Collected Articles Of LA Schwarzschild On Indo Aryan 1953 1979

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

Page 78

SPORADIC CHANGES OF VOWELS IN MIDDLE INDO-ARYAN
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example of vocalie dissimilation and certainly points to the influence of the longer derivatives of the word which had the vowel a in the initial syllable, that is the forms gariyas and garisha, already quoted, as well as other derivatives, especially gariman 'weight' > Pkt garima, and garina 'weight': the longer form garuka was associated with this group rather than with the simple word guru which survived in Middle Indo-Aryan as guru. The Prakrit word purisa, Pali porisa, from puruso'manis at least partially due to the substitution of the more usual suffix -isa (e.g. as found in words like erisa, harisa): -usa was also replaced by-asa in pharasa parusa 'rough'. The unusual development in the first syllable of the Pali form porisa has been explained by H. Berger on the basis of the generalisation of the metrically long Vedic form pirusa." One of the possible cases of dissimilation of the voweli has been interpreted as an archaic form: sadhila "loose, which occurs in Prakrit along with the more usual sidhila sithila, has been explained from spthila "loose'. V Srath 'to become loose' 10 Some of the other words which could be considered as examples of vocalic dissimilation are rare words, or unusual or borrowed, in any case they are words that have no strong links with others; they do not belong to a big etymological group and therefore have little support in the language and are more liable to "sporadic" changes. Such a word is the Dravidian borrowing aguru, Prakrit agaru, agalu, agurk, which was obviously influenced by Skt guru and Pkt garua with which it was associated by popular etymology.". Sometimes the origin of the word is so unclear that it is difficult to say which is the original vowel. This is the case for instance with the probable Munda borrowing which is represented by Vedic chubuka chin', Sanskrit cubuka, cibuka, Prakrit cibua. Equally uncertain are Sanskrit fumburu, Prakrit tumuru, tumharu and imbaru. Pali timbaru 'a tree': Sanskrit kilinja, Prakrit and Pali kilanja: Sanskrit mucilinda, Prakrit mucilanda 'a tree as well as Sanskrit Phillika, Prakrit jhallika 'an insect'. These words cannot be considered as clear examples of dissimilation of the vowels i and w, but it is probable that dissimilation did play a part in the unusual sound-changes undergone by these rare words.
Sometimes the change of vowels is due to analogical influences rather than to dissimilation: thus the Prakrit neura, alura Sanskrit näpura * H. Berger, "Pali pria "Mensch, Wiwr Zeitschrift für die K e Simi Ostasien, I. 1957. 14 R. I. Turner Dictionary of the Near Lawape London, 1931), s.v. ila 11 For a Dravidian loan-word Nee T. Burrow, The Sanskrit Language (London, 1955).. 30, and for some of the further history of the word see Jean Filliozat "L'Agalloche et les Manuscrits sur Bois dans l'Inde", J.A, 1958, pp. 85 IT,
L. ASCHWARZSCHILD anklet' has been shown already by Pischel to be a remodelling under the influence of keura <keyura bracelet'. The phonetic development of the Prakrit bhamaya, bumaya 'brow' is most difficult. These words are connected with Sanskrit bhrūmukha > Prakrit bhumuha, bhamuha, but the suffix-maya was substituted for the original final of the word. This is indicated already by Hemacandra (1 167). The change of blumaya to the alternative form bhamaya is probably due to the influence of the original word bhrumukha > bharuha 'brow. The development of brūmukha to hhamtha represents what is perhaps the only clear example of vocalic dissimilation in Middle Indo-Aryan. It is typical of examples that abound in other languages, the change being regressive rather than progressive: the earlier of two sounds is altered rather than the later, because of the tendency of the speakers to think ahead. The word bhamuha had be. come completely dissociated from the original bhrabrow and was therefore liable to further sporadic changes in Apabhramsa, where it appears as bhoha. The scarcity of examples shows that dissimilation in Middle Indo-Aryan was very rare indeed, probably in the spoken as well as the written language. The infrequency of vocalic dissimilation in Middle Indo-Aryan, as opposed to the Romance languages for instance, may be explained by the more even accentuation of Middle Indo-Aryan: whereas particularly in French the stress accent was so heavy that vowels in unaccented syllables, preceding the stressed vowels, tended to be dissimilated.
It would appear that differentiation on the other hand was not so infrequent in Middle Indo-Aryan, though it has not usually been recognised as such. The most common kind of differentiation is of the type mukula > m a > mala 'bud', where the first of the two vowels w is altered as much as it possibly can be and loses its major phonetic characteristics: it is unrounded as well as lowered, becoming a which for some time at least was pronounced in a separate syllable from the following u. There are a number of very similar cases: muka diadem' appears as maida in Ardhamagadht as well as in later Jain texts, mukunda 'a kind of drum' becomes maunda, mukura becomes maira. Some of these words appear in lexical Sanskrit with the vowel a in the first syllable, and sometimes also in Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, e.g. makufa 'crest', 'diadem (Divyavadana), makura 'mirror', 'bud' (lexical Sanskrit), and it is probable that the vowel a in the initial syllable of these forms is due to the
# The tendency for dissimilation to be regressive rather than progressive is discussed by R. G. Kent in Language XII, pp. 245-258.
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