Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/50

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. kāṇuká-, of doubtful meaning; nicumpuṇá-, of doubtful meaning; niņík ‘secretly', ninyá- ¹ ¹ 'inner'; paní-, a kind of demon; bāṇá- 'arrow'; vand- 'udder', 'arrow', ‘music'; vaṇī- ‘music'; vánīcī, a kind of musical instrument; sóna- ‘red'; úgana- (SV. VS.), of doubtful meaning; kúṇapa- (AV.) ‘corpse'; guná- 'division’ (AV.); cupunikā-(TS.), N.; nicankuṇá- (TS.) and nicuñkuṇá- (TS.), of doubtful meaning; venú- (AV.) 'reed'; śánu- (AV.) 'hemp' ². 48. The semivowels. The semivowels y, r, l, v have the peculiarity that each has a vowel corresponding to it, viz. ir! u respectively. They are called anta(h)sthā in the Pratiśākhyas 3, the term doubtless meaning 'intermediate', that is, standing midway between vowels and consonants. a. y and v regularly represent the final i and u of diphthongs before vowels, e and ai becoming ay and ãy, o and au av and av. But while y and v are regularly written for i and u before vowels, they were often pronounced as iy and uv. This is shown by the fact that: 40 — I. iy and uv are frequently written, beside y and v, in the inflexion of 7 and 7-stems. Thus from dhi- 'thought, there are several compounds, in some of which the stem is written with ży before vowels, as itthádhiy- 'very devout', in others with y, as ādhy- ‘longing'. Similarly -jū- 'hastening', regularly appears as -juv-; but -pū- 'purifying', -su- 'swelling', -sū- ‘bringing forth', always as -pv-, -sv-, -sv-4. In the same way, the suffix -ya is often written -iya; e. g. ágr-iya- 'first', beside ágr-ya- (VS.); ŕtv-iya- and ŕtv-ya- 'regular'; urv-iyá and urv-yá (VS. TS.) 'widely'. This spelling is characteristic of the TS. Here iy is generally written where more than one consonant precede, almost invariably so in the inflexion of stems in i and i; e. g. indrāgniy-ós ‘of Indra and Agni', lakṣmiyá 'by Lakşmi'; very often also in the suffix -ya; e. g. áśv- iya- beside ásv-ya- (RV.) 'relating to horses' 5. Similarly uv appears here for v in svar- and suvargá- 'heaven', beside svàr (RV.) and svargá- (RV.); in the inflexion of tanú- 'body', in some forms of vāyú- 'wind', bahú- ‘arm', ūrú- 'thigh'. In the SV. and MS.7 there are two or three other examples of iy and uv for y and v8. 2. according to metrical evidence, y and v (though written as pronounced in classical Sanskrit) have a syllabic value in a large number of examples in the Vedic hymns. This was recognized to be the case by the Prātiśākhyas to. 3. r appears instead of before the suffix -ya; e. g. in pítr-ya- 'paternal', from pity father'. 4. ay ay ey appear before the suffix -ya "¹; e. g. saha-sey-yāya, dat., ‘for lying together'. Here yy is always to be read as y-iy in the RV. (except in Book x and dakṣáyya- in 1. 129²) ¹2. the present suffix-ya; the comp. suffix -yas; the gen. ending -sya, and the fut. suffix -sya; the initial v of suffixes; the nv- of the 5th class; in ásva-'horse' and tvástr-, N. On the other hand the syllabic pronunciation is sometimes used artificially by the poets, as is apparent from the isolation of such occurrences. In some individual words the written iy and uv have to be pronounced as consonantal y and vi always in suvāná-. pres. part. of su- ‘press'; occasionally in bhiyás- fear', hiyaná- 'im- pelled'. Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 181 b, note, bottom. 10 RPr. VIII. 22; XVII. 14. 8 On the other hand there are some iso- lated instances of y and in the Vedas as compared with iy and av in classical Sans- krit; see WACKERNAGEL I, p. 201, bottom. II See GRASSMANN, Wb. 1711, columns 9 In certain words and formatives y and v4 and 5. are regularly consonantal: in the relative yá-; 12 WACKERNAGEL ↳, 181 c y. 1 Perhaps from *nirnaya-, see BENFEY, GGA. 1858, p. 1627. 2 On these words see WACKERNAGEL I, 174 b and 173 d, note. 3 RPr. L 2; VPr. IV. 101; also Nirukta II. 2. Cp. WHITNEY on APr. I. 30. 4 Cp. WACKERNAGEL 1, 181 a, note. 5 Several other examples, loc. cit. 6 Cp. WHITNEY on TPr. II. 25. 7 See WACKERNAGEL 1, 181 a, note (p. 201, mid.).