second vowel of the word “enable’ which according to modern tränscription is a diphthong [ei]. This can be explained by assuming that Pope's own idea is e : itself in this case. Initial i, i :, e and e : [chiefly when followed by cerebral or palatal] are often pronounced as if preceded by v [as the English initial u is often sounded yu in union [ju : nien] [p. 12]. This allophonic variation in the initia! position is attested in the inscriptional records as early as eleventh century and also found in the modern colloquial language. But, in both the periods there is no restriction of environment as pointed out by Pope. The words vi : tu ‘housco and pen “female have been transcribed as [ viidu) and [ pan | [ p. 81 respectively. Here the vowels are followed by retroflex consonants. Hence Pope’s transcriptions of i and e as [u] and I 3 ] may represent the centralised pronunciation of the front vowels before retroflex consonants. [The length make is absent in the transcription of the word vi : tu J. Thus [i] has three allophones : [yi ) nitially, [t ) before retroflex consonant and [i] elsewhere and | e / has [ye ) initially [e before retroflexc onsonant and [ el elsewhere. , - 1.3. BACK vowels “u is to be pronounced like oo in cook I kuk ), the Italian u ’’ [p. 6 i. e. high back vowel. “ u final is always pronounced very slightly and by the common people is often turned into i. It is almost always added to facilitate the enunciation of the final consonant. ma: tu an animal of the genus Bos’ almost to [ma : t ) pagikku ‘in order to is often pronounced [patikki l’” [p. 13 u occurring in the above words is referred to in the traditional grammars as kurriyalukaram, shorter u sound. The difference -
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