A Practical Grammar of the PŒli 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, ´, u and è.

105. Thus: a being strengthened, becomes Œ.
i being strengthened, becomes e.
´ being strengthened, becomes e.
u being strengthened, becomes o.
è being strengthened, becomes o.

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

107. Therefore, the guöa of a is Œ, that of i and ´ is e, that of u and è 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.

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 ´ + a = aya.
u or è + 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) pariyudŒhŒsi becomes payirudŒhŒsi.
(ii) ariya becomes ayira.
(iii) kariyŒ becomes kayirŒ.
(iv) masaka becomes makasa.
(v) rasmi becomes raµsi.
(vi) na abhineyya becomes anabhineyya.
(vii) cilimikŒ becomes cimilikŒ.

(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) klesa becomes kilesa.
(ii) ŒcŒrya becomes ŒcŒriya.
(iii) tiaºgula becomes tivaºgula.
(iv) hyo becomes h´yo or hiyyo.
(v) barhisa becomes barihisa.
(vi) hrada becomes harada.
(vii) arhati becomes arahati.
(viii) sr´ becomes Sir´.
(ix) hr´ becomes hir´.
(x) plavati becomes pilavati.

(d) Dropping of Syllables

115. Sometimes, for the sake of the metre, or to facilitate pronunciation, whole syllables are dropped:
(i) abhi––Œya sacchikatvŒ, becomes, abhi––Œ sacchikatvŒ.
(ii) jambud´paµ avekkhanto addasa, becomes, jambud´paµ avekkhanto adda.
(iii) dasasahass´, becomes, dasahassi.
(iv) chadaºgula, becomes, chaºgula.