A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c7.3.5

v1.c7.3.5

and from the example of the Bhâgavatî, we may conjecture that when more texts come to light, they will confirm what is now only a suspicion, that in the two leading points of hiatus and assimilation the real spoken languages of those times did not go so far as the literature would make us believe. The hiatus caused by the elision of single consonants is an attempt to reduce the labour of speaking, and quite parallel to it is the process of assimilation, which will now be explained, both processes being exemplifications of the fact that as a rule modern articulation is simpler and less harsh than ancient, and that especially in the case of consonants, whether compound or single, there is a tendency to reduce their number and simplify their enunciation.