Chapter:  [ Contents | 1. Alphabet | 2. Sandhi | 3. Assimilation | 4. Strengthening | 5. Declension | 6. Feminine | 7. Adjectives | 8. Numerals | 9. Pronouns | 10.1 Verbs | 10.2 Verbs | 10.3 Verbs | 11. Indeclinables | 12. Compounds | 13. Derivation | 14. Syntax | 15. Prosody ]

A Practical Grammar of the Paali Language
Chapter 4

(A) STRENGTHENING PROCESS

103. Strengthening is the process of changing a vowel sound into another vowel sound.

104. The vowels which undergo strengthening are: a, i, ii, u and uu.

105. Thus: a being strengthened, becomes aa.

ibeing strengthened, becomese
iibeing strengthened, becomese
ubeing strengthened, becomeso
uubeing strengthened, becomeso

106. The result thus obtained is also called gu.na (quality).

107. Therefore, the gu.na of a is aa, that of i and ii is e, that of u and uu is o.

108. Further, as we already know (by rules 27(i)a, 27(ii)b), final e and o when followed by a vowel may be changed into their semi-vowel + that vowel.

109. The following table of these very useful changes should be borne in mind.

Simple vowelStrengthening or gu"naVowel and semi-vowel
aaanone
i, iieay
u, uuoav

110. Strengthening occurs frequently in the formation of verbal bases, of Verbals (See chapter on Verbs) and in the derivation of words under the influence of certain suffixes.

Remarks. In the derivation of Primary and Secondary Nouns (see Derivation), it will simplify matters to assume at once that:

i or ii+ a =aya
u or uu+ a =ava.
e+ a =aya
o+ a =ava


(B) METATHESIS

111. Examples of metathesis have already (78) been given.

112. Metathesis is the transposition of letters or of syllables in a word; the following are further instances of this transposition:

(i)pariyudaahaasibecomespayirudaahaasi.
(ii)ariyabecomesayira.
(iii)kariyaabecomeskayiraa.
(iv)masakabecomesmakasa.
(v)rasmibecomesra.msi.
(vi)na abhineyyabecomesanabhineyya.
(vii)cilimikaabecomescimilikaa.

(C) EPENTHESIS

113. Epenthesis is the insertion of a letter in the middle of a word.

114. Epenthesis is resorted to mostly to avoid a hiatus of the collocation of consonants of different organs:

Examples
(i)klesabecomeskilesa.
(ii)aacaaryabecomesaacaariya.
(iii)tia"ngulabecomestiva"ngula.
(iv)hyobecomeshiiyo or hiyyo.
(v)barhisabecomesbarihisa.
(vi)hradabecomesharada.
(vii)arhatibecomesarahati.
(viii)sriibecomesSirii.
(ix)hriibecomeshirii.
(x)plavatibecomespilavati.

(D) DROPPING OF SYLLABLES

115. Sometimes, for the sake of the metre, or to facilitate pronunciation, whole syllables are dropped:

(i)abhi~n~naaya sacchikatvaabecomesabhi~n~naa sacchikatvaa.
(ii)jambudiipa.mavekkhanto addasabecomesjambudiipa.m avekkhanto adda.
(iii)dasasahassiibecomesdasahassi.
(iv)chada"ngulabecomescha"ngula


(Original file downloaded from www.tipitaka.net/pali/grammar/. Tabulation follows the pdf file located at www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/paligram.pdf .)