Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 1.djvu/96

74 the western languages, Sindhi, Gujarati, and Marathi, ज is quite distinct from य. This latter has a more liquid. sound, and is often dropped at the beginning of words. Panjabi and Hindi turn the Sanskrit य into ज in most cases, and express it in writing by the ज. Bengali and Oṛiya use the character य, but sound it ज j in nearly all cases. Thus, the Sanskrit word योजन would be pronounced in M., G., and S. yojan. In P. and H. it would be written जोजन, and pronounced jojan. In O. and B. it would be written योजन, or even योयन, and pronounced jojan. So completely has य acquired the sound of j in these last two languages that when य is intended to retain the sound of y, as in Tatsamas, a dot is placed under it to distinguish it. In Oṛiya ordinary writers even go so far as to write with the य words which have a ज in Sanskrit, as यन्तु for जन्तु.

Similarly with regard to व, we find G., M., S., and in this case also P., keeping it quite distinct from ब. The former sounds v or w, the latter b. Panjabi is rather uncertain on this head, writing the same word indifferently with either ब or व. Hindi writes every व as ब, and pronounces it so also. Bengali and Oṛiya have but one character for both sounds, and people of those nations are unable to pronounce v or w. They might come under the same head as those Neapolitans of whom it was said, "Felices quibus vivere est bibere," were it not that, instead of the generous juice of the vine, the Bengali drinks muddy ditch-water in which his neighbours have been washing themselves, their clothes, and their cattle.