Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/117

Rh ঋ.—It becomes perfectly clear from the Prātisākhyas, that the Aryans in India were settled in their pronunciation of ঋ as 'ri.' Adverting however to such apabhramśa forms as বুট্টি from বৃষ্টি, উতু from ঋতু, etc., some scholars have wrongly asserted, that the Dravidian pronunciation 'Ru' for ঋ was in vogue in Northern India, when Pāli prevailed as a Northern Prākṛta speech. They have failed to see that only when the sound of ঋ had to be harmonised with the dominating উ sound in a word, that this vowel sound উ took the place of ঋ; we get ঘিয় or ঘি from ঘৃত where neither ই nor উ sound has to be assimilated; from ঋষি however, we get ইসি, while from ঋতু we get উতু because of the final উ sound. ব (v) is compounded of উ and অ; so the vowel ঋ conjoined to the accented ব (v) changes into উ; thus we get রুক্‌খ, বুড্‌ঢ or বুড়া, উষভ, etc., from বৃক্ষ, বৃদ্ধ, বৃষভ, etc. When however the final উ is not accented, and the letter joined with ঋ is accented, ঋ is not reduced to উ; for example, মৃত্যু has been reduced to মচ্চু, because of the accent on ঋ of মৃ preceding a compound letter.

ল—Grammatically considering ঌ generated ল, but this vowel never got any prominence. We should not forget to notice, that there was a field of a very free interchangeability of র and ল in the Vedic as well as in the post-Vedic speeches of the Aryans; this being an essential feature of the Dravidian speeches, the Dravidian influence in this matter as well is generally formulated. An additional 'ল' as a mixed sound of 'ল' + 'ড' occurs in all the Dravidian speeches; this 'ল' producing a cerebral sound, is in full use in Oriya and Mahrathi. Though this letter did not get admittance into the Vedic alphabet, the transformation of ল into 'ড' is recognised in the Vedic Grammar; we meet with the Vedic phonetic rule, that when 'ল' occurs between two vowel sounds, the letter may be