Sound Synthesis in Indo European Indo Iranian and Sanskrit

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

Page 54

36 SOUND SYNTHESS IN IE, II & SANSKRIT
in final positions. It is likely that these consonants, which originally followed the nasals, had a very weak articulation, before being lost; and they were a similated to the preceding nasal before vowels. This assimilated nasal was maintained only after short vowels, to retain the original heavy syllable and not after the long vowels, as the preceding long vowel could itself form the heavy syllablc; e.g gacchan -+aśvaḥ > gacchann aśvaḥ. The origir al IIr form was gaššants-ašvas <IE gumskontsekwos. In Skt *gacchants > gaccan; but in an intermediate stage gucch:n might have been *gacchan", with an weakly articulated reduplicated nasal, which originally resulted from assimilation of the very weak final t after n.
The form vrşan-aśvah is no real exception, as it represents an original single n, coining from IIr vršan-ašvas
<IE wysen-ekwos (i.e. -n stem not -nt stem). 49. Final -n preceded by a long vowel and followed by vowels has no change in cl Skt; e.g. bhavān-api, tān-eva, munīn-iva etc.; but in vedic Skt an>ā, in> ir, ün>ūr, in> ir beforc vowels; e.g. sargān+iva > sargā-iva (cl Skt sargān-iva), avin-tiva > avīr-iva (cl Skt avīn-iva), pašūn iva > pašūr-iva (cl Skt pašūn-iva), nin+abhi >nfr-abhi (cl Skt nin-abhi).
The sandhi in these forms is quite historical in vedic and innovation in cl Skt. The forms of acc pl originally had the ending -ns, which became -nz befyre voiced sounds (in IE before voi ed plosives, but in IIr before voiced plosives, consonantal secondary vowels and vowels) Thus historically ans >ânz>ãz>ā, ins> inz>iž> ir, ūns
>ūnz> ū>ūr, īns >īnz>> fr in these situattons It should also be remembered that the nasal shows merely nasalization of the preceding vowel and not an anusvāra. Moreover, it should also be noted that -inž was an analogical creation, after inž, ūną.