A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c6.99

v1.c6.99

§ 57. In connexion with the palatals, however, there is another and, at first sight, less explainable tendency. In a considerable class of words they modulate into cerebrals or dentals, that is to say, into one or other of the departments of the lingual range of sounds. The instances of जामाता, H. दामाद, and घी = झी, have been mentioned above (§ 49). A more widespread example is afforded by a class of words meaning “to press,” “stamp,” and the like. The earliest type of this group is perhaps the Skr. root कप्, or कंप, which is said to mean “to go”; but after making all due allowances for the copiousness of Sanskrit, every third root in that language can hardly mean “to go,” though the lexicographers calmly assert that it is so. Perhaps this root is only a dialectic form of चप्, the causal of चि “to strike,” which would well enough agree with the modern meanings, “to stamp,” “press,” “tap,” etc., in this way that stamping would naturally be defined as the act of causing a seal or stamp to strike the paper or other article. This idea will not appear unreasonable or far-fetched to those who remember how constantly ideas which in European languages are expressed by simple verbs