A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.199

v2.c12.199

There is not much uniformity in this list. Sanskrit oxytones end in the short vowel in Hindi and the rest; and the one barytone is in P. S. M. and G. terminated by the long vowel, though the others keep the short vowel. Under the head of nouns in क will be found an attempt to explain a good deal of this discrepancy. My method of reasoning does not admit of the usual slipshod way of accounting for the difficulty by setting it down to “caprice” or “lawless licence.” There is a reason for everything in this world, if we can only find it out; and if we cannot find it out, it is only honest to say so, and not to try and cover our ignorance by saying there is no law. Some words of wide daily use have all sorts of forms; if we knew more about the subject, we should be able to give a reason for all of them: perhaps some day we or our descendants may be able to do so. For instance, the word चक्र (oxytone) “a wheel,” has the following long list of forms in modern times.