Sound Synthesis in Indo European Indo Iranian and Sanskrit

Author(s): Satya Swarup Mishra
Publisher: Ashutosh Prakashan Sansthan

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INDO-EURO, EAN CONSONANT SYNTHESIS 23
19. IE s T-s> IE s normally, although ss was also sporadi. cally retained. This treatment is responsible for the so alled mobile s (vide 20). IE es +si > IE esisessi, cp Gk ei, (Hom.) essi, Skt asi,
Lat es, ess. IÉ menes +su>IE menesumenessu, cp Skt manasu,
manahsu, manassu, Gk ménessi, ménesi Av manahu. IE dus t-stutis > IE dus(s)tutis > Skt dustutih. IE dus +sthānos >IE dus(s)thānoš>Gk dústēnos. -
20. IE shows a number of cognates, where an initial s is sometimes dropped. This s is conveniently termed as mobile s or s movable. It may be assumed that originally the word had an initial s. The forms showing loss of the initial s, might have originally followed words ending in -S. A large number of IE words actually ended in -s. In the noun declension all nominative singular forms (except -nl- stems, fem-ai stems & neuter stems), all abl-gen sg forms (except -o stems; earlier -o stems also ended in -S in gen®), all nom & acc plural forms (except neuter), perhaps also all inst, dat, abl plural forms, and gen-loc dual forms ended in -s. Besides several forms for pronouns, numerals & verbs ended in -s. Therefore when a following word had an initial -s, it could easily drop it as per rule above (19) and generalization of such forms without initial s, resulted in the so called mobile s. 6. Originally IE -o stems also has -s ending in gen. sg.,
as is evident from the vedic forms like rátħas-patiki, vanas-patik etc.; Hittité régularly uses is e#ding with these stems, op Hitite géni sg. arunas, ant uhasas etc., ko late proto IE; however, -5 was replaced by so)syo ( vide Misra : New lights on IE Comparative Grant ntar, pp. 90-93 ).