Open [38.8 MB] - Finnegans Wake Extensible Elucidation Treasury

2] NEW DISCOVERIES 91
these were not to be seen from Sanskrit itself. Where
though
Sanskrit a following the consonant corresponded
to Greek or
Latin o, Sanskrit had velar k or g ; where, on the other hand,
it corresponded to Greek or Latin e, Sanskrit had palatal c or j.
Thus we have, for instance, c in Sansk. ca, '
and ' = Greek te,
Lat. qiie, but k in kakSa = Lat. coxa; the difference between
the two consonants in a perfect like cakara, *
have done,'* is
dependent on the same vowel alternation as that of Greek
Uloipa; c in the verb pacati, 'cooks,' as against k in the substantive
pakat, '
cooking,' corresponds to the vowels in Greek
Ugei as against logos, etc. All this shows that Sanskrit itself
before the
must once have had the vowels e and o instead of a ;
front vowel e the consonant has then been fronted or palatalized,
as ch in E. chicken is due to the following front vowel, while
k has been preserved before o in cock. Sanskrit is thus shown
to be in some important respects less conservative than Greek,
a truth which was destined profoundly to modify many theories
concerning the whole family of languages. As Curtius said,
with some resentment of the change in view then taking place,
"
Sanskrit, once the oracle of the rising science and trusted
blindly, is now put on one side ; instead of the traditional ex
oriente lux the saying is now in oriente tenebroz " (K 97).
The new views held in regard to Aryan vowels also resulted
in a thorough revision of the theory of apophony (ablaut). The
great mass of Aryan vowel alternations were shown to form a
vast and singularly consistent system, the main features of which
may be gathered from the following tabulation of a few select
Greek examples, arranged into three columns, each representing
one '
grade '
:
i n m
(1) petomai p6te eptomai
(s)ekho (s)okhos eskhon
(2) leipo leloipa elipon
(3) peuthomai eputh6men
(4) derkomai dedorka edrakon
(5) teino (*tenjo) tonos tatos
It is outside our scope to show how this scheme gives us a
natural clue to the vowels in such verbs as E. I ride, II rode, HI
ridden (2), G. I werde, II icard, III geworden (4), or I binde, H band,
III gebunden (5). It will be seen from the Greek examples that
grade I is throughout characterized by the vowel e and grade
II by the vowel o ; as for grade III, the vowel of I and II has
entirely disappeared in (1), where there is no vowel between the