1896.] G. A. Grierson—On the Kagmiri Vowel-System. 289 
The letter @ is often modified to @, the sound of which may be 
represented by the German 6. It is, however, a prolonged sound, 
drawled out, so to speak, and there is a touch of the sound of 4 in the 
English word hall in it, so that 6 is not a perfectly correct’ representa- 
tion, though the nearest available. Another way of considering the 
sound is to say that itis something between that of the ea of earl, and 
the aw of awl. The sound is a very peculiar one, and can really only 
be learned by the ear. 
The following are examples of this letter, which is Sou amy 
derived from a long a followed by an original ¢ or ry: E. g. Te ds is 
oe ae from the Skr. asyam, through me 
Uia pats, five. qq wakh, (w5kh) arvinglet (fem.) 
wie, lakh, (pr. l6kh) astride (fem. ) SE ds, (6s) a mouth (masc. ) 
qig_wétsh, (pr. wétsh) deceiv- IT Gr, (r) akind of fruit (mase.) 
us (fem.) Pl. SIX ar). 
wig lgtsh, (pr. létsh) a eunuch RST kraj, (kro7) a potter’s wife, 
(masc.) Nee Bntedend) 8 - (fem. of mie Kral). 
When @ is followed by 2- -mitra or by u-matra it always becomes 
modified tod. As usual the t-matra@ is very slightly heard both before 
and after the succeeding consonant. The #-md@tra is, to my ears, not 
audible, though the preceding consonant is somewhat more strongly 
pronounced, which I represent by doubling it. 
When @ is followed by u-mdatra it is pronounced 6, and is so written. 
Thus take the verb ¥Iwa tsdrun, to sort, arrange. The root is SIt tsar. 
The past tense masculine singular is formed by adding u-matra to the 
root, and is therefore ST" tsdr*. The feminine singular past is however, 
formed by adding @-maira, and ine original @ is therefore not changed 
to 6, but is modified to dg, thus qT tsar*. Sothe masculine plural is 
aIft tsar. The feminine plural, however, i is formed by adding y* which 
does not modify the preceding @, and we have aTe tsary% (1.e., tsaré, see 
page 304). So also the pees mTa kran-, a relation, has its nom. se. HTT 
kron“, and its nom. pl. aif kran‘. Its dative plural is however, Waa 
kranyan in which the original base %iT# kra@n- is retained, without modify- 
ing the @ to @ or changing it to 0, because it is followed by ya, and 
not by i-mdatra, u-matra, or a-matra. This point is important. It 
explains many difficulties in Kacmiri declension and conjugation, and, 
so far as-I know, attention has not previously been drawn to it. In 
dictionaries, the nom. form aa kron” is given, but it would be better to. 
give the-declensional base ATT kran-, which is the original word. Note, 
however, that @ is the only vowel which is modified not only by 7-maiéra, 
but even: by a fully pronounced 7 when following it. Thus the dat. 
