Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/51

 I. PHONOLOGY. SEMIVOWELS. That this syllabic pronunciation was not simply i and u (with hiatus), but iy and uv, is rendered probable not only by the spelling iy uv beside y v, but by the consideration that y and v are respectively the natural transition from i and to a following dissimilar vowel. b. In the RV. y and v are pronounced with a syllabic value under the following conditions: 1 41 I. almost invariably after a group of consonants and generally after a single consonant if preceded by a long vowel. Thus the ending -bhyas and the suffix -tya are regularly pronounced as dissyllables after a long vowel, but as monosyllables after a short vowel. Hence, too, v is pronounced as well as written in the forms davidhv-át, susv-ati, suṣv-āṇá-, juhv-é, júhv-ati ³. 2. after a single initial consonant at the beginning of a verse, or, within a verse, if the preceding syllable is heavy, in some half dozen words. Thus tyá- 'that', and tvám 'thou' are nearly always pronounced as they are written after a short vowel, but tiyá- and tuvám at the beginning of a Pada or after a long vowel. They is pronounced as iy in jyá- and jyaká- 'bowstring' only at the beginning of a verse or after a long vowel, in jyáyas- 'mightier' only after a long vowel. Finally tva- 'many', must generally be read as tuva- after a long vowel, but almost invariably tva- after a short vowel. 3. in the inflexion of the nouns in 7 (nom. sing. -ī-s) and ū², where the stem has (with only six exceptions) to be pronounced with iy and uz. Thus the transition from iy and uv to y and began in the RV., the traditional text writing for the iy and uv which was pronounced by the poets of that Veda, sometimes iy and uv, sometimes y and v. 49. The semivowel y. This semivowel, when not derived from i before other vowels (48 a) within Vedic itself, is based either on IE. i (= Gk. spiritus asper) or voiced palatal spirant (= Gk. )4; e. g. yá-s 'who' (-s); yaj- 'sacrifice' (äy-10s); yudh- 'fight' (vo-uívn); but yáva- 'corn' (Celá); yas- boil' (Cew); yuj- 'yoke' (uy-); yuşán- 'broth' (-un). It is probably due to this difference of origin that yas- 'boil' and yam- 'restrain', reduplicate with ya- in the perfect, but yaj- 'sacrifice', with i-. a. This semivowel sometimes appears without etymological justi- fication: I. after roots in -a before vowel suffixes; e. g. da-y-i, 3. sing. aor. (dá- ‘give¹), á-dhā-y-i (dhā- ‘put'), á-jñā-y-i (jñā- ‘know'); upa-sthá-y-am, abs. 'approaching'; rṣabha-dã-y-in- (AV.) 'bestowing bulls'. This is probably due to the influence of roots in -ai (27 a), which have a- before consonants, but ay- before vowels; e. g. pai- ‘drink': pá-tave, á-pāy-i, pāy-ána-. 2. owing to the influence of closely allied words or formations, in: yu-y-ám 'you' (for 'we'; bhi-y-istha- 'most' because of bhi-yas- 'more'; bháve-y-am, 1. sing. opt. (for *bhávayam) because of bháves, bhávet, etc. b. very rarely in the later Samhitās after palatals: tiraścyè (AV. xv. 35) var. lect. for tiraścé, dat., 'transverse'; śnyáptra- (TS. I. 2. 13³): śnáptra- (VS.) 'corner of the mouth'. c. interchanging (after the manner of Prakrit) occasionally with 6 in 1 On vyūrnv-án, vy-urņv-ati- beside apornuv- ántas, see WACKERNAGEL I, 182 a, note. 2 See below 375, 382 a. 3 For various explanations of this see WACKERNAGEL I. 182 a y, note (p. 205). 4 See BRUGMANN, KG. I, 302. 5 Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 86 c; 187, note. 6 In khyā- ‘tell', y seems at first sight to be interchanged with the of ka-, which occurs in the K. and the MS. (cp. v. SCHROE- DER's ed., 1, p. XLIII, 7); but the two verbs, though synonymous, have probably a different origin. Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 188 c, note.
 * yūṣam, Av. yūžem, cp. yuş-má-, stem of other cases) 5 because of vay-ám