PHONOLOGY 69 preserve the original sound. In other cases change has been more widespread. There are instances where the original IE sound is preserved only in one language, others in which the sound, which theory demands for the parent language, is pre- served nowhere at all. Even in these cases it is possible to fix the original sound with reasonable certainty. §2. The Sonant Aspirates The sonant aspirates which it is normally believed Indo- European possessed are preserved as a class by Sanskrit alone. Elsewhere they are changed in various ways ; in Iranian, Slavonic, etc., the aspiration is lost ; in Greek they are changed into the corresponding surd aspirates, in Latin (and the other Italic dialects) into fricatives. Examples of this series are as follows : bh : Skt. bhru - 4 brow Gk. oppvs, 0. SI. bruvi ; bhr&ta
- brother V Gk. <f>pdrr]p 'member of a phratry Lat . f rater,
O. SI. brairu , 0. Ir. brdthir ; bhdrati ' bears Av. baraiti, Gk. <f>epaj, Lat. fero, Arm. berem, O, SI. berg, Goth, baira , O. Ir. berim ; ndbhas ‘ cloud, sky Gk. vdpos, O. SI. nebo, Hitt.
- — ► nepis.
dh dhd~, dddhdti * to place Av. daSditi , Gk. Wflij/u, Lith. dcti ; dhumd - ‘ smoke 0. SI. dymu, Lat. fumus ; mddhu ‘ honey, mead Av. madu, Gk. fieOv, O. SI. medu, A.S. medu, O. Ir. mid ; vidhdva ( widow cf. Gk. rjldeos f young (unmar- ried) man O. SI. vtdova f widow Lat. vidua , O. Ir. fedb. gh : stigh- f to stride J , Gk. a tgixoj, Goth, steiga ; meghd - ' cloud cf. Gk. ofLix^V’ O. SI. migla , Alb. mjegule. In the case of the guttural series the sonant aspirates have undergone changes in Sanskrit in common with the other members of the series. These will be detailed below. Although the sonant aspirates are preserved in Indo-Aryan alone among the IE languages, there is. little doubt- that they should be attributed to the parent language, since no other type of phoneme can account so simply for the various develop- ments that appear. The theory, prevalent in some quarters, that in these cases we are dealing with a series of original IE fricatives, has nothing to recommend it. Although Sanskrit preserves the sonant aspirates as a class, it does not preserve them all unchanged. The special develop-
