Hill, Eugen 
ORCID: 0000-0002-2252-0520
(2026).
The New Indo-Aryan b-future and the early Middle Indo-Aryan of Aśokan inscriptions.
Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 13 (1).
pp. 1-21.
de Gruyter Brill.
ISSN 2196-0771
Abstract
The paper is aimed at clarifying the phonology of the b-future evolvement in the eastern part of the New Indo-Aryan language area. Traditionally the New Indo-Aryan b-future is assumed to reflect the Old Indo-Aryan gerundive formed with -(i)tavya-. However, the suffix -(i)tavya- is believed to have secondarily developed into -(i)taviya- preciselly in the eastern part of early Middle Indo-Aryan according to the evidence provided by late 3rd c. BCE Aśokan inscriptions. Since Middle Indo-Aryan -viya- cannot be assumed to yield -b- in eastern New Indo-Aryan, it has been proposed that the emergence of the eastern New Indo-Aryan b-future must be somehow due to an influence from western Indo-Aryan. This paper proposes a new scenario for the emergence of the New Indo-Aryan b-future. It starts from the observation that in Old Indo-Aryan the gerundive suffix usually transcribed as -(i)tavya- most probably ended in two vowels. It follows that -(i)taviya- in the eastern part of early Middle Indo-Aryan was not an innovation but rather an archaic trait, secondarily lost in the west of the language area. Accordingly, the development -(i)taviya- > -(i)tavya-, which has to be assumed for western Middle Indo-Aryan, may be also suggested to have occurred, at a later date, in the eastern part of the language area. Subsequently, -vy- would regularly yield -b- in the New Indo-Aryan b-future.
| Item Type: | Article |
| Creators: | Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code |
| URN: | urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-804641 |
| Identification Number: | 10.1515/jsall-2025-0009 |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics |
| Volume: | 13 |
| Number: | 1 |
| Page Range: | pp. 1-21 |
| Number of Pages: | 21 |
| Date: | 26 March 2026 |
| Publisher: | de Gruyter Brill |
| ISSN: | 2196-0771 |
| Language: | English |
| Faculty: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts and Humanities > Fächergruppe 1: Kunstgeschichte, Musikwissenschaft, Medienkultur und Theater, Linguistik, Digital Humanities > Institut für Linguistik (IfL) |
| Subjects: | Language, Linguistics |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Keywords Language New Indo-Aryan ; Middle Indo-Aryan ; Aśokan Prakrit ; future tense ; gerundive English |
| Refereed: | Yes |
| URI: | http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/80464 |
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