Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/116

94 র, ঋ, ল and ঌ.—The reason why I take up to discuss the sounds of the vowel ঋ and ঌ along with the discussion of the value of র and ল will be clear from the remarks I offer hereunder.

র.—I should explain that র originated from the compounding of ঋ + অ. It may be gathered from the Prātisākhyas (Rk. Prā-8-14; Atharvan. Prā-I. 37, 71) that the sound of a liquid was the final sound which ঋ produced. Again we get in the Vājasaneyī-Prātisākhya (IV. 145), that the initial half of ঋ had almost an অ sound. The Punjab frontier tribes pronounce ঋ as অর্-অ; the old Iranian pronunciation of ঋ, as may be detected in Āvesta literature, was অর্-এ and এর্-অ at times. We may notice that in ancient Prākṛta, বিকট became a variant of বিকৃত, কৃত became কত and মৃত became মত; this shows that ঋ had once the initial অ sound. The vulgar tendency to reduce ঘৃত to ঘের্‌ত and the pronunciation of কৃষ্ণ as কেষ্টো and of বৃষ as বের্‌ষো (as in বের্‌ষো-ছুগ্‌গু) remind us of the old Iranian pronunciation of ঋ. In the Rangpur district, the letters অ and র are interchangeable, when they are initials; this tendency is not wholly unknown among the populace in central Bengal as well. That the Prākṛta forms with অ and উ finals, were reduced to forms with র and রু finals may also be noticed, though in this case, the flat and boneless Prākṛta forms were really given stronger or more easily-pronouncible forms; thus we get মুনির, from মুনিঅ (gen.) and গরু, from গউ (গৌ). We may further notice, that when র is the adjunct to an initial letter of a তৎসম word, the sound এ is induced in pronunciation: প্রণাম, প্রসন্ন, প্রহ্লাদ, ব্রজ, etc., are reduced to পেন্নাম (পরণাম in H.), পেসন্ন (পরসন্ in H.), পেল্লাদ (পহ্‌লাদ in H.), বের্‌জ (বর্‌জ in H); contrast the forms মিত্তির, সুমুদ্দুর, বস্তর্, etc., from মিত্র, সমুদ্র, বস্ত্র, etc., where the letters with র-adjunct are not initials.