ON THE COMPOUND CONSONANTS.

Every consonant is supposed to have short a inherent in it, so that it is never necessary to write short a except at the beginning of a word. Hence, when any of the above simple consonants are seen standing alone in any word, short a must always be pronounced after them; but when they are written in conjunction with any other vowel, this vowel of course takes the place of short a. Thus, such a word as would be pronounced kalānatayā. The question then arises, how are we to know when consonants have to be pronounced together, without the intervention of any vowel; as, for instance, kl and nty in the word klāntyā? This occasions the necessity for compound consonants: kl and nty must then be combined together thus,,, and the word is written क्लान्या. And here we have illustrated the two methods of compounding consonants, viz. 1st, by writing them one above the other; 2dly, by placing them side by side, omitting in all, except the last, the perpendicular line which lies to the right. Almost all compound letters are in this way resolvable into their component parts. There are two, however, which are not so, viz. ksha and jna. The last is commonly pronounced gya, and may therefore be represented by these letters. The following compound letters, being of very frequent occurrence, and not always obviously resolvable into their parts, are given with a view to attract the first attention of the student. He may afterwards study the list in Prof. Wilson's Grammar.

kta, as in the word uktam; & rma, as in the word kurma. And here remark, that when r is the first letter of a compound consonant, it is written above in the form of a semicircle; when it is the last letter, it is written below in the form of a small stroke, askra in the word kramena. Again, shcha, as in tatashcha. Here remark, that sometimes changes its form to, when combined with another consonant. tra, as in tatra; chcha, as in anyachcha; e shta, as dya, as in a adya;ddha, as in gf buddhi; bhya, as in : tebhyah;tta, as in : suhrittamāh; vya, as in a vyādha; dwa, as in

in krishta;

tasya; sta; ♬ mya; dbha;

ncha;nda; nta.

dwūra; ♬ sya, as in

khya; nka; §nga;

PRONUNCIATION OF THE VOWELS.

The following English words, written in the Sanscrit character, will furnish the best clue to the pronunciation of the vowels.

66

" 66

"last"; i and ī as in

the first and last syllables of इन् वलीद, “ invalid "; u as in पुष्,
push "; ū as in "rude"; ri as in, “rill"; rī as in
रूद्,
शगृन्,
chagrin"; e as in "ere"; o as in "so"; ai as in,
in,
aisle"; au as ou in, "our"; ar and ār as in the words “in-
ward,” “regard."

Since short a is inherent in every consonant, the student should be careful to acquire the correct pronunciation of this letter. There are a few words in English which will afford examples of its sound, such as Roman, temperance, husbandman, tolerable. But in English this sound is often represented by u, 'as in fun, sun; or by o, as in done, son; or even by the other vowels; as by e in her, vernal; by i in bird, sir. The perfection of the Devanāgarī alphabet, as compared with the Roman, is at once apparent. Every vowel in Sanscrit has one invariable sound, and the beginner can never be in doubt what pronunciation to give it, as in English, or whether to pronounce it long or short, as in Latin.

PRONUNCIATION OF THE CONSONANTS.

The consonants are in general pronounced as in English. But g is always pronounced hard, as in give: th is not pronounced as in English, but is only aspirated, and, when rapidly enunciated, hardly distinguishable from t. The same remark applies to the other aspirated letters. The true sound of th is exemplified by the word anthill; so also ph, by uphill, which might be written 3. The cerebral class of consonants only differs from the dental in being pronounced with a duller and deeper sound. Each class of consonants has its own nasal; thus the sound ink would be written in Sanscrit ; the sound inch,; the word under अण्डर् ; the dental n would be written in the word country, pronounced as in Ireland; the sound imp would be written. So, also, three of the classes have sibilants peculiar to them. Thus the final sibilant of the word

word cha, must be written

tatas, when combined with the tatashcha; when combined with

ṭīkā, must be written tatashṭīkā; when combined with tam, must be retained tatastam. So also each of the letters, h, y, r, l, v, is plainly referrible to its particular class. Theh is pronounced from the throat, and therefore allied to the guttural class. They belongs to the palatal class, and in Bengali is always corrupted into j. The is allied to the cerebral letters and, and in Bengali these letters are often hardly distinguishable from r in sound. The is evidently a dental. The , although partly dental, belongs to the labial class; and is so allied to b, that, in Bengali, it is always pronounced like b, and, in Sanscrit, is often interchanged with it.

*

† It may here be remarked, that although the column of nasals in the Table of Consonants (p. 1) has reference to the sibilants, aspirate, and semi-vowels, as well as to the other consonants; yet the mark Anuswara (*) is the proper nasal of these letters, and must always take the place of any other nasal that may be combined with them in the same word. Thus the preposition and the participle, when united in one word, are written संस्मृत; सम् and हार, संहार; सम and राग, ; and so on. But in every one of these cases the Anuswāra takes the sound of the nasal of the class to which the following letter belongs. Thus is sounded as if written सन् स्मृत; संहार as if written सङ् हार; संलाप as if written सन् लाप. For the sake of brevity, however, the Anuswara is, in many books, written as the representative of the nasal of any letter, and not merely of the aspirate, semi-vowels, and sibilants.

* In Sanscrit, however, the letter is always pronounced either like v or w; like v when it stands by itself, or as the first member of a compound consonant, as inva, vyādha; like w, when it forms the last member of a compound dwāra.

consonant, as in

+ सम्राज्, “an universal monarch,” and सम्यक्, “properly,” are the only words which violate this rule.

CHAPTER II.

SECT. I.-COMBINATION AND PERMUTATION OF LETTERS.

WE are accustomed in Greek and Latin to certain euphonic changes of letters. Thus in, combined with rogo, becomes irrogo; rego makes, in the perfect, not regsi but reksi, contracted into rexi; veho becomes veksi or vexi; συν with γνώμη becomes συγγνώμη; ἐν with λάμπω, ἐλλάμπω. These laws for the combination of letters are applied very extensively throughout the Sanscrit language; and that, too, not only in combining two parts of one word, but in combining all the words in the same sentence. Thus the sentence "Rara avis in terris" would require, by the laws of combination (called, in Sanscrit, Sandhi) to be written thus, Rarāvir ins terrih; and would, moreover, be written without separating the words, Rarūvirinsterrih. The learner must not be discouraged if he is not able thoroughly to understand all the numerous laws of combination at first. He is recommended, after reading them over with attention, to pass at once to the declension of nouns and conjugation of verbs: for to oblige him to learn by heart a number of rules, the use of which is not fully seen till he comes to read and construct sentences, must only lead to a waste of time and labour.

CHANGES OF VOWELS.

1. Nevertheless, there are some changes of letters which come into immediate application in the formation and declension of nouns, and the conjugation of verbs; and amongst these, the changes of vowels called Guna and Vriddhi should be impressed on the memory of the student, before he takes a single step in the study of the Grammar. When the vowels i and i are changed to e, this is called the Guna change, or a change in quality; when i and i are changed to ai, this is called the Vriddhi change, or an increase. Similarly, u and u are often changed to their Guna o, and Vriddhi au; ri and rī to their Guna ar, and Vriddhi ār; and

a, though it have no corresponding Guna change, has a Vriddhi substitute in ā.

2. Let the Student, therefore, never forget the following rule, or he will be confused at every step. There is no Guna substitute for a, but a is the Vriddhi substitute for a; e is the Guna, and ai the Vriddhi substitute for i and i; o is the Guna, and au the Vriddhi substitute for u and u; ar is the Guna, and ār the Vriddhi substitute for ri and rī.

*

Again, let him never forget that y is the semi-vowel of ¿ and ī; v is the semi-vowel of u and ū; r is the semi-vowel of ri and rī. 3. Lastly let him bear in mind that the Guna dipthong e is supposed to be made up of a and i, and the Guna o, of a and u; so that a and i may often coalesce into e, and a and u into o. He will now understand the reason for the arrangement of vowels and semi-vowels given in the first Table. This Table is here repeated in the Roman character.

RULES FOR THE COMBINATION OF VOWELS.

4. If a word end with a or ā, when the next begins with a or ā, the two vowels are contracted into one long similar vowel. Thus na asti become nāsti.

A similar rule applies to the other vowels i, u, ri, short or long. Thus, adhi ishwara, adhishwara; kintu upāya, kintūpaya ; pitri riddhih (ff:), pitriddhih (fants:).

5. If a word end with a or ā, when the next begins with i, u, ri, short or long, then a and i coalesce into e; a and u into o;

* In the same way the Vriddhi diphthong ai is supposed to be made up of a or ā and e, and the Vriddhi au of a or a and o.