CHAPTER III PHONOLOGY §i. Indo-European Consonant System The comparative study of the phonetic systems of the existing IE languages makes it possible to reconstruct, with a reasonable degree of certainty, the phonetics of the parent language* On this basis a systematic historical account of the Sanskrit phonetic system can be provided in which the various stages of development in the prehistoric period can be distinguished in respect of their relative chronology* Developments may be severally characterised as : (i) Changes in the Indo-European period ; (2) Changes common to Indo-Aryan and Iranian only ; (3) Changes peculiar to Indo-Aryan, which have occurred after its separation from Iranian. In sketching the phonetic development of Sanskrit we shall indicate, as far as possible to which of these three periods the various changes belong. The following reconstruction of the IE consonantal system has been generally adopted by comparative philologists ; Surd Sonant Surd Aspirate Sonant Aspirate Labio-velar k w h g* g w h Occlusives Velar k kh g gh (Stops, * Palatal k kh A g i h Plosives) Dental t ih d dh .Labial P ph b bh Nasals : m , n , y ; Liquids : l, r ; Semivowels : y, v Sibilants : 5, z ; Doubtful p: , d. The reconstructions are of two kinds. In the first and com- monest case the phoneme postulated for Indo-European occurs in a number of the existing languages in which it has continued unchanged ; in the second and rarer case the phoneme assumed for Indo-European is nowhere preserved as such, but it is deduced by comparison of the forms derived from it. Naturally 67
