Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 1.djvu/80

58 it now holds, े. Ai was written with the horizontal e-stroke and a vertical one at right angles to it, which gradually came together as ै. O was expressed by two horizontal strokes forming one cross-line, either at the top or through the middle of a letter. In the beginning of a word this stroke used the letter a as its fulcrum. By degrees these two strokes got raised into a sloping position, and from the Gupta inscriptions of the fifth century down to the tenth century they were so written. The form is preserved in a more elegant shape in the Tibetan, which dates from the seventh century, thus ཀོ ko. The Panjabi rejects one of the two strokes and gives that which remains a wavy shape to distinguish it from e, thus ਕੇ ke, ਕੋ ko; while in Nagari the right-hand stroke has been turned downwards like an â ा, thus making ो. The au in the fifth century consisted of three strokes, thus ᳑. Panjabi has contented itself with giving an extra half-stroke to the o, thus ਕੌ kau.

Panjabi consonants are generally of the Kutila type, though many of them are older still. Of the Kutila type are the characters for g, ṭ, ṭh, ḍh, ṇ, d, dh, p, bh, y, l. It will be observed that these letters in Panjabi approach more nearly to the exact form of the Kutila than the corresponding Devanagari letters, which have been subjected to modifications from which the Gurumûkhi letters have escaped.

K preserves something more like the form on the Vallabhi plates found in Gujarat, as does also the Gujarati ક, almost the only letter in that alphabet which would seem strange to one familiar with the ordinary Devanagari.

The sign for kh is the Nagari ष sh, but left open at the top. This character is also used for kh in western Hindi; thus for मुख we find मुष; for आंख, आंष. The Nagari sign for kh ख has unfortunately a close resemblance to रव rav, and by the addition of a small horizontal stroke it may be made into स्व sva. These resemblances have probably led to its disuse, combined as they are with certain phonetic peculiarities noticed in