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SAMDESARASAKA
GRAMMAR'
I ORTHOGRAPHY
$ 1. A conflicting and confused orthography is quite characteristic of the Ap. Mss. The spelling of grammatical forms and words even in the same Ms. presents bewildering variations. One form now exhibits an , now an q. Another form has at one time one of its vowels nasalized, while a second time it appears without the Anunasika. Similarly in the writing of a or, in the introduction of the '' or in the choice of or much consistency is not to be found. There are two or three facts which can be advanced to explain this remarkable orthographic variation of the Ap. Mss. One explanation which obviously suggests itself is to assume that in the speech of the author there actually obtained an option of pronunciation in the case of the forms or words concerned, the orthographic diversity being but a reflex of these optional pronunciations. But this sort of assumption works in a limited number of cases only. As regards the others, there is enough evidence, brought forth by ALSDORF (and JACOBI) through a statistical analysis of the form-and word-variants occuring in some Ap. Mss., to prove that either confusion of phonetically similar forms or divergent scribal practices lie at the basis of this variation. Further, it seems quite probable that some types of variants, indicative of a stage of language more advanced than one represented by the text, bear influence of the spoken idiom of the scribes and as such, are to be considered modernisms from a relative view-point.
C1
These are the chief agencies responsible for the inconsistencies and divergences in the Ap. orthography. It is to be noted that even after taking everything into consideration, there would still remain, as is amply borne out by the treatment below, a number of cases where it is considerably difficult to achieve some measure of certainty as to whether a particular form is really reflective of an actual alteration in pronunciation already developed in an author's time or it is merely a
'scribal' variant.
1 As regards the method of treatment I have followed ALSDORF so far as it was suitable. The sections on grammar in his Hr. and KP. have been throughout kept before view and at several places drawn upon, JACOBI's works are also consulted..
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