Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/31



To these may be added a lingual ळ, which in some of the Vedic texts takes the place of ड  when occurring between two vowels.

A few other sounds, recognized by the theories of the Hindu grammarians, but either having no separate characters to represent them or only very rarely and exceptionally written, will be noticed below (71 b, c, 230). Such are the guttural and labial breathings, the nasal semivowels, and others.

The order of arrangement given above is that in which the sounds are catalogued and described by the native grammarians; and it has been adopted by the European scholars as the alphabetic order, for indexes, dictionaries, etc.: to the Hindus, the idea of an alphabetic arrangement for such practical uses is wanting.

In some works (as the Petersburg lexicon), a which is regarded as equivalent to and exchangeable with a sibilant (172) is, though written as a, given the alphabetic place of the sibilant.

The theory of the, as of the other Indian modes of writing, is syllabic and consonantal. That is to say, it regards as the written unit, not the simple sound, but the syllable ; and further, as the substantial part of the syllable, the consonant or the consonants which precede the vowel — this latter being merely implied, or, if written, being written by a subordinate sign attached to the consonant.

Hence follow these two principles:

The forms of the vowel-characters given in the alphabetical scheme above are used only when the vowel