[192] Pratt: “Grammar and Dictionary of the Samoan Language” (edited by Whitmee), p. 1, 1878.
[193] To Brugman belongs the credit of first demonstrating the existence of these three distinct vowel-sounds in the Parent-Aryan (Kuhn’s “Zeitschrift,” 1877). Brugman has been criticized by Collitz in Bezzenberger’s “Beiträge zur Kunde der indogermanischen Sprachen,” ii. 4 (1878), who maintains that the three primitive sounds were really ĕ, ŏ, ă, and not the indeterminate a¹, a², a³. On the other hand, an able article by De Saussure in the “Mémoires de la Société de Linguistique de Paris,” iii. 5 (1878), accepts Brugman’s nomenclature, while criticizing and modifying some of his conclusions. His a, Brugman’s a¹, became e in West Aryan, and is never weakened into i or u in Sanskrit. His a² (also Brugman’s) is the West Aryan o², and in Sanskrit is lengthened in an open syllable (e.g. jajâna = γέγονε). In Latin ŏ often became ĕ, as in genu (Greek γόνυ, Sansk. jânu). Different from this o² is another o¹, standing in the same relation to a that o² does in Latin to e, and answering to a Sanskrit i or î. Besides this short o¹ is also a long ō, which appears also as ā, and corresponds with Sansk. â. De Saussure further points out that velar k in Sanskrit is palatalized (becomes ch) when followed by a (= ĕ) and a² (= ŏ).
[194] “Lectures,” ii. pp. 184 sq. (8th edition).
[195] “The Polynesian,” October, 1862.
[196] Agnel: “Observations sur la Prononciation et le Langage rustique des environs de Paris,” pp. 11, 28; Terrien Poncel: “Du Langage,” p. 49.
[197] “Sir George Grey’s Library,” i. p. 135. Professor Mahaffy informs us of a child of three years of age who invariably substitutes n for l, and cannot be made to feel the difference between them.
[198] Sievers: “Lautphysiologie,” p. 127.
[199] Kuhn’s “Zeitschrift,” xxiii. pp. 97-130 (1877).
[200] The termination of the participles of German weak verbs, such as the Goth. tami-da (“domitus”), answers to the Vedic dami-tás (like the Greek κλυτός) where the accent is oxytone. Verner sums up his conclusions as follows: (1) The original accentuation was preserved in Teutonic even after the introduction of those changes of sound characteristic of the Teutonic branch of the Aryan family; (2) the accent, however, was no longer purely tonic, it had become also an accent of stress; (3) the exceptional representation of an Aryan k, t, and p at the beginning of a syllable by a Teutonic g, d, b is due to the original accentuation of the words in which it occurs; and (4) this is also the case with z or r in the place of s.
[201] Sanskrit jîv, Latin vivo (vixi), English quick, presupposing an original reduplicated qwi-gwi.