A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India v2.c12.62

v2.c12.62

Instances might be multiplied to a large extent, but the above will suffice to show that the rule holds good in a vast majority of instances, Sindhi having uniformly u, the other languages a, though Gujarati now and then retains u. This final short a is not pronounced at all in Hindi, Panjabi, Marathi, or Gujarati, and very slightly in Bengali and Oriya. We hear jâl, tân, tel, dánt, and so on, not jâla; words of this class may, for practical purposes, be regarded as ending in consonants, except in M. and G., where it is necessary, as will be shown hereafter, to bear in mind the existence of the final mute a, in order to effect the necessary changes of the base in the oblique cases of the singular.