180 G. A. Grierson —On the Kagmiri Consonantal System. [No. 3, 
On the Kdgmlri Consonantal System .— By G. A. Grierson, 
C.I.E., Ph.D., I.C.S. 
[Read May, 1897.] 
The Kih^nnri consonantal system is based on that in use in most 
Aryan languages in India. It can be well represented by the (Jarada 
Alphabet or by its congener the Devanagari. 
Ka^mirl has discarded the aspirated soft consonants, gh, jh, dh , dh, 
bh. When such sounds originally occurred tl»e corresponding un¬ 
aspirated sounds are substituted. Thus we have Ka^miri gerun 
to surround, but Hindi iK*rr gher’na; K 9 . bovi, he will be, cor¬ 
responding to the Sanskrit VsrfrT bhavati. 
Ka^miri has developed a new class of modified palatal consonants, 
viz., ^ tsa, w tsha, 5T za, and na. These are mostly direct modi¬ 
fications of original palatals. Thus— 
Skr. K 9 . 
^TT: corah , a thief. 
tsur, a thief. 
•C\' ’ 
calati, he goes. tsali, he will go. 
chalayati, he deceives. tshali, he will deceive. 
jalam , water. zal, water. 
So also we have the Skr. utpadyate; Pr. uppajjai; 
from which is derived the K 9 . 3rd pers. fut. wopazi , he will be 
born. 
These modified palatals are also developed as secondary forma¬ 
tions from dentals, followed by u-mdtrd, or by the semi-vowel y. Both 
these sounds are palatal, for u-matrd represents an original long l. 
Thus, take the base TI<T rat-, night. Its nominative plural is 
formed by adding u-mdtrd , and is therefore rats™. 
Again take the root hat-, spin. The feminine singular of its 
Past Participle is formed by adding u-matrd , and is hats *. Its 
