Inexplicable transformation
Radhakrishna Warrier
Sanskrit words like utsava (festival) and adbhuta (extraordinary, marvelous) have undergone inexplicable transformation when loaned into Tamil and Malayalam.
Utsava becomes uṟcavam (உற்சவம்) and adbhuta becomes aṟputam (அற்புதம்).
Why didn’t these become uccavam or utcavam and apputam or atputam? Why did ṟ enter these words?
What is the Prakrit and Apabhramsha equivalent of these words?
In Malayalam utsavam is written correctly as utsavam (ഉത്സവം) but pronounced as ulsavam. Ts becomes ls.
Adbhutam is written correctly as adbhutam (അദ്ഭുതം) or as atbhutam (അത്ഭുതം) but pronounced as albhutam. Dbh or tbh becomes lbha.
Ātmā (soul) becomes ātmāvŭ (ആത്മാവു്) but pronounced as ālmHāvŭ where ‘H’ represents a glottal sound. Tm becomes lmH.
Are these changes in pronunciation related in any way to Prakrit or Apabhramsha pronunciation?
Regards,