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SOME PHONETIC PECULIARITIES OF EARLY CEYLONESE LENA INSCRIPTIONS
BY DR. M. A. MEHENDALE
A detailed study of the Phonology of the Simhalese inscriptions upto the end of the tenth century has been undertaken by P. B. F. Wijeratne, the first part of which has already appeared in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. XI, part 4, pp. 823-836 (1946). Below is made only an attempt to point out some of the striking phonetic peculiarities of early Ceylonese inscriptions from the second century B. C. to the second century A. D. It is also attempted there to show some parallelisms between the treatments observed in these inscriptions and those found in the Prakrits of the early Brähmi (and Kharoşthi) inscriptions of India, especially from the South India. The following short forms are used in the ensuing discussion.
Jain Education International
EI
EZ
L Lüders' list of Brahmi inscriptions, appended to EI. 10.1-226.
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Epigraphia Indica.
Epigraphia Zeilenica.
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I Vowels
$1. Treatment of the vowel r: the treatment > a is the predominant treatment in these inscriptions, though the change is noticed in a noun expressive of human relationship (cf. sk. bhräty-> bhatu EZ 1.145.10a). Thus we find that y> a not only in Sk. krtod > katu EZ 1.62, but also in Sk. pity->pita- EZ 1.18.13. This change of > a in a noun expressive of human relationship is very peculiar, for it is nowhere to be found in the Prakrits of the Brahmi or Kharoşthi inscriptions. There in all such cases the treatment is a or i.
It should, however, be noted that the change r> a even when accompanied by a labial in certain instances and in the 35
Madhu Vidya/234
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