Professor Buhler on the Sanskrit Linguals, JL35 



Hsjb alone which has lost the true dentals : the same remark 

 applies to many of the so-called Low-German, or more cor- 

 rectly Saxon, dialects of the north of Germany, its nearest 

 relations. It might therefore be conjectured, that the change 

 of the dentals had already begun before the Saxon emigra- 

 tion to England took place. However this may have been, 

 it is certain that the English language at present possesses 

 linguals, and has developed them either by itself or con- 

 jointly with its continental kindred. 



The purely High-German dialect as spoken in the middle 

 and south of Germany likewise possess a limited number of 

 lingual sounds. These appear instead of the corresponding- 

 dentals after ' sch,' as in ' schtehen,' the true High-German 

 form for the ' stehen' of the written language and the so- 

 called classical pronunciation of the North. The sound of 

 this ' t' is however not quite so hollow as that of the Indian 

 ' 1,' no doubt because the German 1 sch' is not pronounced 

 so far back in the mouth as the Indian lingual ' sh.' I 

 should rather say that it stands in the middle between the 

 two. I am little acquainted with the pronunciation of the 

 other Teutonic dialects and therefore unable to say if they 

 show signs of the same lingualising tendency. According 

 to a statement of Mr. Norris, repeated by Dr. Caldwell in 

 in his Comp. Grammar p. 113, the Icelanders possess a lingual 

 ' d' in words as fullr. falla which are pronounced like ' fudlr 

 'fadla.' Dr. Kulm in the Zeitschrift fur vergleichende 

 sprachforschung, vol. XIII, p. 80 shows that these and simi- 

 lar words are pronounced in a like manner also in Norwe- 

 gian dialects. But I am not sure whether the statement that 

 this c d' is lingual can be accepted without further investiga- 

 tion. Mr. Norris, if I understand his words rightly, thinks 

 that the group ' dl,' must be lingual, which is not a priori 

 necessary. If he be right, the fact^ should be explained not 

 as he thinks, by the influence of the Lappish language, but 

 be quoted as another instance of spontaneous development 



