Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c6.17

Language: English

c6.17.1

Phonetic decay or corruption is a process that is constantly going on in a living language. At some stages of its history it is very rapid and at others slow. It sometimes wholly transforms words. Its causes are deeply ingrained in human nature itself. Language is not the end and aim of human life; it is simply an instrument of communicating thought, and the matter of thought is always more important than the expression. The utterance of a word implies an effort. We have to force the breath through the windpipe, check or compress it at different points in its passage through the mouth, and then let it off. The glottis or the opening of the windpipe, and the tongue and the various parts of the mouth are our organs of speech, and an innumerable variety of sounds may be produced by their means. In pronouncing certain letters the glottis must be stretched or expanded, while in the case of others it is contracted, which is its more natural condition. The breath which comes out when it is expanded is called *s'vâsa* or simple unintonated breath by the old Indian Philologists, but when the glottis is contracted and the breath is intonated by the vibration of the vocal chords, it becomes what is called *nâda*, *i. e.*, tone or intonated breath. Simple breath is the material cause of the hard consonants, and the intonated breath of the soft, and of the vowels.

c6.17.2

When *nâda* is forced out and allowed to pass away without being obstructed we pronounce vowels, and when both *s'vâsa* and *nâda* are obstructed at different parts of the mouth, the sounds that are formed are consonantal. Hence a consonant cannot be pronounced by itself; it is only when the touching organs are separated and the air allowed to pass through any one of the vowel positions, that the sound is produced. When the intonated breath is let off through the rounded lips, it forms उ, and with the lower lip a little further off, ओ; while if the lips completely touch each other, and the breath is thus obstructed in its passage, we have प which, with a greater force of respiration becomes फ, and when it is partly sent into the nose, it assumes the form of म. If the *s'vâsa* is in the same condition as *nâda* when it forms प and फ we have प and फ. When these two kinds of breath are shut up by the tip of the tongue forming a complete contact with the root of the upper teeth, we have त, थ, द, ध, and न. When the contact is effected higher up and the forepart of the tongue is made into a curve, we have ट, ठ, ड, ढ, and ण. If the middle of the tongue is brought near the palate, *nâda* passing through the intervening space forms the vowel इ; and when the tongue is a little further off and the mouth more open, we have ए; while if there is complete contact, the two kinds of breath give us च, छ, ज, झ, and ञ as before.

c6.17.3

When the root of the tongue touches the lower skirt of the palate, we have similarly क, ख, ग, घ, and ङ. If the intonated breath is allowed to pass away when the mouth is in its natural position with the lips open we have the vowel अ, and with greater force of breath, the aspirate ह. The vowel portion of ऋ and ऌ differs from अ in the whole lower part of the mouth being brought closer to the upper in pronouncing it, while in pronouncing आ the two parts of the mouth are more widely apart; so that the vowel sound involved in ऋ is the closest, आ, the most open. The diphthongs ऐ and औ are अ+इ and अ+उ pronounced hastily. In pronouncing the semi-vowels the organs are brought very close to each other, but do not form a complete contact; so that the breath is compressed and not shut up. Still, like the mutes, they cannot be pronounced without separating the organs. We pronounce व when we bring the two lips and the ends of the upper teeth into close proximity, and it thus corresponds to the vowel उ; for य the position is the same as that for इ, the proximity only being greater; while ल is formed a little above the dental position by emitting the breath by the sides of the tip of the tongue, and र a little below the cerebral.

c6.17.4

The sibilants श, ष, and स are continuous sounds made by letting off the śvāsa or simple breath with the same force as in the case of the hard aspirates and through the space between the middle of the tongue and the palatal, cerebral, and dental or dento-palatal positions brought as near to each other as in pronouncing vowels.