Rhotic phenomena in Gandhari: an alternative interpretation of orthography

Abstract Gandhari, an early Middle Indo-Aryan dialect of northwest provenance, is known for various rhotic phenomena, including not only rhotic metathesis but also intrusive and anticipatory r , some of which can hardly be characterized as sound change. Of the observed spelling changes, recurrent r in later Gandhari texts plausibly indicates idiosyncratic phenomena comparable to vowel retroflexion and retroflex harmony in Kalasha and some other modern languages in northwest South Asia. The vowel rhotacization and rhoticity extension in Gandhari are apparently along the lines of the two well-known retroflexion processes, that is, ruki and nati, together with the repeated processes of consonant retroflexion in Old and Middle Indo-Aryan. The seemingly aberrant changes in orthography are therefore likely to reflect, at least in part, actual pronunciation, although the triggers and domains of vowel rhotacization in Gandhari cannot be determined in detail. This study examines the notation for lenition, indistinguishable from postconsonantal r , and the consonant clusters that can be considered hyper-Sanskritization, some occurrences of which can be assumed to follow from phonological processes. While not all cases are straightforwardly demonstrated to be sound change, reassessment is warranted.