Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/103

Rh the ই sound of the original has been reduced to আ in Bengali.

It will be noticed that in a large number of cases, the final আ followed by ই sound is changed into এ, as it is in the Vedic speech. Here the rule of law is, the preceding vowel sound influences the one coming after. This is the inverse of 'umlaut.' In our pronunciation মিঠা becomes মিঠে, রিষড়া becomes রিষড়ে, বিশ্বাস becomes বিশ্বেষ etc. If however, the final আ comes after the উ sound, the আ is changed into ও, কুটা, পূরা, বুড়া, etc., are pronounced as কুটো, পূরো, বুড়ো, etc. If the final আ is attached to য় (which is pronounced as অ in Bengali) in a word of more than two letters, the whole of the final letter য়া is changed into এ or ও as the case may be, and this এ or ও takes the place of ই or উ of the next preceding letter; নদীয়া becomes নদে, বাঁশবেড়িয়া—বাঁশবেড়ে, করিয়া—করে, পড়ুয়া—পড়ো, লিলুয়া—লিলো, etc., গিয়া, দিয়া, ধুয়া, জুয়া, etc., being words of two letters they will be changed into গিয়ে, দিয়ে, ধুয়ো, জুয়ো (জুয়োচোর contracted into জোচ্চোর), etc. We thus see, that though 'য়' is seemingly pronounced as 'অ' the ই-অ sound is partly in our ears, to effect the phonetic change described above. Since the words are sure to be pronounced in the manner indicated above, even though they are spelt correctly in their original form, our spelling reformers may give up the attempt of spelling the words by representing all sorts of change of sounds, caused by phonetic decay. The writers, I speak of, want to introduce the verbs only in their contracted forms, but not the nouns, adjectives, etc. With what logic this distinction is sought to be made, is not easy to see. Why should we not write ইন্দিরে, ঈশেন, কৈলেশ, মিথ্যে, বিচের (as in আচায় বিচের), etc., Rh