________________
259
DECEMBER, 1915] THE LINGUISTIC CLASSIFICATION OF KASHMIRI
j becomes ch or ts. Skr. kshudyatê, Pr. khujjai, Ksh. khôtsi, he will fear. Similarly. Bah. has achu, a tear, as compared with H. ajha.
d becomes t. Skr. dridha-, Ksh, dro!", firm.
d becomes t. Skr. vâpada-, Ksh. hâpat-, a bear. Similarly, Prs. dâman, Bsh. tâman, the skirt of a garment; Skr. dugdha-, Pr. duddha-, Sh. dût, milk.
bor v becomes p. Skr. sava-, Ksh. hap-, a corpse; Prs. bâz, Ksh. pöz, a falcon. So, Ar. tabib, Bsh. iapip, a physician; Skr. svasâr-, Kh, ispusar a sister.
It will be noticed that, in respect to the hardening of sonant consonants, Kâshmiri is in entire agreement with the modern Piśâcha languages.
A noteworthy peculiarity of the Pisacha languages is the confusion between cerebral and dental letters. This is universal and extends to Kashmiri. Compare the following:Sh. gôt, or gôt, a house; Bsh., V. osht-, Wai. fsht, Gwr., Kl. usht-, Ksh. woth-, but H. utharise; Ksh. dal or dal, a leaf; Grw. ath, Sh. ath, eight; Skr. kala-kûfa-, black poison, Ksh. kla-kál or kta-kål. and many other similar cases.
A marked feature of Kashmirî is consonantal epenthesis, i. e. the change in a consonant under the influence of a following vowel or semivowel. This also occurs in the modern Pisacha languages, but not in India.
Thus, in Ksh. k becomes ch before palatal letters, as in thoku, weary, fem. thich"; hokhu, dry, fem. hochhü. So from the root kar, do, we have Wai. châ-st, he does; and the Sh. môchô, before, is connected with the Skr. mukha-, a face.
Similarly, and change in Ksh. to ts and ch, respectively, as in rât-, night, plur. rötsü; püți, a board, plur. pachě. So, we have Bsh. kti, but V. ktseh, the back; Eranian root yet, come, compared with Bsh. ats, Wai. atsh; Skr. putra-, a son, Grw. pách, Sh. puch or push; Skr. stri, a woman, Sh. chei or tshriga; Sh. trak or chak, see, and others.
In Ksh. under such circumstances d becomes j, and d becomes z, as in büdü (fem.), great, plur. baje; grand, a counting, plur. grünzü. Similarly, the H. dhi, a daughter, is jú in Bah. ; and the H. dó, two, is represented in Kh. by jû, and in Ksh. by zh.
In Ksh. I under similar circumstances becomes j, as in anguji, a finger, representing the Skr. anguli-. So the Pañjâbî gall (fem.), a word, is represented by gijji in Bsh.
The Kashmirî system of epenthetic changes of vowels, though strange to nearly all the languages of India proper, obtains also in the Piśâoha languages, although too little is known of these to enable us to set out definite rules for them. As examples we may quote the change of a to i under the influence of a following i in the V. izhi, Gwr. itsin, Kl. and Kh. ech, an eye, as compared with the original Av. asi. So the Bsh. dusht, a hand, has its plural duisht, for dushti, just as ass, we, is pronounced aisi in Kâshmîrî. Again, the Skr. asya-(i. e. *âsia-), a mouth, becomes ish in V., and the Skr. sûrya-(i. e., *súria-), the sun, becomes swir in My., sir in Grw., and siri in Ksh. As an example of the epenthesis of u, we may quote the Kl. guro, for garo or gano, singing, in which the â has become u under the influence of the following o. Similarly, in Bsh. broh, a brother; Sh. dônó, a bull; Bsh. kôr, Kl. kuro, Sh. kôn, an ear, and many others, a or a has become u or o. Many more examples could be quoted, but the above are sufficient to show that Kashmîrî shares its tendency to epenthesis with all the Piéâcha languages,
In Kashmirî, when a word ends in one of the letters k, ch, ts, !, t, or p, that letter is aspirated, and becomes kh, chh, tsh, th, th, or ph, respectively. There is nothing like this in India, but it certainly also occurs in V., and probably in other Piéâcha languages. Thus, the Ksh, krak-, noise, becomes krakh, and similarly the V. masek-, moon, becomes masekh.
