Marathi repha

[Ashok Aklujkar]

I read the linguists' descriptions of Marathi only when they happen to come
my way.  So, as a nonspecialist, I do not know whether the observation I am
going to make about the use of  R', the second repha form, that is, "a
spacing form with a flattish breve shape under the top line,Æ has already
been made.

As a native speaker of Marathi my understanding is that R' tends to be used
when a short vowel preceding a r-initial consonant cluster is not stressed
(ordinarily, especially in words with Sanskrit affiliation, one expects
such vowels to be stressed; in that situation, "R," the usual nonspacing
hook on the top line is used). Examples: puryaa (the plural of purii,
which, I hope, all of you have been fortunate enough to eat, or feminine
plural of the past participle purii 'completed, finished'), tarhevaaiika
'eccentric,' etc.

The sign seems to have phonemic significance in Marathi: daryaa, plural of
darii 'cave, cavern, valley,' pronounced without stress on "a" and written
as daR'yaa,  means something different from daryaa 'ocean, sea,æ pronounced
with stress on "a" and written as daRyaa.

It would be prudent to provide separate transliteration for R'.