________________
Traces of Short ě and o in Rgveda
307
• If this is their real nature, it is easy to bring them in line with other cases of short and long vowels like a ori, which are found in the RV. Samhitā. It is well-known that these vowels are often short or long in RV. and the variation is rhythmic and metrical but never significant. This difference is indicated in writing as well, because these vowels as short and long also form different phonemes in the language. Final e and o must have been subject to similar variation in the Vedic language and this fact is traditionally indicated by the presence or absence of the absorption of the following a-. This scope of insignificant variation of a purely metrical nature is characteristic of the poetic language and can be seen in the poetry of many New Indo-Aryan languages also.
Annotations : 1. II. 34-50. 2. Cf. Max Muller SBE. XXXII pp xlviii-1. 3. Sanskrit Grammar 135. 4. Hymnen des Rgveda : Prolegomena p. 389 foll. 5. Altindische Grammatik I. 272b. 6. Vedic Metre 127 7. Vedic Grammar 72. 8. p. 437. 9. Vedic Variants II. 890-912. 10. JAP. III. 11. III. 4. 10a; 13. 2d; 16. 5a; 19. 5c; 20. 3b; 29. 3d; 29. 16b; 30. 16a; 33. 6c; 33.
7d; 57. 2d; 60. 6b. 12. IX. 7. 3a; 71. 9c; 73. 4a; 74. la; 74. 6a; 86. 11d; 86. 27b; 91. 2d; 96. 4a; 97.
20a; 97. 33a; 97. 41b; 107. 2a; 107. 6c. 13. I. 24. 8c; 30. 16d; 33. 13b; 51. 3a; 51. 5a; 52. 9d; 59. 2c; 59. 3b; 79. 11a; 81.
1c; 85. 7a; 88. 6a; 103. 7b; 118. 7a; 122. 1a; 162. 7a; 167. 2a; 168. 9c; 186.
8c.. 14. Vedic Metre 127. 15. [ Annals, B. O. R. I. ] 16. V. 35. 3a; V. 61. 2a; VI. 48. 12b; VIII. 2. 36c; VIII. 30. 4d; X. 102. 1b X. 171.
2b.
