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Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books
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| 0183 |
Results of a Scientific Mission to India and High Asia : vol.3 |
Citation Information
OCR Text
"a", "u", and "i" are considered in Sanskrit the three fundamental vowels,
which can be short or long;
"o" and "e" are intermediate vowels. They are formed originally of the two
others, viz. "o" from "a" and "u," "e" from "a" and "i" (as still in some of the
modern Romanic languages, e. g. "j'aurai" in French); in Sanskrit they are always
long vowels, but phonetically they are as little diphthongs as in the French example
here quoted.¹
The mixed vowels "ö" and "ü" are formed by the lips being in the position of
"o" and "u", and the tongue in that of "e" and "i"; "a" and "ä" are but collateral
sounds of "a." Being simple sounds, they all can occur either short or long. In
Hindostáni (as in Sanskrit) mixed sounds are not to be found; "a" and "ä" may oc-
casionally be met with, but chiefly in foreign words or in local dialectic modifications.
In Tibetan we often heard mixed vowels, particularly the "ü;" though this is
not received in the Tibetan alphabet, we reproduced it by the European letter "ü"
where we had heard it pronounced so.
Vowels of imperfect formation.
Such vowels presented themselves in most of the languages we had to transcribe;²
we used for them the sign ˘, chiefly combined with "a" and "e".
Phonetically every vowel³ may occur imperfectly formed, but in Hindostáni the
imperfect vowel is generally an "ă," being originally a short "a" in Sanskrit, to which
in many cases we can actually trace it back. The sign of imperfect formation makes
"ă" and "ĕ" similar to the open "u" in "but" or "e" in "herd." In the native spelling
these vowels are not in general written separately; it is, however, in many cases dif-
ficult to decide, whether the pronunciation of such words gives a very short but
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