A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c5.12

v1.c5.12

The above remarks will have prepared the reader for the assertion that the modern Aryan vowel-system is practically identical with that of Sanskrit. There is little more to be done, in fact, than to note the few and unimportant changes which have taken place, and these are rather individual instances than examples of any generally operating laws. Certain peculiarities occur in this or that language, and the tooth of time has gnawed here and there at unprotected vowels, but little more than this can be said. The Prakrits have mostly wandered further from the Sanskrit type than the languages of to-day, because these latter, always conscious of the existence of Sanskrit and of its position as the parent and type of their speech, have in more recent times frequently had recourse to their common ancestor, and have corrupted the words resuscitated from it in a way peculiar to themselves, and often less violent than that adopted by the various forms of Prakrit.