Indian Antiquary Vol 60

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 371

DECEMBER, 1931 )
ALPHABETS AND PRONUNCIATION
( $ 106
Lil
Central Pahāri, and Dardic. In Bihari it is represented in writing by the character for a, without any diacritical mark to distinguish it. So also in Bengali, but here, in modern printed books, a diacritical mark is sometimes added. The letter å represents the sound of the a incall,' and is the long sound of o. It occurs chiefly in Bihāri, Gujarati, the NorthWest IAVs., and in Dardic. It is generally the result of the contraction of a or å with u. The letter ä (written é by some writers on Indian languages) Occurs chiefly in Gujarati, Western Rājasthāni, Lahndă, and in dialects of Panjābi, and is sounded like a German ä, or like a French è. Its sound is also heard in such words as 'there' when spoken in Scotland or North England. It may be either long (ä) or short (ä); but, except when necessary, this distinction will not be observed in the following pages. In origin, it is parallel to å, being generally the result of the contraction of a or å with i. In South Lahnda and Sindhi it tends to become ē. The letter a represents a sound approaching that of the a in 'cat.' It is most commonly heard in Bengali, where it is represented in writing sometimes by e and sometimes by ya, most usually by the latter. Thus, the English word 'back' is written byak in the Bengali character, and byākhyā, pronounced bækklæ, is the sTs. form of the Sanskrit vyākhyā. In Kašmiri, the letter a is pronounced a in monosyllables ending in an aspirated surd. The peculiar sound is either not indicated in writing or is represented by the letter ē. Thus krækh is the pronunciation of the word written krakh or krēlch, and means ' noise.'
The letter 4, as has been said, represents the shortest possible sound of a. In Sindhi and Kāšmiri every final a has this sound, as in S. khata, a bedstead; Kš. gard, a house. These final vowels are so slightly sounded that to many Europeans they are quite inaudible, but they can easily be heard by a trained ear, and their presence or absence may make a difference in the meaning of a word. In Kāšmiri, as also in the neighbouring Pašto, this vowel may also be medial, as in adorun, to be moist, and even occurs in monosyllables, as in toah, thou, går, energy. When medial in Kš. this vowel is omitted in writing, so that in the case of monosyllables we get seemingly impossible combinations forming words with apparently no vowel at all. Thus, the above three words would in Nāgari be written WE, , and.q. So also in Săradā. In the other IAVs. it is only medial, and is here called the neutral vowel,' on accou:t of its extremely obscure sound, like that in the ble of the word 'amiable,' or like that of the Hebrew showă mobile. It is nowhere represented in writing in the native characters, the full a being generally used instead. As it always occurs after an accented syllable there is generally no difficulty experienced in detecting it. In Urdū and Lahndā, which are under strong Masalmän influence, this neutral vowel hardly exists. It disappears altogether, and the two consonants between which it ought to come are pronounced as one compound consonant, the fact being indicated in the Persian character by jazm,, and this remains even in poetry (see $125), in which the metre in these languages is based on Persian, not on Indo-Aryan prosody. Thus, Hindi márna, but Urdū and Lahndā márnā, the act of beating. Sindhi, on the contrary, generally represents the neutral vowel by fully pronounced a, as in maran". This neutral vowel frequently performs the office of svarabhakti in sTss. and in borrowed words, as in H. pár gat, U. párgaf, from prakata., H. mírad, U. mard, a man. In Old Sindhi, however, this office is taken by 1, as in 8. mard", OS. máridu, a man (S. Gr. 29). A similar change occurs in Bihāri, as in lárakā or lárikā, & boy. Examples of the use of the neutral vowel in other languages are P. ghállapā, to send, written ghallarā ; G. utártó, descending, written utarato; M. kárawat, a saw, written karawat ; H. úlejā, reversed, written ulajā. The neutral vowel is very rare in Bengali, Assamese, and Oriya. In Bihāri it is common, as in dekhali, I saw, written dekhali. So also in the other IAV8.
106. The vowels i and i ne pronounced as in Skr., or as in the English imp' and pique,' respectively. The vowel ' is the shortest possible sound of i, so as to be hardly
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