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36
W. S. Karanatillcke
Both these lines are built by the same metre called Pajjhajil ' which is defined as consisting of 16 mojae with the last syllable light To satisfy this metiic requirement the writing of 'pp' in (a) versus 'p' in (6) must be considered contrastive Therefore the contrast between single versus geminate has been considered phonemic also for the stops other than voiced-retroflex, although instances for this contrast are very much limited
1,24 Distribution of the consonants
1.241 Single occurence
Word-finally only /N/ occurs eg kajjen
by the action' haun KIN
'what' ‘your
pain
Word initially all cosonants except /N/ can occur. However, the occurrence of the retroflex stops and /b/ is highly Testricted in this position.
Intervocally the occurrence of all consonants other than N/, /b/ and /kb/ has been attested.
1.242 Cousonant sequences
Consonant sequences occur toth in word-initial and intervocalic positions. Only two member consonant-sequences have been found in either position.
Consonant sequences can be either geminate (occuring only intervocally) or clusters Examples for geminates were given earlier (CF, 1 232 above). Examples for consonant clu. sters are given below word-initial position ,
nh- , nha na 'bath Ih
Thikkivi 'having hidden' Vy- vya
'like'
