a. The Paninean scheme reckons r as a lingual. None of the Prātiçākhyas, however, does so; nor are they entirely consistent with one another in its description. For the most part, they define it as made at “the roots of the teeth”. This would give it a position like that of the vibrated r; but no authority hints at a vibration as belonging to it.
b. In point of frequency, r stands very high on the list of consonants; it is nearly equal with v, n, m, and y, and only exceeded by t.
53. The ल् l is a sound of dental position, and is so defined and classed by all the native authorities.
a. The peculiar character of an l-sound, as involving expulsion at the side of the tongue along with contact at its tip, is not noticed by any Hindu phonetist.
b. The semivowels r and l are very widely interchangeable in Sanskrit, both in roots and in suffixes, and even in prefixes: there are few roots containing a l which do not show also forms with r; words written with the one letter are found in other texts, or in other parts of the same text, written with the other. In the later periods of the language they are more separated, and the l becomes decidedly more frequent, though always much rarer than the r (only as 1 to 7 or 8 or 10).
54. Some of the Vedic texts have another l-sound, written with a slightly different character (it is given at the end of the alphabet, 5), which is substituted for a lingual ḍ (as also the same followed by h for a ḍh) when occurring between two vowels. It is, then, doubtless a lingual l, one made by breach (at the side of the tongue) of the lingual instead of the dental mute-closure.
a. Examples are ईळे īḻe, for ईडे īḍe, but ईड्य īḍya; मीळ्हुषे mīlhuṣe, for मीढुषे mīḍhuṣe, but मीढ्वान् mīḍhvān. It is especially in the Rig-Veda and its auxiliary literature that this substitution is usual.
55. The य् y in Sanskrit, as in other languages generally, stands in the closest relationship with the vowel इ i (short or long); the two exchange with one another in cases innumerable.
a. And in the Veda (as the metre shows) an i is very often to be read where, in conformity with the rules of the later Sanskrit euphony, a y is written. Thus the final i-vowel of a word remains i before an initial vowel; that of a stem maintains itself unchanged before an ending; and an ending of derivation — as ya, tya — has i instead of y. Such cases will be noticed in more detail later. The constancy of the phenomenon in certain words and classes of words shows that this was no merely optional interchange. Very probably, the Sanskrit y had everywhere more of an i-character than belongs to the corresponding European sound.
