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W
S. Karunatilleke
To the word final position,
(a) in a closed syllable only [e] and [ 0 ] occur; eg [e] [addhen] ' by half'
Examples for [0] in this position are rare
(b) in open syllables,all the four segments (e], [e 1; and 1o) [0 ] are found However the occurience of [e] and [ol in this position can be explained as a contraction of [e: 1 to (e ), and 10 ] to (o) respectively for purposes of metre No phonemic contrast is effected by this shortening
For example, in the line, [utthiya e patthiva su ] ( Kch. 1.87) "having got up (and reported) to the king", the [e] is contracted to [e) only to suit the metic require. ments. The metre of this verse is called Samānikā, which is defined as containing the metric quantities 11
ja
ra
ga
As the pronounciation of /e and [e: ] in this position would yield an extia-mora (thus violating the metric pattern), it has been contracted to [e] here
Similar metric rules apply to the shortening of /o/ in this position
Based on the distributional statements given above the four segments [e], [e ), and [0], [o ) are phonemicized as le/ having the allophones [e] and [e'], and /o/ having the allophones [ o ] and [0 ].12 113 Even in case of the non mid-vowels that contrast for length, the length-contrasts are restricted only to open syllables. 1.14 Vowel-contrasts
Examples for the qualitative and quantitative vowel con trasts are found mostly in the initial syllable of words Examples for these contrasts are very limited 10 the word medial and final positions Some examples for these contrasts are given below. The symbol + has been used here to mean 'contrasts with.
