A Phonological Sketch of Apabhramsa of the 11th Century A.D.
Summary
W.S. Karunatilleke’s paper offers a phonological description of an Apabhramsa dialect spoken by Jain communities around the 11th century A.D. Drawing on the text Karakanda Caru, the study enumerates the dialect’s vowel and consonant inventory and analyses their distribution. The dialect distinguishes short and long vowels in five qualities /a, e, i, o, u/, with the mid vowels showing complementary distribution based on syllable structure. Nasalised vowels occur only in specific environments and vowel length can affect word meaning, although the phonemic status of some contrasts is debated. Consonants include unaspirated and aspirated stops, voiced and voiceless series, nasals, a trill, laterals, and a set of spirants, with aspirated voiced stops appearing mostly in intervocalic positions or compound clusters. The paper observes processes such as assimilation, where nasals and stops adjust to the place of articulation of following consonants, and allophonic variation in clusters. The metre of the text, based on binary heavy and light syllables, provides evidence for vowel quantity contrasts and supports the phonemic analysis. Karunatilleke compares the dialect with other Middle Indo‑Aryan languages, noting that while it retains a two‑way vowel quantity distinction like Sanskrit, it foreshadows New Indo‑Aryan trends by reducing certain contrasts and allowing voiced aspirated stops to weaken. Some dialects treat mid vowels /e/ and /o/ as always long in open syllables and always short in closed syllables, illustrating how phonological rules interact with prosodic structure. The study also discusses the phonotactic constraints of word formation and the role of prosody in determining the placement of heavy and light syllables. It emphasises that Apabhramsa, though often seen as a transitional or degraded form of Prakrit, displays its own regular phonology and deserves study as an independent literary language. By documenting the sound system of the 11th‑century dialect, the article contributes to historical linguistics and sheds light on the evolution from Middle to New Indo‑Aryan languages.
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Conclusion
The paper concludes that Apabhramsa maintained a rich phonological system characterised by a full range of vowel qualities, a distinction of vowel quantity, and a complete set of voiced and voiceless aspirated stops. Though the dialect shows trends toward simplification, it retains enough contrasts to merit analysis on its own terms. The study underlines Apabhramsa’s importance for understanding the transition from Middle Indo‑Aryan to modern languages.