[INDOLOGY] When -akṣ- becomes -ekh- ?

[Westin Harris]

Dear Howard,

Thank you for your contribution.

Regarding your first example, I suspect that the genealogy might look
something like Skt. "-akṣa-" > Pkt. "-akkha-" > vernacular "-akha-"??

However, what has my colleague, her student, and I more intrigued is
how/why the "-akha-" turns to "-ekha-" in some vernaculars. I can think of
some examples of long "ā" turning to "e" in Odia, as with causative verbs.
For example from *basibā* "to sit" we get *basāiba* "to cause to sit,"
which also appears as *baseibā*. But these are all long "ā" vowels followed
by another vowel (rather than a short "a" before a consonant as with
Gorekha < Gorakṣa ), so I suspect these long "ā" to "e" examples might
result from a different process (?).


*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.


On Mon, Jun 17, 2024 at 8:03 PM Howard Resnick <hr at ivs.edu> wrote:

> 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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> INDOLOGY mailing list
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>
>
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