which have survived in Marathi are the present and the imperative. The present has lost its original meaning and is now a habitual past. It is also the base of the Marathi future. These three tenses, the habitual past, the imperative and the future, are conjugated as follows. They should be compared with the corresponding forms in the article Prakrit. The verb selected is the root uṭh, rise, of the first conjugation.
| Person. | Habitual past (old present), I used to rise. |
Imperative. Let me rise. |
Future. I shall rise. | |||
| Sing. | Plural. | Sing. | Plural. | Sing. | Plural. | |
| 1 | uṭhē̃ | uṭhū̃ | uṭhū̃ | uṭhū̃ | uṭhēn | uṭhū̃ |
| 2 | uṭhēs | uṭhā̃ | uṭh | uṭhā | uṭhᵃśīl | uṭhāl |
| 3 | uṭhē | uṭhat | uṭhō | uṭhōt | uṭhēl | uṭhᵃtīl |
As in Rajasthani, Bihari and the Indo-Aryan language of Nepal (see Pahari), the future is formed by adding l, or in the first person singular n, to the old present. In the second person singular the l has been added to a form derived from the Pr. uṭṭhasi, which is also the origin of the old present uṭhēs. Some scholars, however, see in uṭhaśī a derivation of the Prakrit future uṭṭhihisi, thou shalt arise, and a confusion of the Prakrit present and future is quite possible.
The remaining tenses are modern forms derived from the participles. The verbal nouns, participles and infinitives are as follows:—
| Prakrit (First Conjugation). |
Marathi First Conjugation. |
Marathi Second Conjugation. | |
| Verbal Noun | uṭṭhaṇīaṁ | uṭhᵃṇē̃, the act of rising. | mārᵃṇē̃, the act of killing. |
| Infinitive | uṭṭhiuṁ | uṭhū̃, to rise. | mārū̃, to kill. |
| Present Participle | uṭṭhantō, uṭṭhantaō | uṭhat, uṭhᵃtā, rising. | mārīt, māritā, killing. |
| Past Participle | uṭṭhiallaō | uṭhᵃlā, risen. | mārilā, killed. |
| Future Participle Active | uṭṭhaṇaaḍō | uṭhᵃṇār, about to rise. | mārᵃṇār, about to kill. |
| Future Participle Passive | uṭṭhiavvaō | uṭhāwā, about to be risen. | mārāwā, about to be killed. |
| Conjunctive Participle | uṭṭhiu | uṭhūn, having risen. | mārūn, having killed. |
The only form that requires notice is that of the conjunctive participle. It is derived from the Apabhrarṁśa form uṭṭhiu, to which the dative suffix n (old Marathi ni, niyā̃) has been added.
Various tenses are formed by adding personal suffixes to the present, past or future passive participle. When the subject of the verb is in the nominative the tense so formed agrees with it in gender, number and person. We may note four such tenses: a present, uṭhᵃtō̃, I rise; a past, uṭhᵃlō̃, I rose; past conditional, uṭhᵃtō̃, had I risen; and a subjunctive, uṭhāwā, I should rise. In the present, the terminations are relics of the verb substantive, and in the other tenses of the personal pronouns. In these latter, as there is no pronoun of the third person, the third persons have no termination, but are simply the unmodified participle. We thus get the present and the past conjugated as follows, with a masculine subject:—
| Present, I rise. | Past, I rose. | |||
| Singular. | Plural. | Singular. | Plural. | |
| 1 | uṭhᵃtō̃ | uṭhᵃtō | uṭhᵃlō̃ | uṭhᵃlō̃ |
| 2 | uṭhᵃtōs | uṭhᵃtā̃ | uṭhᵃlās | uṭhᵃlā̃ |
| 3 | uṭhᵃtō | uṭhᵃtāt | uṭhᵃlā | uṭhᵃlē |
The feminine and neuter forms differ from the above: thus, uṭhᵃtēs, thou (fem.) risest; uṭhᵃlīs, thou (fem.) didst rise; and so on for the other persons and for the neuter.
It will be observed that, in the case of transitive verbs, while the present participle is active, the past and future passive participles are passive in meaning. The same is the case with the future passive participle of the intransitive verb. In tenses, therefore, formed from these participles the sentence must be construed passively. The subject must be put into the instrumental case, and the participle inflected to agree with the object. If the object is not expressed, or, as is sometimes the case, is expressed in the guise of a kind of ethic dative, the participle is construed impersonally, and is employed in the neuter form. Thus (present tense) mulᵃgā (nom. masc.) pōthī vācitō, the boy reads a book, but (past tense) mulᵃgyānē̃ (instrumental pōthī (nom. fem.) vācilī (fem.) the boy read a book, literally, by-the-boy a-book was-read; or mulᵃgyānē̃ pōthīlā (dative) vācilē̃ (neuter), the boy read the book, literally, by-the-boy, with-reference-to-the-book, it-(impersonal)-was-read. Similarly in the subjunctive formed from the future passive participle, mulᵃgyānē̃ pōthī vācāwī, the boy should read a book (by-the-boy a-book is-to-be-read) or mulᵃgyānē̃ pōthīlā vācāwē̃, the boy should read the book [by-the-boy with-reference-to-the-book, it (impersonal)-is-to-be-read]. As an example of the subjunctive of an intransitive verb, we have twā uṭhāwē̃, by-thee it-is-to-be-risen, thou shouldst rise. As in intransitive verbs the passive sense is not so strong, in their case the tense may also be used actively, as in tū̃ uṭhāwās, thou shouldst rise, lit., thou (art) to-be-risen. It will be noted that when a participle is used passively it takes no personal suffix.
We have seen that the present tense is formed by compounding the present participle with the verb substantive. Further tenses are similarly made by suffixing, without compounding, various tenses of the verb substantive to the various participles. Thus mī uṭhat āhē̃, I am rising; mī uṭhat hōtō̃, I was rising; myā uṭhāvē̃ hōtē̃ (impersonal construction), I should have risen. In the case of tenses formed from the past participle, the auxiliary is appended, not to the participle, but to the past tense, as in mī̃ uṭhᵃlō̃ āhē, I have risen; myā mārilā āhē (personal passive construction) or myā mārilē̃ āhē (impersonal passive construction), I have killed. Similarly mī uṭhᵃlō̃ hōtō̃ (active construction), I had risen. The usual forms of the present and past of the verb substantive are:—
| Present, I am. | Past, I was (masc). | |||
| Singular. | Plural. | Singular. | Plural. | |
| 1 | āhē̃ | āhē̃ | hōtō̃ | hōtō̃ |
| 2 | āhēs | āhā̃ | hōtās | hōtā̃ |
| 3 | āhē | āhēt | hōtā | hōtē |
The past changes for gender, but the present is immutable in this respect. Ahē̃ is usually considered to be a descendant of the Sanskrit asmi, I am,[1] while hōtō̃ is derived from the Pr. hoṁtaō, the present participle of what corresponds to the Skr. root bhū, become.
A potential passive and a causal are formed by adding av to the root of a simple verb. The former follows the first, or intransitive, and the latter the second or transitive conjugation. The potential passive of a neuter verb is necessarily construed impersonally. The causal verb denotes indirect agency; thus, karᵃnē̃, to do, karavᵃnē̃, to cause a person to do; tyācyā-kaḍūn myā tē̃ karavilē̃, I caused him to do that, literally, by-means-of-him by-me that was-caused-to-be-done. The potential, being passive, has the subject in the dative (cf. Latin mihi est ludendum) or in the instrumental of the genitive, as in malā (dative), or mājhyānē̃ (instr. of mādzhā, of me), uthᵃvatē̃, I can rise, literally, for-me, or by-my-(action), rising-can-be-done. So, Rāmālā, or Rāmācyānē̃, pōthī vācᵃvalī, Rām could read a book (by R. a book could be read).
Several verbs are irregular. These must be learnt from the grammars. Here we may mention hōṇē̃, to become, past participle dzhālā; yēṇē̃, to come, past participle ālā; and dzāṇē̃, to go, past participle gēlā. There are also numerous compound verbs. One of these, making a passive, is formed by conjugating the verb dzāṇē̃, to go, with the past participle of the principal verb. Thus, mārilā dzātō, he is being killed, literally, he goes killed.
- ↑ See, however, Hoernle, Comparative Grammar, p. 364.
