In those cases where व is the last member of a nexus, it is not heard, but has the effect merely of doubling the preceding letter: thus द्वार is to the B. and U. ddoâr,[1] pronounced with a dwelling on the d and a slight contraction of the lower lip, as though the speaker would, but could not, effect the contact required to produce the full v sound. Thus also अश्व is ashshoa, बालेश्वर is Balessoar.
These peculiarities may be thrown into a little table, thus:
| MARATHI, GUJARATI, SINDHI. | PANJABI. | HINDI. | BENGALI, ORIYA. | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| य | y | y and j | seldom used | j |
| ज | j or dz | j and y | j | seldom used |
| व | v, w | b and v | seldom used | b |
| ब | b | v and b | b | seldom used |
With regard to ल Bengali and Oṛiya again get into difficulties, often confounding this letter with न. Thus, at times they will write l and say n, and at others they will do the reverse. Examples of this confusion will be found in Chapter III.
र exhibits no peculiarities of utterance.
§ 24. The sibilants appear to have altered very much from Sanskrit. Panjabi gives itself no trouble on the subject, but abandons ष and श, and retains merely स for all sibilation. This language, however, is averse from this class of sounds, generally altering them into h.
Sindhi equally rejects ष, and श is used in the mercantile scrawls as an equivalent to स. In other writing it is, where it occurs, pronounced as s, though it is used in transliterating the Arabic sh ش. In Bengali and Eastern Hindi the same phenomena will be noticed.
- ↑ This little o at the top is meant to express a sort of half-heard fleeting labial tone, like a labial Sheva, if such a thing could be.
