[INDOLOGY] /to/

[patrick mccartney]

Dear Friends,

I'm currently collecting some data on spoken Sanskrit.

One dominant feature I have noticed in several different language nests
across geographically diverse parts of North India is the use of /to/.
During countless conversations over the last two months I have heard this
particle used many times, albeit always in the same syntactic position and
for the same semantic reason.

My question regards whether this /to/ particle is in any way to be
considered a Sanskrit particle or not?


This /to/ particle, as far as my understanding allows, is the intensifier
particle from Hindi and other MILs. It is located consistently following
the agent like in a Hindi sentence. This demonstrates, perhaps that the
grammatical scaffolding of spoken Sanskrit relies implicitly on the
syntactical structure of MILs like Hindi as a potential first language (L1)
of a speaker. Contextualising some more, I have heard this particle used by
my language consultants whose L1s are Malvi, Hindi, Assamese and Nepali.


Below are some brief examples to clarify my query.


1) Hindi            maiñ      *to*       ghar    (ko)    jātā   hūñ



2) Sanskrit       ahaṁ     *to*       gṛhe             gacchāmi


As a Hindi speaker myself, I find I am also using this /to/ particle in the
same way to create emphasis.

3)                     ahaṁ    *to      *bubhukṣā       asmi


I understand that the particle /tu/ in Sanskrit serves a similar semantic
function and I'm guessing it is the historical precedent of /to/. However,
my consultants are not using /tu/ they are using /to/!


For an audible example, in the latter stages (1 min 57-58 sec) of this clip
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHLIy-WHDew>  you can here the phrase

4)                   ahaṁ   t*o*       saṁskṛtaṁ     jānāmi'


The speaker in this clip is an L1 speaker of Malvi. More specifically
Umawadi Malvi, which is the dialect of Rajgarh Jhila, MP.


Reiterating my query more precisely, can I consider this to be a case of
code-mixing?

Thanks in advance for helping to clarify this point of interest for me.


All the best,

Patrick McCartney

PhD Candidate
School of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200


Skype - psdmccartney

Australia:  +61 487 398   354
Germany: +49 157 5469 4045
India:        +91 98 73 893 945


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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZHJVkhVBPc
<http://goog_371544488>

<http://goog_371544488>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVqBD_2P4Pg

http://youtu.be/y3XfjbwqC_g


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