Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/55

 I. Phonology. Semivowels. Sibilants.

45

'tearing out'; babhlusd- (VS.) 'brownish' : babhru- 'brown'; sthald- (AV. VS.) 'gross' : sthUrd- '.

3. In a few instances / represents IE. r by dissimilation; thus dlarsi dlarti, intv. of r- 'go' (= arar-); prd tilami (VS.) = prd tirami 'I promote' ^

d. In the later Samhitas / occasionally appears in place of phonetic d^ between vowels; and that this change could easily arise, is shown by the fact that / regularly appears instead of d between vowels'*. This substitution is regularly found in the Kanva recension of the VS.; e. g. ile= ide^KY.ik); dsalha = dsadha (RV. dsalha). Other instances are ildyati (AV.) 'stands still', for Hddyati (RV. ilayati) s from id- 'refreshment';, ila- (MS.) 'refreshment', byform of Ida- (RV. ila-); mil- (AV.) 'close the eyes' ^, connected with mis- 'wink'.

In the later Samhitas / is also found for d between vowels when the final of a word (like / in RV.): thus turasal dyuktasah (VS.) for turasat 'over- powering quickly'; phdl Hi (AV.) for pkdt (AV.); probably also in sdiiii (AV.) and bdl Hi (AV. TS.), cp. RV. bdl itthd.

e. In at least one word / stands for dental d: ksidla-kd- (AV.) 'small', for *ksudld-, byform of ksudrd- (VS.) 'small'.

f. Sometimes / has an independent Indian origin in onomatopoetic words; thus alala-bhdvant- 'sounding cheerfully'.

g. On the other hand there are many words in which a foreign origin may be suspected; such are, besides those already mentioned in 45 b, the following: kaulitard-, N.; dlina- and bhalands-, names of tribes; libuja- 'creeper'; lavand- (AV.) 'salt'.

53. The sibilants. — The three sibilants, the palatal s, the cerebral s, and the dental s, are all voiceless. Even apart from the regular phonetic change of / or j- to s, and of s to s, both the palatal and the dental are further liable, in many words and forms, to be substituted for each of the other two.

a. Assimilation of j is liable to occur

1. initially, when / or j appear at the end of the same or the beginning of the next syllable. This is the case in svdsura- 'father-in-law'; hasrU- 'mother-in-law'; imdsru- and -smasaru- 'beard'; sdsvant- 'ever-recurring'; in sds- 'six' (Lat. sex), and its various derivatives, sas-ti- 'sixty', sodM (= *saz- dha) 'sixfold', and others 7.

2. initially s in the RV. almost invariably becomes s in sah- 'overcoming', when the final h (= Ilr. i), with or without a following dental, becomes cerebral: nom. sing, sdt 'victorious', and the compounds /awa-j-a/, tura- sat, pura-sdt, prtana-sdt, vlra-sdt, vrtka-sdt, rta-sdt (VS.), visva-sdt (TS. AV.) ; also d-sadha- 'invincible'. The only exceptions are sadhd, nom. sing, of sddhr- 'conqueror', and the perf. part. pass, sadhd- (AV.)^- The s of the nom. has been transferred to forms with -sdh-, when compounded with prtana-, though

' In B. passages of the TS. and MS. are found intv. forms of ti 'sway': alelayat, pf. lelaya, also the adv. leldya 'quiveringly'. In similar passages the prepositions prd and para are affected : plenkha- (TS.) =prenkha- swing'; plaksdrayan (MS. in. 102) 'they caused to flow' {]/ksar-),pald-y-ata (TS.) 'fled' (para-i-). Some uncertain or wrong explanations of atdirnd- 'miserly', utoid- 'wide space', ^at- 'drop', with / = IE. r, are discussed by Wackernagel I, p. 221, top.

2 See Wackernagel i, 193 b, note.

3 See above SI b.

4 See above p. 5, note S.

5 According to B6HTLINGK, ildyaii is wrong for ildyati. Cp. above p. 35, note '.

6 A form with the original d is found in mtdam (K.) 'in a low tone'.

7 Cp. Wackernagel i, 197 a, note.

8 A B. passage of the MS. has sadhydi (I. 83).