Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 1.djvu/90

68 find it. Strictly speaking, the absence of this sound should be indicated by the virâma or by a combination of two consonants. In the more Sanskritizing of the languages, such as Bengali, Marathi, and Oṛiya, the latter method of expression is frequently resorted to; but in the other languages it is practically neglected. It becomes, then, necessary to lay down rules when to pronounce this sound and when to omit it.

In Hindi it is never pronounced at the end of words, as बाल, जान, bâl, jân, not bâla. This rule is absolute and unvarying, and is not violated even when a word ends in a nexus, the difficulty of pronunciation being in such cases solved by inserting a short a between the two consonants; thus रत्न, शब्द would be pronounced ratan, shabad, and be generally so written also, as रतन, शबद.

The root or crude form of a verb being by virtue of the above rule monosyllabic, inflectional additions to it do not render the final a audible; thus, मानता "he obeys," is mântâ, not mânatâ; सुनकर "having heard," sunkar, not sunakar. So also in compounds; thus, मंगलवार mangalwâr, "Tuesday," not mangalawâr.

All the other languages cut off the final a in the case of words in which a single consonant precedes it; but in the case of a nexus, or combination of consonants preceding, the final a is sounded in Bengali, Marathi, Oriya, and occasionally in Gujarati. Marathi, however, does not sound it if the first member of the nexus is स. All three languages agree in giving the a a short sound after य, but this sound is very slightly heard. Marathi does the same after व; thus, जीव, jîva, not jîv; प्रिय priya.

Besides this, in the majority of Tatsamas Bengalis would consider it proper, in reading at least, to sound the final a, though colloquially it would not generally be heard. Bengali, however, in certain of its inflections requires the final a to be heard; as in the second person singular of the present