Some Topics in the Development of OIA MIA NIA

Author(s): H C Bhayani
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 25

16
It should be noted that wherever these words have come down to NIA. they have preserved the earlier - 0-. Pischel, Turner and others assume in many a case a vỊddhi derivative (that has -au- from -u-) as the source-from. That becomes unncessesary if the explanation put forth here is considered acceptable. There is of course no denying the fact that we hale counter-examples both ways. There are numerous forms in MIA. (and inherited by NIA.) which preserve such an original - U- unchanged (or lengthened where necessary in NIA.). So also there are MIA. words in which an earlier closed -u- is changed to -o- when the preceding consonant in the initial syllable is non-labial. Hence the tendency noted here can be supposed to have a dialectal origin.