Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/190

168 remarks will presently follow. I may remark by the way, that in the formation of বীসতি in Pali, the loss of অনুস্বার has been made up for by the দীর্ঘ ঈ. (2) In the formation of অশীতি (অষ্ট or অষ্টা + দশ + তি) we notice the loss of the second and the 3rd syllables, and the penultimate is conjoined to the long vowel ঈ. (3) In the formation of ষোড়শ (ষষ্ + দশ) the compensating long ও and the development of cerebral sound ড় may be explained by সন্ধি rules partly. (4) The history of decade indicating 'তি' is shrouded in mystery. When we compare, for example বিংশতি with Venti of Italian, we may say that the latter form is merely a reduced form of the former, but when we take the history of 'ty'-ending of twenty, for example, our difficulty increases; the word twenty is derived from twain (old masculine form of two) shortened form of twegen, + tig; the last component tig is from Gothic tigjus = ten. Here we see that 'ty' represents the number ten; if we suppose that our তি had such a history to become naturally a decade indicating suffix, we must admit that in the formation of Vedic Compound-Cardinals an additional or unnecessary suffix was added. In Vedic Compound Cardinals Saṣṭi (ষষ্ + তি), Saptati and Navati, 'multiplication by ten' is indicated by 'তি' alone; if these three be really the earliest forms, 'তি' may be regarded as a fossil of a word for ten as might have been current in one dialect of the Aryan language beside দশ of another.

Though our illustrative examples have been a few only, we think we cannot fail to see from the examples of some pronominal forms and from the history of some words, that Chhāndasa was subject to the processes of dialectic regeneration and phonetic decay, processes to which all living languages have always been and ever will be subject. I mention over again, that by its regular and