Indian Antiquary Vol 47

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarkar
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 241

SEPTEMBER, 1918 ]
E AND O IN MARWARI AND GUJARATI
225
THE WIDE SOUND OF E AND O IN MARWARI AND GUJARATI.
BY DR. L. P. TESSITORI ; BIKANER. I HAD already dealt with the subject of the present paper in a note published in appendix
to my "Progress Report on the work done in connection with the Bardic and Historical Survey of Rajputana during the year 1915", 1 and had hoped that I had therein given the genesis of the wide sound of e and o in Marwari and Gujarati, as distinct from the narrow sound, with sufficient lucidity and documentation to convince everybody. But in this I was mistaken and & contradictory article by Mr. N. B. Divatia, recently appeared in this Journal,? now obliges me to take up the same subject again and remove some shades of doubt which it has cast on my conclusions.
In the note to which I have just referred, I had shown that every è, è (wide) 3 of Marwari and Gujarati is derived from an aï, aü of the Old Western Rajasthani, whereas every é, o (narrow) is derived from 0. W. Rajasthani e, o, or, in some few casos, 0. W. Rajasthani 1, ea, i, oa. With regard to the former change I had pointed out that the manuscripts indicato that it was effected through a process of contraction, that is, through suppression of the hiatus, the intermediate step being the diphthongs ai, au, (t t). Thus O. W. Rajasthani aï, through ai, gave Marwari-Gujarati è, and similarly 0. W. Rajasthani aü, through au, gave Marwari-Gujarati ò. Seeing that the spelling ai, au is found in most, if not all, of the earliest manuscripts of Marwari and Gujarati, and that it is still used by accurate Marwari writers to represent the wide sounds è, o, * and at the same time considering that this ai, au spelling is not only etymologically accurate but also very significative in that it graphically represents the genesis of the sounds themselves, I had suggested that it might be adopted, or rather readopted, in Gujarati to distinguish the wide sound (è, o) from the narrow sound (é, ó). It is known to everybody that one of the deficiencies of inodern Gujarati orthography is the use of a unique sign to indicate both è, dand é, o.
Shortiy before the publication of my note Mr. Divatia hed in this same Journal 5 proposed a theory according to which the è, ò of Gujarati was devolved from 0. W. Rajasthani ai, ai, not through ai, ar, but through aya, ava (ay, av). In reply to this, I had in
1 Jour. As. Soc. of Beng., N.S., XII, 1916, pp. 73 ff.
1 The Wide Sound of E and O with Special Reference to Gujarati. Vol. XLVI, pt. DLXXXIX, 1917, and VOL XLVII, pts. DXCI and DXCII, 1918.
• I use a grave accent () to represent the wide sound and an acute accent !) to represent the narrow sound.
"I give below a specimen which I have taken at random from a manuscript about 50 years old containing the "Khyâta " of Bikaner by Sindhầyaca Dayaļa Dasa (MS. No. 1 of Desor. Cat. of Bard. and Histl. MSS., Sect. i, pt. ii) T otalcat vratai & PT G araget Taro तैतीप दिली रे रजीडंस साहब बाहादर ने गुजराइ स.१८८६ फाल्गुण र १० ने और मुफसल हाल हिंन मलजी जबांनी जाहर कीयो तिण पर साहब मौसूफ वावलपुर रेषांन नै ताकीदीरी लिषावट भेजी तारां षांन पण टाकर ने आप रे इलाके मूं बाबर कीया तह ठाकर इलाकै जेसलमेर रे मै गया उठे कितीएक प्रारमी जमा कीया तथा पूगज राव रामसिंहजी वैरीसालजी री साजस मै ता सू जेसजमेर रावन गजसिंहजी ने गया त? गजसिंहजी कौश १सांमा आय ने राव ने ले गया भर रावलजी पूरी पासरी कर मदत रौ हुकम कीयो . . . . . . . etc. (pp. 3425—343a).
"A Note on Some Special Features of Pronunciation etc, in the Gujarati Language, Vol. XLIV, pts. DLII Scd DLVI, January and May 1915.