other consonants, is treated in a wholly peculiar manner, analogous with that of the vowels. If pronounced before another consonant (or consonant-combination), it is written with a hook above, opening to the right (like the subjoined sign of : 10e): thus, rka, rṣartsna). If pronounced after another consonant (alone or in combination), it is written with a slanting stroke below: thus, gra, pra,sra (and grya, srva); and, with modifications of the preceding consonant-sign like those noted above, त्र tra, श्र gra, When dra. is to be combined with a following #r, it is the vowel which is written in full, with its initial character, and the consonant in subordination to it: thus, #rr. 15. Further combinations, of three, or four, or even five consonant-signs, are made according to the same rules. Examples are: of three consonants, ttva, ddhya, drya, dhrya, apsva, qu çcya, ☎ ṣṭya, of four consonants, त्स्म्य tsmya; dvya, hvya; ktrya,ñkṣya, ṣṭrya, The manuscripts, and the type-fonts as well, differ from one another more in their management of consonant combinations than in any other respect, often having peculiarities which one needs a little practice to understand. It is quite useless to give in a grammar the whole series of possible combinations (many of them excessively rare) which are provided for in any given type-font, or even in all. There is nothing which due familiarity with the simple signs and with the above rules of combination will not enable the student to analyse and explain. S 16. A sign called the avagraha ('separator') is used in the manuscripts, sometimes in the manner of a hyphen, sometimes as a mark of hiatus, sometimes to mark the elision of initial a after finale oro (185). In printed texts, especially European, it is ordinarily limited to the use last mentioned : thus ते ऽब्रुवन् te 'bruvan, सोऽब्रवीत् so bravit, for te abruvan, so abravit. The sign is used to mark an omission of something. In some texts, it has also the value of a hyphen. Signs of punctuation are and . 17. The numeral figures are 1, 2, 33, 8 4. ч 5, 6, 67, T 8. $ 9, 0 0. In combination, to express larger numbers, they are used in precisely the same way with European digits: thus, २५ 25, ६३० 630, १००० 1000, १८७३ 1879. 18. The Hindu grammarians call the different sounds, and the characters representing them, by a kāra ('maker') added to the sound of the letter, if a vowel, or to the letter followed by a, if a consonant. Thus, the sound or character a is called akāra; k is kakāra; and so on. But the kāra is also omitted, and a, ka, etc. are used alone. The r, however, is never called rakāra, but only ra or repha (snarl': the only example of a specific name for an alphabetic element of its class). The anusvāra and visarga are also known by these names alone. CHAPTER II. SYSTEM OF SOUNDS; PRONUNCIATION. I. Vowels. 19. THE a, i, and u-vowels. The Sanskrit has these three earliest and most universal vowels of Indo-European language, in both short and long form a and ā, 3 i and ĝi, 3 u and. They are to be pronounced in the "Continental" or "Italian" manner pin and pique, pull and rule. as in far or father, 20. The a is the openest vowel, an utterance from the ex panded throat; it stands, therefore, in no relation of kindred with any of the classes of consonantal sounds. The and u are close vowels, made with marked approach of the articulating organs to one another: i is palatal, and shades through y into the palatal and guttural consonant-classes; u is similarly related, through v, to the labial class, as involving in its utterance a narrowing and rounding of the lips. The Paninean scheme (commentary to Panini's grammar, i. 1. 9 classes a as guttural, but apparently only in order to give that series as well as the rest a vowel: no one of the Prātiçākhyas puts a into one class with k etc. All these authorities concur in calling the i and u-vowels respectively palatal and labial. 21. The short a is not pronounced in India with the full openness of ā, as its corresponding short, but usually as the "neutral vowel" English so-called "short u", of but, son, blood, etc.). This peculiarity appears very early, being acknowledged by Panini and by two of the Prātiçākhyas (APr. i. 36; VPr. i. 72), which call the utterance samvṛta, 'covered up, dimmed'. It is, however, of course not original; and it is justly wont to be ignored by Western scholars (except those who have studied in India. 22. The a-vowels are the prevailing vowel-sounds of the language, being about twice as frequent as all the others including diphthongs) taken together. The i-vowels, again, are about twice as numerous as the u-vowels. And, in each pair, the short vowel is more than twice (21/2 to 3 times) as common as the long. For more precise estimates of frequency, of these and of the other alphabetic elements, and for the way in which they were obtained, see below, 75. 23. The and -vowels. To the three simple vowels already mentioned the Sanskrit adds two others, the r-vowels and the -vowel, both of them plainly generated by the abbreviation of syllables containing ar or l along with another vowel: the coming (almost always: see 237, 241-3) from ar orra, the from al. ल ! श्रल् Some of the Hindu grammarians add to the alphabet also a long ; but this is only for the sake of an artificial symmetry, since the sound does not occur in a single genuine word in the language. 24. The vowel is simply a smooth or untrilled r-sound, assuming a vocalic office in syllable-making as, by a like abbreviation, it has done also in certain Sla vonic languages. The vowel is an l-sound similarly uttered like the English l-vowel in such words as able, angle, addle. The modern Hindus pronounce these vowels as ri, rī, li or even lri, having long lost the habit and the facility of giving a vowel value to the purer and l-sounds. Their example is widely followed by European scholars; and hence also the distorting and quite objectionable transliterations ri, ri, li. There is no real difficulty in acquiring and practising the true utterance. Some of the grammarians (see APr. i. 37, note) attempt to define more nearly the way in which, in these vowels, a real r or l-element is combined with something else. 25. Like their corresponding semivowels, r and 7, these vowels belong respectively in the general lingual and dental classes; the euphonic influence of r and (180) shows this clearly. They are so ranked in the Paninean scheme; but the Pratiçakhyas in general strangely class them with the jihvāmātīya sounds, our "gutturals". 26. The short r is found in every variety of word and of position, and is not rare, being just about as frequent as long ū. Long is very much more unusual, occurring only in certain plural cases of noun-stems in 374, 378). The is met with only in some of the forms and derivatives of a single not very common verbal root (klp). 27. The diphthongs. Of the four diphthongs, two, thee ando, are in great part original Indo-European sounds. In the Sanskrit, they wear the aspect of being products of the increment or strengthening of 3 i and 3 u respectively; and they are called the corresponding gunavowels to the latter (see below, 235). The other two, è āi andau, are by the prevalent and preferable opinion held to be of peculiar Sanskrit growth (there is no certain trace of them to be found even in the Zend); they are also in general results of another and higher increment of and 3u, to which they are called the corresponding vṛddhivowels (below, 235). But all are likewise sometimes gene rated by euphonic combination (127); and o, especially, is common as result of the alteration of a final as (175). 28. Thee and are, both in India and in Europe, usually pronounced as they are transliterated - that is, as long e (English "long a", or e in they) and o-sounds, without diphthongal character. Such they apparently already were to the authors of the Pratiçakhyas, which, while ranking them as diphthongs sandhyakṣara, give rules respecting their pronunciation in a manner implying them to be virtually unitary sounds. But their euphonic treatment (131-4 clearly shows them to have been still at the period when the euphonic laws established themselves, as they of course were at their origin, real diphthongs, ai ai and au au. From them, on the same evidence, the heavier or vṛddhi diphthongs were distinguished by the length of their aelement, as āi ā + i) and āu (ā + u). The recognisable distinctness of the two elements in the vṛddhi-diphthongs is noticed by the Pratiçākhyas (see APr. i. 40, note); but the relation of those elements is either defined as equal, or the a is made of less quantity than the i and u. 29. The lighter or guna-diphthongs are much more frequent (6 or 7 times than the heavier or vṛddhi-diphthongs, and the e and ai than the o and au a half more). Both pairs are somewhat more than half as common as the simple i and u vowels. 30. The general name given by the Hindu grammarians to the vowels is svara, 'tone'; the simple vowels are called samānākṣara, 'homogeneous syllable', and the diphthongs are called sandhyakṣara, 'combination-syllable'. The position of the organs in their utterance is defined to be one of openness, or of non-closure. As to quantity and accent, see below, 76 ff., 80 ff. II. Consonants. 31. The Hindu name for 'consonant' is ryanjana, 'manifester'. The consonants are divided by the grammarians into sparça, 'contact' or 'mute', antaḥstha, intermediate' or 'semivowel', and uṣman, 'spirant'. They will here be taken up and described in this order. 32. Mutes. The mutes, sparça, are so called as involving a complete closure or contact (sparça), and not an approximation |