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Abstract
Perhaps the most widely represented sandhi variant of final ending */-as/ inSanskrit is [-]. In this thesis I shall attempt to motivate this ending, based on a combination of sound law and analogy. The evidence of such forms as edh 'be!' [2nd SG. ACT. IMP.] from *as-dh and manobhis 'with minds' [INST. PL.] from *manas-bhis suggests that in word-internal position that */-as/ developed into [-] and [-] preceding a voiced dental and labial respectively. There is evidence of three distinct phases where what has begun as word-internal sandhi becomes syntactically restricted word-external sandhi, and finally this word-external sandhi loses its syntactic restriction. Finally, the generalization of [-] at the expense of [-] is a product of the polyvalence of [-] fromPre-Vedic */ay/ as an ending in numerous categories of both the noun and the verb whereas [-] from Pre-Vedic */-aw/ was limited to the vocative singular of u-stems.