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REVIEWS and NOTICES
89
sibilant s. This is a general feature of Kāmarūpi phonoloy. Hence this could be an example of deaspiration (th >t) which was probably due to the influence of the standard colloquial (p. 84). The normal tendency, in the author's opinion, of Kämarüpi is aspiration (p. 83 ( 124 )
In many cases the author omits to take into account an intervening phonetic change and hence some of his examples are not immediately in accord with his labellings. Thus his example sāri-fa> säitta can fit in his description of the assimilation of plus some consonant only if we assume an intervening stage *säir-fa. Under unvoicing' on p. 87, the change should have been better formu. lated as -ñij., .;>*-fic, *.c>s.. Similarly, the change -b >-ph* on the same page should have been shown as -*bh > .*bh >.ph. Some of the examples cited under 'Deaspiration' (p. 86 ) would have been clear if the author had given the intermediate stage like dh> * > r. In effect, however, the change *> shows a phonetic shift.
It is necessary to discourage the habit of quoting from authors where such quotations either are out of place or serve no useful purpose. On the page prece. ding Foreword, the author gives quotations (without proper references ) from the works of Bloomfield and Gray. Of these, the former is out of place because in the present book the description of the language is not followed up by an attempt 'to observe a human group' or 'to probe deeper into the ways of the community and understand their historical origin'. On p. 4, in saying that the standard Assa. mese is being used more and more by the people, the author cites the following from I. C. Ward's The Phonetics of English, p 4. : 'should be encouraged since speech is a form of social behaviour.' One fails to understand why the author has found it necessary to give this quotation.'
3. But on p. 86 the author gives some examples of deaspiration also from kamarūpi 4. Not intervocal - - > Ph-as indicated by the author, 5. The outhor docs not give reference to the page number of the book, but merely
gives the chapter number..
Madhu Vidyā/630
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