Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/68

 I. Allgemeines und Sprache. 4. Vedic Grammar.

'strong', ni-bndha- 'dense' (= bazdhd- for bah-td-) from bamh- 'be strong'; sddhr- 'conqueror', d-sadha- 'invincible', from sah-; rjdhd- (= rizdkd-), from rih- 'lick'; iidkd- (= usdhd-) from va/i- 'carry'; gadhd- 'concealed', ixoia. guh- 'hide'; trdhd-, trdhva (AV.), from trh- 'crush'; drdhd- 'firm', from drh- 'be strong'. Here e also appears for az in trnedhu (AV.) from /-^i^- (^ trnaz- dhu); and <? in vodhdm (= vazdhajn), 2. du. aor. of Z'a/^- 'carry'. We also find e as Guna of /' in medhra- (AV.), from iiiih- 'mingere' (= mezdhra-).

63. Metathesis. — Apart from the few examples of ra before s and h (51 c), there are probably no certain instances of metathesis in the RV.'. In the later Samhitas, however, a few other forms of metathesis are to be found. Thus -valh- seems to be a transposition of hval- 'go deviously' in upa-valh- (VS.) 'propound a riddle to"'. In valmika- (VS.) 'anthill', m appears trans- posed beside vamrl- and vatnrd- 'ant', vamra-kd- 'little ant'. Metathesis of quantity occurs in as-thas for *as-t/iSs, 2. sing. mid. aor. of as- 'throw'. This is analogous to the shortening, in the RV., of the radical vowel of da- 'give', in the forms adam, adas, adat, where the verb is compounded with the verbal prefix a 3, while otherwise the forms dam, das, dat alone appear.

64. Syllable. — The notion of the syllable is already known to the late hymns of the Rgveda, though the word {a-ksdra-) is there generally used as an adjective meaning 'imperishable'. Thus aksdrena mimate saptd vdnih means 'with the syllable they measure the seven metres'. The vowel being according to the Pratisakhyas ■» the essential element of the syllable, the word aksara-^ is used by them in the sense of 'vowel' also. Initially, a vowel, or a con- sonant and the following vowel form a syllable. Medially, a simple consonant begins a syllable, e. g. ta-pas; when there is a group of consonants, the last begins the syllable, e. g. tap-ta-, and if the last is a sibilant or semivowel, the penultimate also belongs to the following syllable'^, e. g. astam-psTt, an- tya-. A final consonant in pausa belongs to the preceding vowel, e. g. i-dain.

By the process called haplology one of two identical or similar syllables in juxtaposition is dropped. Syllable is here to be taken in the sense not only of a consonant with a following vowel, but of a vowel with a following consonant.

I. The first of the two syllables is dropped within a word in tuvi-rdvavan 'roaring mightily"', beside tuvi-rdva- madh{ydya 'in the middle', from mddhya- (like asa-yti, nakta-ya); vftdtha 'at will', from vrtd- 'willed' (like rtu-tha 'according to r/«-'); svapatydi for svapat{yayai, dat. sing. f. oi sv-apatyd- 'having good offspring'; perhaps also Vj, hfi^% ydyos, gen. loc. du. of^i-*- Examples of a vowel with following consonant being dropped are: iradfiddhyai, inf. ofzVaayz-'seektowin'; ca^ati^anta, r[an]anta, v[an]anta9 ; perhaps sdd[as]as-pdti- beside sddasas-pdti- 'lord of the seat'".

a. The final syllable of the first member of a compound is sometimes dropped in this way; thus se[vd-vara- 'treasury'; se{vd-vrdha- 'dear'; madugha- (AV.),

1 Perhaps stoka- 'drop', may stand for of stukd- 'tuft'.
 * skota.-, from imi- 'drip-, under the influence

2 Cp. Wackernagel I, 212 b, note, and 239 b.

3 These forms are not resolved in the Pada text, i. e. they are treated as if they did not contain the verbal prefix a.

RPr. xvm. 17; VPr. i, 99. 5 Though known to Katyayana and Patan- jali as well as to the Pratisakhyas, aksara-

as the designation of syllable is not found in Panini.

6 See TPr. xxi. 7, 9. On the division of syllables cp. further RPr. I. 15; VPr. I. looff. ; APr. I. 55ff.; TPr. xxi. iff.; and Whitney on TPr. XXI. 5.

7 Cp. Bartholomae, KZ. 29, 527, 562.

8 Cp., however, eti-os for ena-yos.

9 See KZ. 20, 70 f.

10 See Bloomfield, JAOS. 16, xxxv.