A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c6.92

v1.c6.92

class of Sanskrit nouns which end with that vowel, has had the effect of producing a great number of words with consonantal endings in the modern languages; and, following Grimm's law, we should expect that Sanskrit words ending in ga, ja, da, ba, would have the consonants hardened to k, ch, t, p, respectively. The fact is, however, the reverse. Occasionally we find instances where this does take place, as in Marathi दाप for दाव, but these are not numerous. The cause of this appears to be that the final a was retained till very recent times. In poetry it is even now required to be pronounced, and in Bengali and Oriya, though not heard in ordinary rapid talking, directly a man speaks slowly and distinctly, the short final a, there changed to ŏ, becomes audible. Thus, it has happened that these letters have always been regarded as medials, and treated as such, with a tendency to weakening rather than strengthening. On the other hand, in those Sanskrit nouns which end in a consonant, it is generally only the nominative case to which the description applies; the other cases having vocalic case-endings lose the consonantal type, and in Prakrit (Var. iv. 6) we have the absolute rule that a final consonant is always elided. Thus, Skr. सरित “a river,” becomes in Old Hindi सरिता.