TheMiddle Indo-Aryan languages (orMiddle Indic languages, sometimes conflated with thePrakrits, which are a stage of Middle Indic) are a historical group of languages of theIndo-Aryan family. They are the descendants ofOld Indo-Aryan (OIA; attested throughVedic Sanskrit) and the predecessors of the modernIndo-Aryan languages, such asHindustani (Hindi-Urdu),Bengali andPunjabi.

The Middle Indo-Aryan (MIA) stage is thought to have spanned more than a millennium between 600 BCE and 1000 CE, and is often divided into three major subdivisions.

• The early stage is represented by theArdhamagadhi of theEdicts of Ashoka (c. 250 BCE) andJain Agamas, and by thePali of theTripitakas.
• The middle stage is represented by the various literaryPrakrits, especially theShauraseni language and theMaharashtri andMagadhi Prakrits. The term Prakrit is also often applied to Middle Indo-Aryan languages (prākṛta literally means 'natural' as opposed tosaṃskṛta, which literally means 'constructed' or 'refined'). Modern scholars such as Michael C. Shapiro follow this classification by including all Middle Indo-Aryan languages under the rubric of "Prakrits", while others emphasise the independent development of these languages, often separated fromSanskrit by social and geographic differences.^[1]
• The late stage is represented by theApabhraṃśas of the 6th century CE and later that preceded earlyModern Indo-Aryan languages^[2][1] (such asBraj Bhasha).

TheIndo-Aryan languages are commonly assigned to three major groups:Old Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan languages and Early Modern and Modern Indo-Aryan languages. The classification reflects stages in linguistic development, rather than being strictly chronological.^[3][4]

The Middle Indo-Aryan languages are younger than the Old Indo-Aryan languages^[5] but were contemporaneous with the use ofClassical Sanskrit, an Old Indo-Aryan language used forliterary purposes.^[6]

According to Thomas Oberlies, a number ofmorphophonological andlexical features of Middle Indo-Aryan languages show that they are not direct continuations ofVedic Sanskrit. Instead they descend from other dialects similar to, but in some ways more archaic than Vedic Sanskrit.^[3]

• Ashokan Prakrits (regional dialects of the 3rd century BCE)
• Gandhari (a Buddhist canonical language)
• Pali (a Buddhist canonical language)
• Early Ardhamagadhi (language of the oldest Jain sutras)
• Elu (an ancient Sri Lankan Prakrit. It was ancestral to theSinhalese andDhivehi languages.)

• Monumental Prakrit
• Niya Prakrit
• Ardhamagadhi (later Jain canon)
• Dramatic Prakrits (Maurya period)
  • Magadhi
  • Maharashtri
  • Shauraseni
• Sinhalese Prakrit
• Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit (later texts)

• Abahatta (Magadhi Apabhraṃśa)

The following phonological changes distinguish typical MIA languages from their OIA ancestors:^[7]

1. The replacement of vocalic liquidsṛ andḷ bya,i oru
2. The OIA diphthongsai andau became the monophthongse ando which were long in open syllables and short in closed syllables.
3. Long vowels become short in overweight and later pre/post-tonic heavy syllables.
4. The three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, eitherś (Magadhi) ors (elsewhere).
5. OIA clusters either became geminates through assimilation (deletion if the output would violate phonotactics) or were split by vowel epenthesis.
6. Initially, intervocalic aspirated stops spirantised. Later, all other intervocalic stops were deleted, weakened, or voiced.
7. Dentals (and sometimes retroflexes) are palatalised if directly preceding /j/.
8. Most final consonants delete except insandhi junctions. Finalm becameṃ instead, which was preserved.

Note that not all of these changes happened in all MIA languages. Archaisms persisted in northwestern Ashokan Prakrits like the retention of all 3 OIA sibilants, for example, retentions that would remain in the later Dardic languages.

The following morphological changes distinguish typical MIA languages from their OIA ancestors:

1. The dual number in nominal declensions was lost.
2. Consonantal stems were thematicised.
3. Thei-/u- andī-/ū- declensions were merged into oneī-/ū- declension.
4. The dative was eliminated and the genitive took on its former functions.
5. Many different case-endings could be used for one verbal paradigm.
6. The middle voice eventually disappeared.
7. mahyaṃ andtuhyaṃ became used for genitives andme andte for instrumentals.
8. New verbal forms based on the present stem coexisted with fossilised forms from OIA.
9. Active endings replaced passive endings for the passive voice.

A Middle Indo-Aryan innovation are theserial verb constructions that have evolved intocomplex predicates in modern northIndian languages such asHindi andBengali. For example, भाग जा (bhāg jā) 'go run' means run away, पका ले (pakā le) 'take cook' means to cook for oneself, and पका दे (pakā de) 'give cook' means to cook for someone. The second verb restricts the meaning of the main verb or adds a shade of meaning to it.^[1] Subsequently, the second verb wasgrammaticalised further into what is known as alight verb, mainly used to conveylexical aspect distinctions for the main verb.

The innovation is based on Sanskrit atmanepadi (fruit of the action accrues to the doer) and parasmaipadi verbs (fruit of the action accrues to some other than the doer). For example, पका दे (pakā de) 'give cook' has the result of the action (cooked food) going to someone else, and पका ले (pakā le) 'take cook' to the one who is doing the cooking.

Pali is the best attested of the Middle Indo-Aryan languages because of the extensive writings of early Buddhists. These include canonical texts, canonical developments such asAbhidhamma, and a thriving commentarial tradition associated with figures such asBuddhaghosa. Early Pāli texts, such as theSutta Nipāta contain many "Magadhisms" (such asheke foreke; or masculine nominative singular in-e). Pāli continued to be a livingsecond language until well into the second millennium. ThePali Text Society was founded in 1881 byThomas William Rhys Davids to preserve, edit, and publish texts in Pāli, as well as English translations.

Known from a few inscriptions, most importantly the pillars and edicts ofAshoka found in what is nowBihar.^[8]

Many texts inKharoṣṭhi script have been discovered in the area centred on theKhyber Pass in what was known in ancient times asGandhara and the language of the texts came to be called Gāndhārī. These are largely Buddhist texts which parallel the Pāli Canon, but include Mahāyāna texts as well. The language is distinct from other MIA dialects.

Elu (alsoEḷa,Hela orHelu Prakrit) was aSri Lankan Prakrit of the 3rd century BCE. It was ancestral to theSinhalese andDhivehi languages. One major source of sample is fromThonigala Rock Inscriptions, Anamaduwa.

• Gāndhārī Language entry in the Encyclopædia Iranica

• Medieval languages
• Languages of India
• Indo-Aryan languages
• Languages attested from the 6th century BC
• 6th-century BC establishments
• Languages extinct in the 10th century
• 10th-century disestablishments in Asia

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