A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v1.c7.87

v1.c7.87

The other languages offer only faint indications of similarity. P. has *सैंची*, B. *सांईत्रीश*, O. *संइतिरिंश*, but none of the others. I think it has arisen from a sort of rhyming propensity sometimes observable in Hindi. From *ते* or *तै* the transition to *तैं* was easy, the insertion of the nasal in season and out of season being a weakness of that language. In the word for “thirty-five” they had at first *panchatriṅśat*, which soon got altered into *panchtis*; but here they had a strong nexus, *च + त*. The *च* therefore dropped out, and the resulting double *त* was reduced to a single, and the preceding vowel compensatorily lengthened, so that the form *पांतीस* arose; to make which rhyme with the word for “thirty-three” would be irresistible. So also the “thirty-seven,” which was probably *सात्तीस*, was dragged into the scheme, and became *सैंतीस*.