[INDOLOGY] When -akṣ- becomes -ekh- ?

[Howard Resnick]

Greetings Westin,

I cannot comment on akṣ to ekh, but from my own observations, in parts of East India, such as West Bengal  (which borders Odisha) kṣ routinely changes to kh. The reason seems to be that Bengali tends to avoid consonant clusters, probably for ease of pronunciation, in at least two ways: 

1. By removing one consonant. Thus Parikṣit (Parikshit) becomess Parikhit, kṣetra -> khetra etc. -akṣ to ekh seems to be a variation of this principle.

2. By inserting a vowel between two hard consonants. Thus bhakta becomes bhakata.

I’m sure others here know much more about this.

Best wishes,
Howard
  
> On Jun 17, 2024, at 10:41 PM, Westin Harris via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
> 
> Greetings Indologists,
> 
> I am posting for a colleague who is working with a "very bright undergraduate student" on a research paper that falls slightly outside her (and my) areas of expertise. 
> 
> Her student is looking for thoughts/sources that discuss the evolution of -akṣ- to -ekh- in certain South Asian vernaculars. Some examples that immediately come to my mind are "Gorekha" (from gorakṣa) and "Alekha" (from alakṣya) in Odia. 
> 
> They are also looking for sources discussing how such phonetic changes can impact orthography (like how some phonetic changes come to be reflected in writing, while others are not?) and/or meaning (like how Odia "alekha" takes on the semantic range of both a+√lakṣ and a+√likh?). 
> 
> Thank you all.
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Westin Harris
> Ph.D. Candidate
> Study of Religion 
> University of California, Davis
> https://religionsgrad.ucdavis.edu/people/westin-harris <https://religions.ucdavis.edu/people/westin-harris>
> 
> 2021 Dissertation Fellow,
> The Robert H. N. Ho Family Foundation Program in Buddhist Studies
> 
> Sarva Mangalam.
> 
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