MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

12_ PHONETIC INTRODUCTION [11-12was descended from an Indo-Iranian one in which rhotacismhad removed every1 ;but that there must have been anotherVedic dialect in which IE. r and 1 were kept distinct, anda third in which IE. r became 1throughout ;from thelatter two 1 must have found its way into the literarylanguage to an increasing extent. In the oldest parts of theRV. there are no verbal forms preserving IE. 1, and only a fewnouns :(u)loka m. free space, sloka m. call, and -misla mixed.a. In the later Samhitas 1occasionally occurs both medially andfinally for d ;e. g. ile (VS. Kanva) = ide (RV, ile) ;bal iti (AV.), of.RV. bal ittha. In a good many words 1 is probably of foreign origin.12. The sibilants are all voiceless, but there are varioustraces of the earlier existence of voiced sibilants (cp. 7 a 3 ;8 ; 15, 2 A:).There is a considerable interchange betweenthe sibilants,chiefly as a result of assimilation.a. The palatal sibilant s represents an IE. palatal (muteor spirant). Besides being the regular substitute for dental sin external Sand hi before voiceless palatals (e. g.indras ca),it occasionally rej^resents that sibilant within words byassimilation ;e. g. svasura (Lat. socer) father- in-Um ;sasa(IE. Tiaso)m. hare. Sometimes this substitution takes place,without assimilation, under the influence of allied words, asin k6sa m. hair beside k^sara (Lat. caesarks). It is also tosome extent confused with the other two sibilants in theSamhitas, but here itinterchanges much oftener with sthan with s. Before s the palatal s becomes k, regularlywhen medial, sometimes when final ;e. g.drk-s-a-se 2. s. aor.subj. mid., and -drk[sj nom. s.from drs see.h. The cerebral s is, like the cerebral mutes, altogethersecondary, always representing either an original palatal oran original dental sibilant. Medially it represents thepalatals s {= I-Ir. s) and j (=: I-Ir. z) and the combination ksbefore the cerebral tenues t th (themselves produced fromdental tonnes by this s) ;e. g.nas-ta from nas he lost ;mrs-ta 3. s.impf., from mrj ioi])e ;tas-ta from taks liew.