Prākrits include a range of Indo-Aryan languages that developed from Old Indic. Prākrits are attested in the same time period as Sanskrit. The term means “unrefined”, and is used in contrast to the “refined” Sanskrit language. The first attestation comes from the 3rd century BC (in the monumental inscriptions of the king Aśoka, writen in several dialect). Other texts include poetry, speech of lower class people in Sanskrit dramas and Jain religious texts.

The examples of adjective valence in prākrits are under construction.

Bibliography:

Jamison, Stephanie. 2008. Sanskrit. In: Woodard, Roger (ed.). The Ancient Languages of Asia and of the Americas. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p. 3-32.

Geiger,W. 1916. Pāli Literatur und Sprache. Strasburg: Trübner. Translated into English by B. Ghosh, 1943; revised and edited by K. R. Norman, 1994 as Pāli Grammar. Oxford: Pali Text Society.

Hinüber, O. Von. 2002. Das ältere Mittelindisch im Überblick (2nd expanded edition). Vienna: Österreichische Akademie des Wissenschaft.