Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/107

Rh a compound letter, and the initial letter is a simple one, the ই sound is uttered by the Tamil people; the Tamil Apabhranśa of রাক্ষস is ই + রাক্&zwnj;কধন; this is also a rule in ihe Tamil speech, that an introducing vowel is added to a word beginning with র.

উ ঊ.—I need hardly repeat that ঊ has got no place on the list of pure and genuine Bengali vowels. উ is changed into ও, when as a pure vowel it is followed by আ or accented অ, in a word of two syllables; we may notice this change in ওঠ, ওঠা and ওড়া. In the Chittagong division, ও is changed into উ sound in some eases; I could not obtain a sufficiently large number of words to frame a generalised rule for this peculiarity of pronunciation in Chittagong.

In our vulgar Bengali pronunciation, a compound or duplicated letter with final অ sound, takes ই or উ when followed by ই or উ in the syllable, and so ইষ্ট, কৃষ্ট (কৃষ্ণ), মিষ্ট, etc., become ইষ্টি, কিষ্টি (in কেলে-কিষ্টি), and মিষ্টি, and পুষ্ট, তুষ্ট and উচ্চ become পুষ্টু, তুষ্টু and উঁচু; it will be noticed that at the dropping of one চ, the long sound of উ has generated the half nasal চন্দ্রবিন্দু. Consideration of the sound of ঋ will follow after taking notice of the sounds of য, র, ল and ব (v).

এ, ঐ, ও, ঔ.—These vowels or dipthongs have lost their original sounds and are pronounced as 'e' in met (or as 'a' in mate), as অই, as 'o' of the English vowel, and as অউ. The original sounds of these vowels have been partially retained in Tamil and Telegu; or rather, the Dravidian sounds of those letters nearly approach the ancient Aryan sounds of them. We learn from the re­marks of the ancient Grammarians (e.g., Vārtika of Kātyāyana, VIII-2, 106; under Mahābhāṣya, 1-1, 48), that এ is equal to অ + ই and ও is equal to অ + উ, and ঐ and ঔ