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A Phonological Sketch of Apabbramsa
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1.1 Vowel length 1.11 In the phonemic inventory the short and the corespond ing long vowels bave been given separately, and thus long vowels have been treated as unit phonemes rather than vowel sequences
An interpretation of the long vowels as sequences of the corresponding short vowels is objectionable in view of the following facts
(a) A long vowel is structurally parallel to the corresponding short vowel in that, like the corresponding short vowel, a long vowel constitutes a single syllabic peak, whereas a vowel sequ ence constitutes several syllabic peaks depending on the number of vowels constituting the sequence, eg. tha 'to place' = monosyllabic
taa "penance' = disyllabic,
(b) as each vowel constitutes a single syllabic peak, the interpretation of a long vowel as a sequence of the corresponding short vowels goes counter to the syllabic principle involved in the metric composition,
(c) the orthography used 10 the text makes a distinction between a long vowel and a sequence of the corresponding short vowels, representationally 1.12 Vowels / e / and /o/
In the representation of these vowels, four different ortho graphic symbols are used10 which can be transliterated as [el, [e ] and [ 0 ], [ 0 ] respectively Their distribution is as follows
In the non-linal position of words, [e] and [0] occur only in a closed syllable, whereas
[e') and [0 ] occur only in an open syllable. e.g [e] mid-front- short vowel ' [meccha] 'uncivilized' [e] ' mid-front - long vowel ': [ khe.yara ] 'wandering in
the sky' [0] 'mid-back - short vowel': [ kokka ivi] 'having
summoned' [0] 'mid-back-long vowel ': [ saro‘ya ] 'lotus'
