Collected Articles Of LA Schwarzschild On Indo Aryan 1953 1979

Author(s): Royce Wiles
Publisher: Australian National University

Page 77

SOME SPORADIC CHANGES OF VOWELS IN
MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN
LA SCHWARZSCHILD
Melbourne
Complaints have sometimes been made that the so-called "sporadic changes which include assimilation, dissimilation, metathesis and epen thesis have not been studied as thoroughly as the regular sound-changes. This applies as much to Middle Indo-Aryan as to other languages. The Prakrit grammarians have simply listed such sporadic changes as exceptions to the general rules, and the modern grammars have taken over their lists with some additional examples. This is true for instance of the cases of sporadic change of the vowel w which are listed by Pischel. This article represents an attempt at a further analysis of some of the problems involved.
While Pischel simply lists the cases where the Sanskrit vowel has been replaced by other vowels in Middle Indo-Aryan, some more recent grammars make confusing statements to the effect that becomes a "by dissimilation or assimilation". Some of this confusion comes from a failure to distinguish between two different processes, dissimilation and dirferentiation. Differentiation occurs when two similar sounds are in immediate contact and the speakers distinguish between the two sounds, thereby changing the phonetic characteristics of one of them. Meiller and Grammonta consider differentiation as the reverse of assimilation: differentiation is a means by which assimilation is avoided and it helps to preserve the identity of the word which might be lost if assimilation took place. On the other hand dissimilation occurs when two identical sounds are close together, yet not in contact, and there is a tendency to avoid the repetition of the one sound. This might be considered as a more truly
L. A. SCHWARZSCHILD sporadic change than differentiation, it is often merely due to a slip of the tongue and is linked with the subconscious dislike of repetition.
On the basis of this definition it is clear that cases of dissimilation of vowels are quite common in some languages as in French: Fr. selon soblongu <stblogum: seco s occorsa < sa; devindiri um. In these and many parallel cases the unaccented vowel has been altered before a similar accented vowel. In the history of Middle IndoAryan such developments are extremely rare. There seems to have been singularly little feeling against the frequent repetition of vowels: in fact in many of the onomatopoeie words where other languages sometimes have a variation of vowels (as in the famous examples of English tick-rock, French tie-lac) Middle Indo-Aryan generally repeats the same vowel. Words like misimisemane (Nyddhammakahdo), and simsimiya (Palmacarlya 105.35) from Sanskrit simasimdyo 'crackling and kididide from kipikipika-rattling', and kirikiria 'whispering' are familiar to readers of the Jain canon. The frequent use of such onomatopoeias is charac teristie especially of Apabhramia, where we find for instance shalathalal "to splash' gugula trumpeting (of elephants)', kilikili'to shout for joy and very many others. Even when the vowels are later altered, which is usual in onomatopoeias where the consonants are most expressive, the vowels still remain repetitive: jhirimiri 'drizzle which occurs in the Old Gujarati of the Sthabhadrap dg, gives modern Gujarati harmar; rimmi gives modern Gujarati rumam. In the ordinary words of the language, outside the realm of onomatopoeia, there is also very little evidence of a dislike of repetition of vowels and of dissimilation.
There are in fact few clear examples of dissimilation of vowels in Middle Indo-Aryan. Some apparent examples have often been explained by other causes. Pkt. gara 'heavy' is now generally derived not from garu(ka), but from the 'guna form of the word, which is found in the Sanskrit comparative and superlative gariyas and garisha. The fact that the vowel a of the initial syllable is found only in the lengthened form gars and not in uw does make it highly unlikely that this is a simple
For the most recent comments on this subject se R. R. Posner, Coronto Di lation in the Ram
Phin
the Philological Sociwy, XIX) (London, 1961, p. 2 • R. Pichel, Grammatik der Prakt Sprache (Strassburg. 1900), 123-4 and 126.
A Meillet, "De la différenciation des phones MSC XH 14 • M. Grammont, Traité de Phone (3rd ed. Paris, 1946), p 2291
For references to some of the theories in connection with dissimilation of R. Posner, op. cit., pp. 7-8 . Slithibhadrapla, ed. H CBhayani in the Quarterly of the Sh Korban Gujarat Sabha, Bombay, 1954.
See for instance M A Mehendale, Historical Grammar of Inscriptional Prakrits (Poona, 1948), p. 7. . There are some very Isolated instances of the use of arw, instead of y , particu farly in the Paliexpression apare not troublesome'. See F. Edgerton, Buddhis Hybrid San Dictionary (Newhaven, 1953) . auru.
134 -
- 135 -