100 PHONOLOGY placed by $, e.g. sat 'six' (*sats<*sats) and vird-s&t 'over- coming men', it is likely that suska-, etc., are the result of secondary dissimilation of an intermediate *suska-. This rule does not apply where the system of related forms is strong enough to prevent it, e.g. vdsu-, vdstyas vdsistha-, though even here isolated forms with s are handed dow r n. In Vedic ksumdnt — Av. fsumant - (:pasu-) we have an isolated example of a change w 7 hich has parallels in Iranian (cf. Khot. ksdrma- ‘ shame ’ —fiar^ma-}. More or less isolated cases of the reduction of three consonant groups in Sanskrit appear in stdna - ‘ breast ’ : Av. fit ana-, Pers. fiistdn Toch. B pescane ; hr add- 4 lake ' : cf. Av. yzrdd- to flow 7 ; and tvdstar- ' n. of the divine architect ' = Av. Ow dr 9 star-. From the Indo-European period there was a certain instab- ility about r, v, y as the second members of initial consonant groups. This accounts for equations like Skt. hhanj - * to break Ir. bongaim, Skt. bhuj- ' to enjoy Lat. fungor on the one hand and Lat. frango, fruor on the other. Similarly in the case of v Skt. sas, Lat. sex, etc., are opposed Av. xsvas, etc., and Skt'. ksip- 4 throw- ' to Av. xsvaew-, §19. Final Consonants In final position consonants and consonant groups receive in many respects special treatment. This was true also in the pre- historic period ; for instance the aspiration in nom. sg. °dhuk as opposed to its absence in aduksata is due to the fact that at an early period the combination gh 4- s became -ki in final position, whereas intervocalically it became gzh. But the tendency to special development in final position has become much stronger by the historical period, and its features anticipate in some re- spects the later Prakritic developments of Indo-Aryan. Of the occlusives only the unvoiced series p , /, t, k are allowed to stand in absolutely final position, and in their place the corresponding voiced series b, d, d , g are substituted before voiced consonants and vow r els. The sonantisation before initial vowel is a special characteristic of Sanskrit, and it anticipates the voicing of all intervocalic surds in later times. Consonant groups were drastically reduced during the period immediately preceding the historical record, and in this respect Vedic contrasts remarkably with early Iranian. Here too the
