Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/113

Rh inability of the people of Eastern Bengal to utter the half-nasal sound to Mongolian influence. I may note that the half-nasal or ঁ is freely used by the people of Assam. The absence of the half-nasal must therefore be due to excessive Dravidian influence; in Eastern Bengal.

ঙ and ঞ—which are not strictly speaking independent letters, but indicate only the sort of nasal sound which must be generated, when occurring in conjunction with the letters of ক-বর্গ and চ-বর্গ respectively, have now lost their original sounds. সঙ্গ and বঙ্গ are pronounced almost as সং-অ and বং-অ; the full sound of গ is always subdued in গঙ্গা, রঙ্গ, সঙ্গ, etc. When ঞ sound comes first and the letters of চ-বর্গ are pronounced next, ঞ is pronounced as ন; অঞ্চল, বাঞ্ছা, অঞ্জন, ঝঞ্ঝা are pronounced as অন্&zwnj;চল, বান্&zwnj;ছা, অন্&zwnj;জন and ঝন্&zwnj;ঝা. When ঞ comes after জ, the sound becomes peculiar; জ which is no doubt a variant of গ, is replaced by গ, and the final nasal is uttered as half-nasal; আজ্-ঞা আজ্ঞা and প্রজ্-ঞা প্রজ্ঞা are pronounced as আগ্-গেঁ and প্রগ্-গাঁ in Bengal and Orissa.

ণ.—ণ is never sounded correctly in Bengal, and it is useless as a letter to spell the indigenous Bengali words. The use of ণ is limited within the sphere of spelling the Sanskrit words. It is worth noting, that though in the sea-board districts of Orissa, and in the eastern Garjat states, ণ is pronounced with considerable distinctness, the Oriyas in the Sambalpur tract, do not pronounce this letter, unless they are forced to produce the sound in schools, by abandoning their natural ন sound. Though we get enough of ণ in the script, representing Māgadhi speech of old, we notice the rule in the Prākṛta Grammar by Hem Chandra that ন takes the place of ণ in the Māgadhi Prākṛta. This is a very good evidence of the fact, that we have been pronouncing the cerebral ণ as ন since long. খোঁড়া (to dig) comes from the Prākṛta word খণণ, and