CHARACTERS AND SOUNDS. 3.
as if the diphthong DEV ê united its first element a with the preceding a into d, and with this, further united its last element (i) into di. [Compare § 688, p. 917.]
3. Among the simple vowels the old Indian alphabet is
deficient in the designation of the Greek epsilon and omicron
(e and o) whose sounds, if they existed when the Sanskrit was
a living language, yet could only have evolved themselves,
subsequently to the fixing of its written character, out of the
short a; for an alphabet which lends itself to the subtlest
gradations of sound would assuredly not have neglected the
difference between a, e, and, if the sounds had been forth-
coming.[1] It is important here to observe, that in the oldest
Germanic dialect, namely, the Gothic, the sounds and
characters of the short e and o are also wanting, and that either
a, i, or u corresponds, in that dialect, to our German short e.
For example, faltha, “ich falte,” “I fold,” giba, “ich gebe,”
“I give.” In the Zend the Sanskrit DEV a remains usually as AVE a,
or has changed itself, according to certain [G. Ed. p. 4.]
rules, into AVE e. Thus, for example, before a concluding m
we always find ; compare the accusative puthre-m
“filium” with a putra-m; and its genitive wo
puthra-hé with ga putra-sya. In Greek the Sanskrit a
becomes a, e, or o, without presenting any certain rules for the
choice on each occasion between these three vowels; but the
prevailing practice is, that in the terminations of nominal
bases the Greek o answers to the Indian DEV a except in the
vocatives, where an e is substituted. In the Latin, besides
ǎ, é, and ŏ, u also is employed, in the terminations of nouns
of the second declension and of the first person plural, as also
in some adverbial suffixes, to replace the Sanskrit a.
4. As in the Greek the short Sanskrit a is oftener replaced
by e or o than by a short a, so the long DEV â is oftenerB 2
- ↑ Grimm, Vol. i. p. 594; with whom I entirely concur in this matter; having long abandoned a contrary opinion, which I maintained in 1819 in the Annals of Oriental Literature.
