A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c7.112

v1.c7.112

In Marathi may be found very many exemplifications of the same process; thus, in words compounded with सम्: सांकड, सांगड, सांच, सांड, सांध, सांपडणें, सांप्रदाय, सांबर, for Skr. सङ्कट, सङ्घट्ट, सञ्चय, षण्ड, सन्धि, सम्पादन, सम्प्रदाय, and शम्बर; in all of which the change from the organic nasal to the anuswâra is accompanied by a compensatory long vowel. It cannot be said that we have here an instance of the Prakrit tendency to preserve the original quantity of the Sanskrit syllable. It is true that in Prakrit the syllable might have its vowel lengthened, and probably would have, if to the ears of those who spoke Prakrit it should appear that the removal of one of two consonants following a vowel was likely to render the syllable a short one, seeing that having a short vowel it had previously been long only by position. But this is not the case here, as is evident from the fact that Prakrit does not lengthen the vowel, but keeps it short, as in चंद्र, कंपण; and, moreover, the modern languages are not sensitive about keeping the exact quantity of Sanskrit words, as has been shown in Chap. II., § 40.