A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c5.56

v1.c5.56

We have traces of this process in Prakrit, though Vararuchi (i. 5), as usual, merely states the fact without attempting to give a reason for it. His examples are *sejjá*, *sunderam*, *ukkero*, *teraho*, *achchheram*, *perantam*, *velli*, for Skr. *śayyâ*, *saundarya*, *utkara* (?), *trayodaśa*, *āścharya*, *paryanta*, *valli*. Some of these words occur again in iii. 18, where he states that the *y*, as the last member of a weak nexus, is lost, showing how far he was from grasping the real facts of the case. In the first two examples of the latter passage *túram*, *dhiram*, for *túrya*, *dhairya*, there is no trace of the influence of the rejected *y* on the vowel of the preceding syllable, because in the first case the preceding vowel is *ú*, which will not in the Indian languages amalgamate with, or yield to, the *i*, and in the second case if there were no *y*, if the word were *dhairam*, it would become in Prakrit *dheram*; the influence of the *y* in *dhairyam* is shown in retaining the long *i* in the Prakrit *dhiram*.