A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c6.52

v1.c6.52

The confusion arising in Prakrit from this constant elision is extraordinary; thus, *vaaṇa* stands for *vachana*, *vadana*, *vapana*; *vaa* for *pada*, *vayas*, and *Vraja*; *râi* for *râji*, *râtri*; *raa* for *raya*, rajas, rata; and the accumulation of vowels with no intervening consonant is in striking contrast to the Sanskrit, which tolerates no hiatus. Juaïjana जुआइअण = yuvatijana, उआइआरअ uaâraa = upakâraka, uaa = udaka, aïrahaa = abhirataka, aïujjua = atyrijuka; so that we seem to be listening to some Maori or other Polynesian dialect, rather than to anything Aryan; and I cannot bring myself to believe that the people of India at any stage of their history ever spoke such a form of speech as this.