Indian Antiquary Vol 49

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

Page 117

JUNE, 1920]
THE WIDE SOUND OF E AND O
113
u undergo guna before a conjunct letter; as Pr. penda Skt. pinda, Pr. tonda < Skt. tunda (Hem. VIII, 1. 85, 116). This fact goes to show that the guna in such cases has been caused by the conjunct letter affecting the preceding i, u in the same way as an accent or stress does.
Though it may seem from what has been said above that a narrow é can never come from Pr. a-i, of which the last member i does not change into e, we find in some cases the wide è gradually changing into a narrow é. I quote here the following words of Dr. Tessitori :-"There is in modern Marwari-Gujarati a marked tendency to pronounce è and ò less wide when they are final than in other cases.... In some cases the vowel is actually heard as narrow." (Italics are mine.) Instances have been given by him (Ante, 1918, Sept., p. 232). The cause of it is a natural one. For the sound of è (= æ as a in English 'hat') lies, as has been stated above, half way between é and d. One starting fromé cannot reach & without passing through è (-a). Thus the gradation is:
(i)é>(ii) è>(iii) d.
I cannot, however, say whether á is actually found in the place of è in any word of Marwari-Gujarati, but there is possibility of its being so.
The sound è (c) is seen in Bengali in such words as eka (eka), 'one', pronounced ak"; dekha, 'see', pronounced dækha; etc. It is seen also in Sinhalese, in which it is further divided into two, long and short, as mada 'a ram' (generally transliterated as meḍa, ea in
hat '), B. madhd (generally written medha) <Skt. mendaka; næna (nena), B. gan, (though generally written as the following Skt.) Skt. jñâna; pakum, mud', B. pokd (written pēka or in some quarters paka) < Skt. panka or pankaka. This sound, with some diversities, exists in several other vernaculars the treatment of which is not necessary here.
Now it will be seen in the above Bengali words that the sound in question has been expressed, though not adequately, sometimes by e, and sometimes by â of the elements of which it is made. (The sound ce is a combination of that of e and d). But sometimes again, it is represented in Bengali by yd; as the same word dekha is now written by those. who intend to represent the sound phonetically, as dyâkha (or dydkho). Instances of this kind of writing abound in old Bengali MSS. In Sinhalese, too, this sound is expressed by a which is open in that tongue together with the symbol of y joined to a consonant. It is, thus, that when the English word manager' is transliterated into Bengali we come across two sorts of spelling, viz. (i) menejára, or (ii) mydnejdra; while in Hindi it is written mainejara (T). Sometimes d is also seen for the same sound in Bengali though not properly; as, Harrison Road 'is written either (i) Hârisan Road, or (ii) Herisan Road, or (iii) Hydrisan Road. Similarly we see the English word 'catalogue' written in Gujarati as ketilage (d), and so amistant' as desta ( Mizizze ), 'malaria' as meleriya
( મેલેરિયા ), etc., etc.
As regards ó from ò in modern Marwari-Gujarâtî it is to be explained in the following way. Sometimes the second member of the group a-u being accented as stressed turns itself into ó and that ó predominating overcomes the preceding a which now disappears, as has already been stated. But sometimes, specially in compound words, there may not actually be a vocalic group of a-u or a" in spite of its apparent possibility, and consequently the above explanation cannot be applied there. In such cases, in the beginning of the final word of a compound we have an u or û which being accented changes into a narrow 6, there being nothing to widen it.