254 
R. B. Shaw —A Grammar of the Language 
[No. 3, 
The guiding principle of the Tiirki variation seems to be this : that 
the mouth and throat having assumed a certain shape for the pronuncia¬ 
tion of certain sounds, it is difficult in the compass of the same word to 
shift the position of the organs ; or, when a hard breath is coming out, to 
change it suddenly into a soft breathing ; and vice versa. 
Thus, if the throat has been put into the half choking state necessary 
to pronounce the ‘ ghain’ ( gh ) or the ‘ qaf’ (q), and another guttural 
comes immediately afterwards, it is difficult to prevent this being sounded 
with the same choking effort (or, in other words, it is difficult to shift for¬ 
ward suddenly the place of utterance) ; and vice versa. 
Thus it will be found comparatively easy to pronounce sarigh-qul 
(where two choking gutturals follow one another) ; but a difficulty will be 
found in trying to say consecutively reg gum (the Persian and the Turki 
words respectively for 4 sand’), where the contact between the root of the 
tongue and the back part of the palate (for the g) has to be shifted 
suddenly back into the throat for the q ; and still more difficult to give the 
proper sounds to each of the so-called gutturals in the following compound : 
aq kupruk (“ white bridge”), where the initial k will almost inevitably 
retain some of the choking q sound, unless a fresh breath be taken. 
An effort is required, and this the Turkis avoid. 
Thus, (a) Gutturals (so called') of either class, which may be roughly 
designated as common [k and y], and true (choking) [q and gh~\ , when con¬ 
tained in a root tend to bring any guttural contained in an affix into the 
same class. 
So again, when one has pronounced the syllable yet , it is easier to com¬ 
plete the word with a t than with a d. Thus yet-di becomes changed into 
yet-ti , for the same reason that cup-board has become cubboard in English 
pronunciation. So pit-gan becomes pit-kan* 
On the other hand after the liquids r and l, which only require a soft 
utterance, it would require a fresh effort of the breath to bring out the 
hard sounds of k, q or t, so g, gh or d are used. 
Ex. : bar-ghan “ going” ; kel-di “ he came”. 
Thus, (b) Hard consonants at the end of the root tend to harden the 
utterance of the guttural or dental of the affix, and vice versa. 
* * # # # 
The principle is the same in the case of the vowels. When the tone 
of a word, as it were, is in u (oo), say, the Turkis continue that sound, or 
one complementary to it, in certain of the affixes. 
* See post, Specimen pieces (copy of Passport): “ Ydrlccmd-ga khidmat-ha ” Here 
ga and ka are tlie same word, but the initial guttural is softened after the final d of 
Yarkand, and hardened after the final t of khidmat. 
