Ashokan Prakrit

Ashokan Prakrit
Ashokan Prakrit inscribed in the Brahmi script at Sarnath.
Region	South Asia
Era	268—232 BCE
Language family	Indo-European Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Aryan
Ai Khanoum (Greek city) Pataliputra Ujjain class=notpageimage| Location of the Minor Rock Edicts (Edicts 1, 2 & 3) Other inscriptions often classified as Minor Rock Edicts. Location of the Major Rock Edicts. Location of the Minor Pillar Edicts. Original location of the Major Pillar Edicts. Capital cities

Ashokan Prakrit (or Aśokan Prākṛta) is the

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
  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
  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]

• Girnar:

• Kalsi:

• Shahbazgarhi:

• Mansehra:

• Dhauli:

• Jaugada:

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