A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c5.4

v1.c5.4

(1.) As contrasted with Greek, Latin, Gothic, and other early languages of its own family, Sanskrit is remarkable for its preference for the *a* sound. Thus, Skr. *saptan* = *hepta*, *septem*, *sibun*, *septyni*, etc.; Skr. *agni* = *ignis*, *ugnis*, *ognĭ*, *anhus*; Skr. *aham* = *ego*, *ik*; Skr. *antar* = *inter*, *undar*, *indir*, *entos*; and many others. The same principle runs through the whole of the inflectional system of the language. This assertion may not appear at first sight correct, but it must be remembered that in the case of nouns ending in *as*, *ā*, *am*, the whole of the terminations, except four or five, have *a* or *ā* for their principal vowel, and that this class of nouns constitutes a very large majority of those actually in use. The pronouns also exhibit a great preponderance of *a* terminations, and in the verbs the endings of the conjugational tenses, especially in the Bhû class, which embraces nine-tenths of the verbs in the language, display the same tendency.