Indian Antiquary Vol 62

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

Page 347

OCTOBER, 1933)
CHANGES OF SIBILANTS
[ $$ 330-332
But it must be remembered that in many of these (such as R. CPh. Bg. O. and A.) this is really a matter of spelling, as at the present day, in these languages, the ch is pronounced 8. So also Bhn. (188) quotes
Skr. sésah, end ; G. chéwat, chod, chéllo. Skr. *sallikä, rind; H. challi, châl.
From Skr. sàtradhárah, a carpenter, we have Bg. 0. chútár, and from Skr. Sáram, hemp, 0. chan, but in these cases the ch is pronounced 8.
Bengali chi.dren pronounce s as ch. Thus a baby learning to speak says "chab' for sáhib, a European. This illustrates the difficulty which an untaught Bengali throat experiences in uttering a dental 8. The change of ś to ch is not uncommon in Sindhi, especially in the case of borrowed words. Thus S. cháñcharu, Saturday (Skr. Sàniscára); chál or 8ála, would to God? (Ar. šā- Allāh); chabas, bravo ! (Prs. Šābaš); pa hāh, a king (Prs. pādšāk) (S. Gr. xvii). In Western Pahāri (Jn.) there is a curious sTs, chalyā nās (Skr. satya-nāša), meaning "utter destruction.'
330. The direct change of ch to f is rare. I have only noted it in Northern Lahndā and Western Pahāri-where it is considered vulgar,-in cases like ašņā, for achna, to come, gaśnā, for gachņā, to go. Here we have certainly instances of borrowing from Dardic, in which we find cases of ch > š. In WPh. we have also čohrū, a child, given above ($ 329). We shall see that in Marathi and Gujarāti ch often > dental 8. This dental is liable under certain circumstances to be palatalized to a secondary s.
331. The change of c, ch>8 is much more common than that of ch ś. Bhn. (178) confines it to Marathi, but it is much more widely distributed.
Commencing in the East, in Assamese every c and ch is pr. 8. So identical in sound are these two letters that in Bronson's dictionary ch is omitted, and only c written. Thus A. cârál, a candāla, pr. särál; māch (Bronson, māc), a fish, pr. mās, sācā, true, pr. Xösa; pice, pace (pr. píse, păse), behind ; micā, false, pr, misā ; bachari, a calf, pr. basarū; páchim, west, pr. pósim. See LSI. V, i, 400. An interesting example is A. sTs. súrti, for sruti, the Vēdas, which is written curti, because in the written compound &r, the sibilant is pr. as 8($333, 338.)
In Bengali ch is commonly pronounced as a dental 8, though many purists deny it. The pronunciation is most common in Bengal east of the Hügli river. To the west the true sound of ch asserts itself. As the rule is universal where it is practised a few examples will suffice. Such are māch, a fish, pr. mās; churi, a knife, pr. súri. So well established is this, that ch is employed to represent the sound of 8 in words borrowed from other languages. Thus Muchalmān, a Musalmān. So, the Bg. spelling of the Writer's name is Grirachan (cf. LSI. V, i, 31). In S. E. Bengal, also c is pronounced as 8. Thus cākar, a servant, pr. sūor (with elision of k, cf. 301); kharac, expenditure, pr. khóros (LSI. V, i, 292).
In Oriya ch is pronounced as tsh in the South. In the North, on the Bengali frontier, we occasionally hear the 8-sound of the latter language, and in a few words this obtains over the whole of 0. area, as in 0. chùtūr, pr. sutar, a carpenter (see § 329).
332. In Marathi uncompounded Pr. ch regularly becomes 8. This 8 in turn becomes & before a palatal vowel under a rule shortly to be given ( 334). The 8 or é is usually written as such, and is not represented by ch as in Bengali. Thus Skr.
Ap. iksuh, sugarcane úcchu
M. us mátsyah, a fish macchi
M. mas (cf. Bg. and A. above). kşúrikā, a knife chúria
M. súri (cf. Bg.) kşēlram, a field M. Pr. chetiam
M. sēt makşikā, a fly M. Pr. mícchia
M. māsi
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