→ dhaja Partial and mutual assimilation Sanskrit sibilants before a stop assimilate to that stop, and if that stop is not already aspirated, it becomes aspirated; e.g. śc, st, ṣṭ and sp become cch, tth, ṭṭh and pph Examples: paścāt → pacchā, asti → atthi, stava → thava, śreṣṭha → seṭṭha, aṣṭa → aṭṭha, sparśa → phassa In sibilant-stop-liquid sequences, the liquid is assimilated to the preceding consonant, and the cluster behaves like sibilant-stop sequences; e.g. str and ṣṭr become tth and ṭṭh Examples: śāstra → śasta → sattha, rāṣṭra → raṣṭa → raṭṭha t and p become c before s, and the sibilant assimilates to the preceding sound as an aspirate (i.e., the sequences ts and ps become cch) Examples: vatsa → vaccha, apsaras → accharā A sibilant assimilates to a preceding k as an aspirate (i.e., the sequence kṣ becomes kkh) Examples: bhikṣu → bhikkhu, kṣānti → khanti Any dental or retroflex stop or nasal followed by y converts to the corresponding palatal sound, and the y assimilates to this new consonant, i.e. ty, thy, dy, dhy, ny become cc, cch, jj, jjh, ññ; likewise ṇy becomes ññ. Nasals preceding a stop that becomes palatal share this change. Examples: tyajati → cyajati → cajati, satya → sacya → sacca, mithyā → michyā → micchā, vidyā → vijyā → vijjā, madhya → majhya → majjha, anya → añya → añña, puṇya → puñya → puñña, vandhya → vañjhya → vañjjha → vañjha The sequence mr becomes mb, via the epenthesis of a stop between the nasal and liquid, followed by assimilation of the liquid to the stop and subsequent simplification of the resulting geminate. Examples: āmra → ambra → amba, tāmra → tamba Epenthesis An epenthetic vowel is sometimes inserted between certain consonant-sequences. As with ṛ, the vowel may be a, i, or u, depending on the influence of a neighboring consonant or of the vowel in the following syllable. i is often found near i, y, or palatal consonants; u is found near u, v, or labial consonants. Sequences of stop + nasal are sometimes separated by a or u Example: ratna → ratana, padma → paduma (u influenced by labial m) The sequence sn may become sin initially Examples: snāna → sināna, sneha → sineha i may be inserted between a consonant and l Examples: kleśa → kilesa, glāna → gilāna, mlāyati → milāyati, ślāghati → silāghati