Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 337

Ocroso, 1983
CHANGE OF CLASS
( 309-312
309. Apocope. As nearly every IAV. word ends in a vowel, though that vowel is generally not sounded except in poetry (146), it follows that, strictly speaking, there can be little or no apocope of final consonants. It will, however, be convenient to include under this head the eligion of a final consonant, even when followed by a vowel, that is to say the apocope not of a letter, but of a final syllable. Thus the word bhais is really bhai sa, and if we say that the 8 is a pocopated so that all that remains is bhai, what has really been apocopated is not the letter s, but the syllable sa. What has happened to the 8 has been syncope, not apocope.
Even this kind of apocope is rare in the IAV8. In Rajasthāni a final h is sometimes a pocopated, as in de for deh, the body; mē, for mēh, a cloud (LSI, IX, ii, 173).
310. In Dardic, as we have to compare with Skr. or Av., and not with Pr., this apocope is observed more commonly. Thus
Skr. kukkuta- ; Kh. kūku, Wai, kiuksu (§ 157); My. küb8, Trw. Grw. kugu; but Gwr. kukur, Kši kökur, etc., a fowl.
Skr. sriga-, Bš. ši, a horn. Skr. kroda- ; Kl. grē, the breast. Skr. tāla; As där, Wai, ta, a father. Skr. vimsati; Bg. vitsi, Wai, viši, Ag. wiši, KI. bišs, Trw. Grw. My. bið, &c., twenty. Av. zarad- ; Bš. zare, Wai. zõ the heart. Skr. hrd- ; Trw, hū, the heart. Av. pāda-, Prs. pā, Skr. pāda ; Paš. $ pā, Bš. pd, Wai, pā-po, Kb. po-ng, Trw. pai, .
foot.
Prs, nana, Waxi nån ; Bš. nõr or nū, a mother. Skr. gāna- ; Paš. gē, singing. In Eranian, apocope of n is common after a long vowel (GIP. I, ii, 58). Aš. šim, Kš. šin, snow, but Bš. ši. For r and I, see § 304. Skr. upa--r vis- ; Ksr beh-, Trw. rok, but $. rbē, Grw.rbai., sit. Av. xšvará ; Ks šah, but Pax. ša, BX. Grw. šo, A. , Wai. 8, V. ušī, Trw. Pó, six. Skr. svasär. ; Bs. As. 8u8, Wai, sós, but §. 8d, Trw. Grw. ci, Pag. 8ãi, a sister. Skr. hasta- ; Paš. häs, My. hã, a hand. Skr. daśa- ; Kš. dah, ş. daii, ten.
Similarly in the Pangi dial. of Western Pahāri (close to Kašmir), *>hand is then a poco pated in bhai, for bhais, a buffalo.
As already said, most of the above may also be considered as instances of syncope, rather than of apocope.
Change of Class. 311. Change in class of consonants is chiefly that of dentals to cerebrals, but in Dardic there are also many instances of palatalization and zetacism. By zetacism is not meant tho development of the affricates ts and z from c and j, respectively, but the cbange to ter % of a consonant of an altogether different class, such as for d.
312. Dentalization of r and cerebralization of l. In the classical Sanskrit of the Madhya dēšar was a semi-cerebral letter and I a dental; but even in Vedio times was dialectically pronounced as a guttural or as a dental (Wk. 209; Whitney, on Atharva-věda Pritisakys 1, 20, 28). In addition to the dental 1, there was a cerebral I found in certain Vedic texts, and also in South Indian Sanskrit MSS. as an intervocalie letter (Wk. 255, ff.). The cerebral
is at the present day a frequently recurring sound in Dravidian languages and this, no doubt, accounts for its existence in South Indian Skr. and Pt.
181