6 On the Power of the Letter p. [No. 9, new series. 



hard pronunciation. Thus ldsrt jgeou* becomes LBtl^onia ; and 

 Qutrm 0 GGiLQ becomes Qurrpjfi em to. 



Forasmuch then as these particular changes are applicable to 

 the 4 n's and ' t's alone, with only the doubtful exception of p to 

 be determined, these combinations suggest that this p also is a 

 surd of the ' t' family, leaving its power yet to be ascertained. 



ii. When a word ending in the cerebral 4 1' (or) is followed by 

 a word commencing with a dental 4 t' (^), this latter letter is 

 changed into a 4 1' of the same power as that of the preceding 

 final '1,' in order that both letters may be pronounced consecu- 

 tively from the same ' birth-place,' and the hiatus be avoided 

 which must otherwise occur : and for further euphonic assimila- 

 tion of the pronunciation, the final 4 1' is changed by attraction 

 into the same 4 1' as the changed initial 4 t' of the second word. 

 Thus Qp&r becomes qplLlz.^*. The same process is necessary 

 in the case of the second word having an initial 'n.' Thus Qpdr 

 po® becomes Q-psssrGmm jy. 



The same rules hold good when the final consonant of the first 

 word is the second 4 1' («&) instead of or. Thus for jsdr^t we 

 have a&revrwc^j ; and for we have &p$ss. 



Forasmuch, therefore, as in the instance of the final cerebral 4 V 

 (&) the following initial dental 4 t' (<&) was changed into a celebral 

 * t* (*_), analogy suggests that our letter p into which the same 

 dental 4 1' is changed after the other 4 1' (so), is likewise a letter 

 of the 4 1' family, and of similar power with this 4 Y (go). 



iii. In the case of a final 4 1' occurring before an initial surd 

 consonant in the succeeding word, this 4 1' — (the dental 4 t' (■$) is 

 the only one that can well occur in such a position, and that almost 

 exclusively in words of Sanscrit origin — ) is changed euphonically 

 into p. Thus s=^s (g?© becomes cf^^qj. This also suggests a 

 family connexion between p and 



4. The letters <g, i-, and p, with their corresponding nasals, 

 are the usual sign-letters of the past tense of verbs. We have here 

 again a corroboration of the suggestion that these three letters be- 

 long to the same family. 



5. The fact of the surd consonants which correspond with the 

 dental and cerebral 4 n's respectively being 4 t's further suggests 



