A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c6.22

v1.c6.22

§ 51. (1.) Proceeding then to the first class in which a single letter is retained unaltered, we find that च is the most tenacious of all the tenues. We find पचनं, रचनं, वचनं, मोचनं, सोचनं, याचनं, सेचनं, रुचि, in the modern languages, though in Prakrit they all lose the च. Thus, *raāṇam* appears for *rachanam*, though it also represents *radanam*, or even *ratna*. The confusion introduced into Prakrit by this omission of consonants renders it very difficult to believe that these dialects were ever really spoken languages.