Page:A Grammar of the Sanskrit Language - Lorenz Franz Kielhorn (1st edition).djvu/23

 denote the vowels which stand at the commencement of a sentence or verse, and those vowels in the middle of a sentence or verse which are preceded by another vowel ; e.g, अभवत ahhavata ; स अह sa aha.

(h) Short a, following upon a consonant of the same sentence or verse, is not denoted at all ; e.g. गजः gajahi.

(c) The remaining vowels, when following a consonant of the same sentence or verse, are denoted thus : —

Exception : The vowel n, when following upon r, is denoted by the initial sign ^[ ri; % = rri. (See § 3 c.) § 3. (a) When any of the 33 syllabic signs in § 1 (6) is to denote a consonant which is not followed by any vowel and stands at the end of a sentence or verse, the sign-, called Virdma (i.e. * pause'), is placed under it ; e.g. ^f^^gfi^kakup, ^;^^^r{^abhavat, ^i^^f{^aAjam. (b) Two or more consonants which are not separated by a vowel or vowels are denoted by combinations of the syllabic signs in § 1 (b). These combinations are formed either ^y placing the succeeding under the pre- ceding sign, leaving out the horizontal top-line of the former, or by placing the signs one after the other, leaving out the vertical stroke of the preceding sign; e.g. ^ ^^^p-ta ; ffT == k-na ; 7^ = n-da; ^^ =: ck-ya ; ^^!^ = t-8-n-ya. (Owing to the difl&culty of printing the Virama is occasionally employed in combinations of consonants ; e.g. ^S^ instead of 5^? yunkte.) (c) When the consonant r immediately precedes another consonant or the vowel ^[ ri, it is denoted by the sign - placed above the letter before which it is pronounced ; e.g. 3^ arka, <:hlH<-4 kdrtsnya. This sign for r is placed to the right of any other signs which may stand above the letter over which it has to be placed ; e.g. BT^&^ arkena, 3fo|Rt arko, 3T% arkam. When r follows another consonant without the intervention of a vowel, it is denoted by the sign ^ placed under the consonant after which r is pronounced; e.g. ^^ vajra, W^ shukra. § 4. The changes which some letters undergo when they arp com- bined with other letters will appear from the following alphabetical list:— Digitized by Google