1 The breve ( " ) above the vowel indicates a short measure only, and the macron ( ~ ) long measure only; combined ( ~ ) they indicate a long OR short vowel. 2 Optionally, the basic vowel may be replaced by its hrasva equivalent, and the r retained, for example: maha + rsi =>■ maharsi or maharsi. Note: 1 does not occur as a word final, and neither r nor 1 as a word initial, but they are included in the table for completeness. One thing that the table does illustrate, is that resolving a given sandhi into its components is not at all straightforward: for example, while it is clear that -a + a- produces -a-, the grid cannot determine from -a- whether either (or both) of the original a's were long or not. 10. A. 4 Exceptions to Vowel Sandhi There are some exceptions, called pragrhya ('to be taken separately'), where sandhi rules do not operate. For external sandhi these are: a. Particles consisting of a single vowel, or ending in 3TT: these are usually interjections or exclamations, rather like the English 'Ah' and 'Oh'. b. The terminations of duals (whether nouns, pronouns, or verbs) ending in dlrgha % 3» or ^. c. Prolonged (pluta) vowels. 10. A. 5 Samprasarana Samprasarana is the process whereby an antahsthah is replaced by the simple vowel of the same mouth position (and the following vowel is elided). This is the complement to rule 4 in 10. A. 3. Examples of this are ij-ya derived from dhatu yaj, sup-ta from dhatu svap, uc-atha from dhatu vac, and prcch-ati from dhatu prach. A similar process occurs in English when a final 'y' is replaced by 'i' before adding another suffix, as for example, easy and easily, beauty and beautiful, holy and holiness.
