Page:Vedic Grammar.djvu/37

I. PHONOLOGY. PALATALS. from ji- 'conquer'; y) in the pronominal forms kis, kím, kīm, kiyat, kívant-, kīdṛs, beside the enclitic cid, because owing to the influence of the frequent forms ká-s, ká-d, etc., k appeared to be characteristic of the interrogative pronoun ¹. 2. in the final of roots in which guttural forms predominate, before they of the optative and the gerund; thus dagh-yas, from dagh- 'reach'; sak-yam, from sak- 'be able'; sagh-yasam (TS.), from sagh- 'be equal to'. It also appears very often before the suffixes -i, -i, -in, -ya forming derivatives from nouns the last consonant of which is a guttural: e. g. pláyogi- 'descendant of Playoga'; vrk-í- 'she-wolf' (vrka-); śāk-in- 'powerful' (saká-); śrng-in- 'horned' (śrnga-); upa-vak-yà- 'to be praised' (beside upavácya-) from upavāká- 'praise'. Similarly drágh-iyas- 'longer', drágh-istha- 'longest' (beside dirghá- 'long', dragh-mán- ‘length'); sphig-í- 'buttock', with g from the nom. sphik of sphij-, which occurs in the post-Vedic language only. 3. in a certain number of abnormal words, almost invariably at the beginning: a) words which may be suspected of foreign origin owing to meaning or phonetic form: kimśuká-, kiyambu- plant names; kimīdin-, kíkaṭa-, kirāta- (VS.), śva-kişkin- (AV.) names of foreigners or demons; kija- a kind of utensil; kilbişa- 'guilt' (contains the rare letter b), kistá- 'singer' (st instead of st); f) onomatopoetic words: kikidīví- 'blue jay'; kikirá-kr- 'tear to tatters'; kikkitá (TS.) an interjection; 7) some words of doubtful origin: kikasa- 'vertebra'; kīnára- 'ploughman' (?); kīnáša- ‘ploughman'; kilála-'sweet draught'; kirmirá- (VS.) 'variegated'; kiśorá- (AV.) ‘foal'; kiśmīla- (AV. Paipp.) a kind of disease. 37. New palatals as radical initials.-a. Before a, a, and diphthongs, both palatals and gutturals are very frequent in Vedic and Iranian. Comparative grammar shows that the palatals occur before a vowel or diphthong representing IE. è e or a diphthong beginning with e e²; but gutturals before IE. a o or sonant nasal. According to this evidence the palatal has come into being in the following words: ca 'and'; cakrá- 'wheel'; catváras 'four'; caramá- 'last'; cari pot'; cáru- ‘agreeable'; páñca 'five'; jathára- ‘belly'; jánī, jāni- 'woman'; jāmi- ‘akin'; háras- 'flame'. 27 On the other hand, the original guttural has remained in kakud- 'peak'; káksa- 'armpit'; kārú- 'poet'; kéta- 'will'; gáus 'cow'; gharmá- 'hot'; ghorá- 'terrible'; and in the roots käs- (AV.) 'cough'; gadh- 'clasp'; ga- 'go'; gah- 'plunge'; gai- 'sing'³. b. Among the roots with ů ř ! as low grade vowels, the only one in which the regular phonetic interchange of palatal and guttural takes place, is jar-:gr- 'call'; g appearing before r ir ar (— IE. õr), j before ar (— IE. ĕr) preceding the thematic -a- of the present or the suffix -tr-; thus gr-náti, gír-, -gará- (VS.), beside járate, jarádhyai, jarity-. In other roots either the guttural or the palatal appears throughout; mostly the guttural, because the forms with ř! and o ar al (= IE. ou or ol), which required the guttural, were more numerous than those with o ar al (= IE. čụ ěr el); thus from kr- 'do', ákar aor. 'has done', kartý- ‘agenť, kárman- 'action', retain the guttural, though the palatal would be phonetic (as ar here IE. er), through the influence of forms with kr- and of kárana- 'deed' (where ar = IE. or). u ¹ Cp. WACKERNAGEL I, 128 a (p. 150, bottom). 2 Cp. Italian and the Balto-Slavic languages which palatalize before e as well as i. — 3 In the IE. vowel gradation of these roots only å and appear. In other roots in the IE. vowel gradation of which è is found, an initial palatal would be expected