MacDonnell II - Wilbourhall.org

23-25] ABSENCE OF VOWEL SANDHI 25h. The preposition pra (in the EV.)praisayur = pra isayui*.with initial i inc. The augment a with the initial vowels i, u, r ;' e. g.aichas 2. s. imj^f. of is wish ;aunat 3. s.impf. of ud tvet ;arta 3, s. aor. of r go.Absence of Vowel Sandhi.24. The particle u is unchangeable- in pronunciationbefore vowels, though as a rule written as v after a consonant;' e. g. bha u amsave, but av6d v indra. When itcombines with the final a of a particle to o, in 6 = au, atho = atha u, uto = uta u, mo = ma u, it remainsunchanged even in the written text ; e, g. atho indraya.25. a. The i and u of the dual (nom. ace.) never changeto y and v. This dual i is never to be pronounced short,but the u sometimes is ;e. g. hari (v^ -) rtasya, but sadhu(- w) asmai. This imay remain before i, as in hari iva,but in several instances the contraction is written, as inr6dasim6 = rodasi im6, while in several others, thoughnot written, it must be pronounced.h. The rare locatives singular in i and u are also regularlywritten unchanged in the EV.,'' but they seem always to betreated as prosodically short.c. The i of the nom. plur. m. (of the pronoun asau) amiis always given as unchangeable in the Pada text (ami iti),but it never happens to occur before a vowel in the EV.*This is perhaps a survival of a prehistoric contraction of a (theoriginal form of the augment) witli i, u, r to ai, au, ar.^The term applied by the native phoneticians to uncliangeablevowels is pragrhya separated. Such vowels are indicated in the Padatext by an appended iti. u is always there written in its lengthenedand nasalized form as iim iti.2 It is occasionally written unchanged in its lengthened form evenafter a consonant, as tdm vi akrnvan.*Except vedy asyam, to be pronounced vedi asyam.