Indian Antiquary Vol 47

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

Page 30

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[JANUARY, 1916
I shall now refer to a theory of Dr. Tessitori's which is given separately, outside the three reasons for differing from me. In connection with his theory that original Prâkrit 972 passed into the wide 1 through the intermediate step 7, he states that the fact that in manuscripts there are no instances of written for 4 is easily accounted for by the remark that all words with an 2 are (Prakrit) tatsamas and therefore they continued to be written according to the traditional spelling. All I would say to this is that it would not be enough that such words should only be written with 32; if they were really tatsamas they would be required to be pronounced with 77; and thus there would be no room for the intermediate अह.
बैठना
बल
चौक
चौथा चौक
(M.)
I shall now supplement my answer to Dr. Tessitori's objections by giving the analytical examination of the problem, on which I base my hypothesis : (A) If we carefully compare the sounds of, sayबसवं (Guj.) बैसणे . (M.)
(H.); (Guj.)
(M.) . बैल
(H.); खर (Guj.)
(M.)
(H.);
(from Sanskrit खदिर); or चायु
(Guj.)
चोयें (M.)
(H.); चाँक (Guj.)
(H.); काडी (Guj.) कौडी (M.)
कोडी
(H.); चौरस (Guj.)
चौरस (M.)
चौरस (H.); as they are spoken by the people, we shall find marked differences in each of the three languages. While each is evolved out of the contactual vocalic groups 37 and , the Gujarati sound is a distinctly wide one (as in 'hat' and 'awl'), making a complete fusion of the 27 and and and 3; the Marathi sound leans more towards the 7 and 3 and makes the resulting diphthong narrow; while the Hindi sound, leaning more towards the अ of the vocalic groups ( अइ-अउ), approximates the wide sound of Gujarati up to a certain point but stops short there, and is not the same wide, fused, sound as the Gujarati one. At the same time the last one (the Hindi sound) is not the pure diphthongal sound of Sanskrit, but resembles अय-अ agood deal, thus making the symbols and wrong indicators, strictly speaking.
(B) Let us now examine a few Gujarâtî words with the wide sound, which have come from Arabic and Persian :Gujarati.
Arabic and Persian. कलि
कवल गरत
गबरत हराम अब
अब Again these :हर
सहर कर
कहर शहर In this latter set the steps of phonetic mutation are
कहर -
वसभर - कवर - कर; शहर - हभर - गृहब - शहर (शहर); सहर - सभर - सबर - मेर.