Page:Comparative Grammar of the Sanskrit, Zend, Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Gothic, German and Slavonic languages (Bopp 1885).pdf/78

56 CHARACTERS AND SOUNDS. completely to the Sanskṛit a; and the sounds of the Greek ε and ο are wanting, in their character of degeneration from a, in Gothic as well as in Sanskrit. The ancient a has not, however, always been retained in Gothic; but in radical syllables, as well as in terminations, has often been weakened to i, or has undergone suppression; often, also, by the influence of a following liquid, has been converted into u. Compare, for instance, sibun, “seven,” with DEV saptan; taihun, “ten,” with dasan.

We believe ourselves authorized to lay down as a law, that DEV a in polysyllabic words before a terminating s is everywhere weakened into i, or suppressed; but before a terminating th generally appears as i. A concluding DEV a in the Gothic either remains unaltered, or disappears: it never becomes i.

In the Old High German the Gothic a either remains unaltered, or is weakened to e, or is changed by the influence of a liquid to u = perhaps o. According to this, the relation of the unorganic e to the Gothic a is the same as that of the Gothic to DEV a; compare, for instance, in the genitive of the bases in a DEV vṛika-sya, Gothic vulfi-s, Old High German wolfe-s. In the dative plural wolfu-m stands to vulfa-m in the same relation as above , sibun to saptan. The precedence of a liquid has also, in Old High German, sometimes converted this a into u or o; compare plinte-mu(mo), cœco, with the Gothic blindamma. Also after the German j or y, which in Sanskrit (DEV y) belongs as a semi-vowel to the same class as ṛ, the Old High German seems to prefer u to a; thence plintju, without j also plintu, “cœca,” as a fem. nom, sing, and neuter nom. acc. voc. plural; plinta “cœcam.” The u of the first person present, as kipu, “I give,” Gothic giba, I ascribe to the influence of the dropped personal letter m. Respecting the degeneration of the original a sound to u compare also In the Old High German inseparable preposition ki (our German ge) = Gothic ga. Sanskṛit DEV sa or DEV sam, we