Wilson Philological Lectures on Sanskrit and the Derived Languages c9.124

c9.124

It may be urged against one of the arguments I have used that if the ए and ओ in शेतास and गोतास are short, the first आ in हातास ‘to the hand,’ कानास ‘to the ear,’ &c., must also be short, and consequently these vowels must be changed to अ. But अ is not necessarily the short form of आ, or आ the long form of अ. For in pronouncing आ the lips and the upper and lower parts of the mouth are much more widely apart from each other than in pronouncing अ; so that the difference between the two is not simply of quantity but of quality also. The first आ of such words as हातास and मातला ‘maddened,’ is therefore short आ; that is, in pronouncing it the vocal organs are in the same condition as in pronouncing long आ, but the time occupied is shorter than in the case of the latter. The अ that we have got in Sanskrit is short, but in most of the vernaculars we have a long अ which takes longer time to pronounce than the Sanskrit अ, while the condition of the vocal organs is the same. The final अ of words is silent in the vernaculars, but at the same time the vowel of the preceding syllable is lengthened. Thus गुण ‘virtue’ is, as a Sanskrit word, pronounced gu-ṇa, but in Marâṭhî and Gujarâtî it is guṇ; and in Hindi guṇ; Sanskrit गुड gu-ḍa ‘molasses’ is in Marāṭhī gul; Sanskrit तिल ti-la ‘sesamum’ is in Marāṭhī and Gujarātī til and Hindī til. In the same way, the word रथ is in Sanskrit pronounced ra-tha, but when in vernacular pronunciation it becomes rath, the a is not the short अ, but अ pronounced long, as if the word were ra-ath without a pause between the two as. The long अ and the short are found side by side in such a word as मदन, which as pronounced in Sanskrit is madana with three consonants each followed by the Sanskrit or short अ. In the modern languages, however, the first syllable has its अ as in Sanskrit, but that of the second is lengthened, and in the last it is dropped, and the word thus becomes madaan.