Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/57

 I. Phonology. Palatal /. Dental s. Cerebral j.

47

with s to which k corresponds in the safem languages; such are ^rus- 'cry'; dsman- 'stone''.

55- The dental *. — This sound as a rule represents IE. dental s; e. g. sa 'he', Gothic sa; divas 'horse', Lat. equo-s; dsti, Gk. s<ni. In the combinations ts and ps, when they stand for etymological dAs and bhs, the s represents IE. zh; as in gfisa- 'adroit' (from grdA- 'be eager") and dipsa-, 'wish to injure' (from dabh- 'injure'), where the final aspirate of the root would have been thrown forward on the suffix, as in bud-dhd- from ybudh-, and -rab-dha-, firom Yrabh-'.

The dental j is in Sandhi frequently changed to the palatal s and still more frequently to the cerebral j«.

56. The cerebral s. — The cerebral sibilant is altogether of a secondary nature, since it always represents either an original palatal or an original dental sibilant.

The cerebral s stands for a palatal before cerebral tenues (themselves produced by this j from dental tenues) in the following two ways:

a. for the palatal / (= Ilr. J) and / (= Ilr. z) ; e. g. nas-td-, from nas- 'be lost'; mrs-ta, 3.sing.mid., from mrj- 'wipe'; prs-td- 'asked', prds-tum 'to ask', from pras- 'ask' in pras'-nd- 'question' (present sttra. J)rccM-^ with inchoative suf&x -ckd). In some instances it is shown by the evidence of cognate words to represent /; thus astdu 'eight' beside asfti- 'eighty'; prsti- 'rib', prdsti- 'side-horse', beside pdrsu- 'rib'; dstra- 'goad', beside asdni- 'thunderbolt'; possibly also apasthd-^ 'barb', beside dsman- 'bolt'.

b. for the combination ks, which in origin is /+ s^; e. g. cds-te, a-casta, firom caks-^ 'see'; a-tas-ta, tas-td-, tds-tr-'^, beside taks- 'hew'; nir-as-ta- 'emasculated' beside nir-aks-nu-hi (AV.) 'emasculate'; also aorist forms like d-yas-ta, 3. sing. mid. from yaj- 'sacrifice', beside 3. sing. subj. ydks-at; d-srs-tay 3. sing, mid., beside d-srks-ata, 3. pi. mid. from sfj- 'emit'. As in all these instances ks = s -{■ s or/ (= z) + s^°, loss of s before t must here be assumed, the remaining / or / combining with the following t as usual to j/"- A similar origin of s is indicated by the evidence of cognate languages in sas-t/td- (AV.) 'sixth', where the final j has been dropped (as in Gk. sk-to?), while retained in Lat. sex-tus; also in sas-ti- 'sixty', sodhd 'sixfold', sodasd- (AV.) 'sixteenth'. It has possibly the same origin in asthivdnt- 'knee"^.

57. The cerebral s stands for dental s after vowels other than a or a, and after the consonants k, r, s.

I. Medially this change regularly'3 takes place, both when the s is radical — e. g. ti-sthati, from st/ia- 'stand'; su-sup-ur, 3. pi. perf. from svap-

I This seems to point to fluctuation in the IE. pronunciation ; cp. Wackernagel I, 201 b.

= See Wackernagel t, 210.

3 Cp. above 54 a, and below 78, 2.

+ See below 56.

5 Cp. 40.

6 Cp. Wackernagel i, 202 b; and below p. 48, note 7.

7 Cp. op. cit. I, 116 b.

8 Cp. Av. casman-.

9 On the origin of tvas^r- = *lvarftr-, see Wackernagel r, 202 c, note.

1° Tliough ks is regularly based on a palatal or a guttural+-f in the Vedic language, there are some words of IE. origin in which the s appears to represent not s but a dental

spirant tenuis (]i) or media [d/i). In a few words, ksif-, ksu-, ksubh-, ksura-, the sibilant comes first in the cognate languages : see Wackernagel i, 209.

I' Similarly, when ks = guttural + j is followed by «■, the j disappears and the guttural combines with the t% thus from ghas- 'eat', ■gdha- {== ghz-ia-); ixora jaks- 't3X', Jagdkd- [= jaghz-ta-), jagdhvaya (= jaghz-tv&ya); from bhaj- 'share', aor. d-bhak-ta [=al>haj-s-td), beside d-bhak-s-i.

12 Cp. Bartholomae, Studien zur indo- germanischen Sprachgeschichte 2, 103.

n The change does not take place in, some forms of the perfect of sic- 'pour' : sisice (lU. 3215), sisicur (iL 24*), beside sisicatiir..