Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/72

 I. ALLGEMEINES UND SPRACHE. 4. VEDIC GRAMMAR. dissimilar initial vowels are hardly ever changed to the corresponding semi- vowels, and often remain uncontracted even before similar vowels 2; the elision of a after e o is rare³; contraction is commonly avoided by the final vowel of monosyllabic words, and by an initial vowel followed by conjunct consonants 4. Nevertheless, it may be said in a general way that the poets of the RV. show a tendency to avoid the meeting of vowels 5. The divergences between the apparent and the real Sandhi which appear in the RV., decrease in the later Vedas, while the application of particular rules of Sandhi becomes more uniform6. 62 a. External Sandhi, or that which applies between words in the sentence, is to a considerable extent identical with internal Sandhi, or that which applies within words. The most striking difference is, that in the latter consonants remain unchanged before verbal and nominal terminations beginning with vowels, semivowels, or nasals 7. External Sandhi is on the whole followed in the formation of compounds, the divergences from it in the latter being merely survivals of an earlier stage of external Sandhi due to the closer connexion between members of a compound that renders them less liable than separate words to be affected by modifications of phonetic laws. External Sandhi is to a considerable extent affected by the law of finals in pausā. Under that influence it avoids final aspirates and palatals. There are, however, in the treatment of final n r, and s, certain survivals which do not agree with the corresponding forms in pausā. b. There are certain duplicate forms which were originally due to divergent euphonic conditions. Thus the tendency was to employ the dual ending a before consonants, but au before vowels. Similarly, the word sádā 'always', was used before consonants, but sádam before vowels 8. 68. Lengthening of final vowels.-Final vowels as a rule remain unchanged before consonants. But à i are very frequently lengthened ⁹ before a single initial consonant both in the metrical portion of the Samhitās and in the prose formulas of the Yajurveda; e. g. śrudhí hávam 'hear (our) call'. This practice includes examples in which the consonant is followed by a written y or v, to be pronounced, however, as i or u; e. g. ádhā hy àgne (IV. 10²a) ádha hi agne; abhí sv àryaḥ (x. 593ª) = abhí sú aryáḥ. The lengthening here appears to have arisen from an ancient rhythmic tendency of the language to pronounce long, between two short syllables, a final short vowel which was liable to be lengthened elsewhere as well"; this tendency being utilized by the poets of the Samhitãs where metrical exigencies required a long syllable. Thus ádha 'then', appears as ádha when a short syllable follows. Similarly tú 'but' generally becomes tú before a short syllable; and sú 'well' nearly always becomes sú between short syllables 12 the sense; cp. OLDENBERG, Prolegomena 443, note 2; ARNOLD 122. 1 ARNOLD 125. 2 Op. cit. 124. 3 Op. cit. 127. 4 Thus mápsavaḥ (iv. 47d) must be read má ápsavaḥ, but máduvaḥ (for má áduvaḥ) remains (ibid.). 5 Cp. OLDENBERG 434f. ¹1 This tendency survived in the post- 6 Cp. BARTHOLOMAE in KZ. 29, 37, Vedic language in compounds, in words P. 511f. (which followed the analogy of compounds) 7 Thus sakat, á-saknuvan, sakra-, šákvan-| before suffixes beginning with consonants, (from sak be able'), in all which forms gand in reduplicative syllables. would be required by external Sandhi. 12 Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 266 b. 8 Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 309, bottom. 9 The Padapatha in these instances regu- 10 Except in compounds, this lengthening disappears in the later language; there are, however, several survivals in the Brähmaṇas; see AUFRECHT, Aitareya Brāhmaṇa 427; and cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 264 b.
 * larly gives the original unlengthened vowel.