Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 344

ON THE MODERN INDO-ARYAN VERNACULARS
[OCTOBES, 1903
325. We have seen ( 287) that in Dardic the letter r is often changed to c, j, &, or i, and is also liable to syncope. There are also instances of the interchange with l. Thus we have My. lam (grāma.), a fortified place : My. liga, $. jigo (dirgha-, through drigha-), long; Gwr. bliaia, Paš. lãi (Av. brotar.), a brother; Kh. rešū, a bull, lešū, a cow (vrsabha-) ; Gwr. pult, Paš. puthlē (putra-, putra-), a son ; Gwr. 4lē Paš. hlē (Av. Grayö), three; Kš. drür" or drūlu, skin; janjur' or janjulw, an angry face ; Ar. sair, Kš. söl, a stroll. Cf. S. r uthär- or (Kacchi dial.) ruthla-, raise. From this we learn (1) that in Drd. must be a dental letter, (2) that this accounts for the ease with which it is elided, and (3) that this accounts for the change to š, ; for l itself is, as we shall see ($ 326), liable to be palatalized to j. The origin of the last change may be foreign, but it could not have occurred in Drd. if were not first changed to l. We may put the second and third changes as follows:
(2) >1>y> elided.
(3) > >a palatal letter. The 1 is preserved from further change only when the r originally formed a part of a conjunot, and even then it is sometimes palatalized.
Similarly, I is sometimes liable to be changed to a dental (cf. Shb. arabhati, rocetu), as in Bš. angyur, Grw. angir (anguli. or anguri.); a finger ; K. braru (vidāla-), a cat. We have even cases like Kš. srün or šrān, for snāna., bathing, through *šlān.; and sreh, for enēha, love, through *sleh; and we may compare Western Pahāri jaram, for janma, birth. In these cases the r is evidently dental, but a cerebral, is also distinguished in the Kāfir Group, as in Wai, agur, Kl. angurya-k or (with syncope) ango, a finger. I explain the ? in this example as a survival of an original medial !. This sound still exists in the neighbouring Lahndā and Panjābi, and did exist in Paisāci Prakrit, and its survival here need not therefore surprise us, although in other Dardic dialects it has been dentalized to 1, as in Skr. gala-, L.P. gal, Kš. gal, the throat. As Bš. also possesses in other words, but with a different origin (286). the dental r of its angyur must be referred to a dental I, otherwise it would have *angyur (Cf. Grierson, ZDMG. LXVI, 82).
In Şiņā, there is a small number of words containing the sound of a medial cerebral d, as in bidiro, round. This d, being medial, is, as in India, commonly pronounced as a cerebral r (bişiro) (see T. G. Bailey in JRAS., 1926, 437). With one doubtful exception, probably due to borrowing (bado, great), none of these words have been identified as Aryan, while fifty per cent. of them have been identified as Burušaski (ş. Ph.&S 69 ff.) It is probable therefore that, in Şiņā, this sound comes from that language. On the other hand, in the allied Kāšmiri, which has been strongly influenced from India, there is a medial cerebral T, which Pandits write as an ordinary dental , making no distinction, in writing, between the two sounds. Kāšmiri also has the sound of the letter d, which is often certainly of Indian origin. Such, for instance, occurs in bud", old, which may be compared with the Hindi buddha. But besides this original cerebral d, Kāšmiri Pandits sometimes write their cerebral s as d, instead of the more usual t, saying that d represents the Village' pronunciation. The Kašmir peasants themselves have no hesitation in sounding every written medial d as ?, the change being one depending on locality and on the personal equation of the speaker. I have identified as Aryan only very few of the words in which the cerebrals of the Pandits occurs, and when we have a completo vocabulary of Burušaski, it may be found that most of the others have their origin in that language. Balfour (see $ 324) connects Burušaski with Dravidian or Mundā, and the first of the following examples is instructive from that point of view - Kš. kūr, also written küd(base kor-, köd.), a girl, pronounced kūr, by peasants, which may be compared with Mundá (Santali) kūri, a daughter. Similarly tshārun or tshāddun, (Peasant tshārun, to seek; gadun or gurun (Skr. r ghataya-), (Peasant) garun, to form; thar or the
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