Preterite Formations in Niya Prakrit and Khotanese: A Case of Grammatical Interference?

Some features of the North-Western Prakrit that was used as the administrative language of the kingdom of Kroraina (‘Niya Prakrit’) have in the past been more or less vaguely described as the result of language contact. One particularly striking feature that invites such an account is the innovative preterite of this Prakrit variety. We argue that, from a structural point of view, this formation and its morphosyntactic behaviour can be plausibly attributed to interference from Khotanese. In addition, a scenario involving Khotanese as a substratum language of Niya Prakrit may also be well accounted for from a historical and sociolinguistic perspective.