Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/75

 b. The व् of आव्  from औ  is usually retained: thus,

तावेव ( + );

उभाविन्द्राग्नी ( + ).

c. In the older language, however, it is in some texts dropped before an -vowel: thus, ; in other texts it is treated like, or loses its -element before every initial vowel: thus, ,.

135. After final ए or ओ, an initial अ  disappears.

a. The resulting accent is as if the were not dropped, but rather absorbed into the preceding diphthong, having its tone duly represented in the combination. If, namely, the or  is grave or circumflex and the  acute, the former becomes acute; if the  or  is acute and the  grave, the former becomes circumflex, as usually in the fusion of an acute and a grave element. If both are acute or both grave, no change, of course, is seen in the result. Examples are:

ते ऽब्रुवन् ;

सो ऽब्रवीत् ;

हिंसितव्यो ऽग्निः ;

यदिन्द्रो ऽब्रवीत् ;

यद्राजन्यो ऽब्रवीत्.

b. As to the use of the sign in the case of such an elision, see above, 16. In transliteration, the reversed apostrophe, or rough breathing, will be used in this work to represent it.

c. This elision or absorption of initial after final  or, which in the later language is the invariable rule, is in the Veda only an occasional occurrence. Thus, in the RV., out of nearly 4500 instances of such an initial, it is, as the metre shows, to be really omitted only about seventy times; in the AV., less than 300 times out of about 1600. In neither work is there any accordance in respect to the combination in question between the written and spoken form of the text: in RV., the is (as written) elided in more than three quarters of the cases; in the AV., in about two thirds; and in both texts it is written in a number of instances where the metre requires its omission.

d. In a few cases, an initial is thus elided, especially that of.

e. To the rules of vowel combination, as above stated, there are certain exceptions. Some of the more isolated of these will be