Originally it may have arisen from the fact that language allows in many cases alternate forms of one or two syllables. As in Greek we have double forms like ἀλεγεινός and ἀλγεινός, γαλακτοφάγος and γλακτοφάγος, πετηνός and πτηνός, πυκινός and πυκνός c, and as in Latin we have the shortening

or suppression of vowels carried out on the largest scale a. we find in Sanskrit, too, such double forms as prithvî or prithivî, adhi and dhi, api and pi, ava and va. The occurrence of such forms which have nothing to do with metrical considerations, but are perfectly legitimate from a grammatical point of view, would encourage a tendency to treat two syllables—and particularly two short syllables—as one, whenever an occasion arose. There are, besides, in the Vedic Sanskrit a number of forms where, as we saw, a long syllable has to be pronounced as two. In some of these cases this pronunciation is legitimate, i. e. it preserves an original dissyllabic form which in course of time had become monosyllabic. In other cases the same process takes place through a mistaken sense of analogy, where we cannot prove that an original dissyllabic form had any existence even in a prehistoric state of language. The occurrence of a number of such alternate forms would naturally leave a general impression in the minds of poets that two short syllables and one long syllable were under certain circumstances interchangeable. So considerable a number of words in which a long syllable has to be pronounced as two syllables has been collected by Professors Kuhn, Bollensen, and others, that no doubt can remain on this subject. Vedic poets, being allowed to change a semivowel into a vowel, were free to say nâ̄sātyâ̄ and nâ̄sā̆ty̆â̄, VIII, 5, 32; prĭthīvyâ̄s and prĭthī̆vy̆â̄h; pītrōh and pī̆tr̆ōh, I, 31, 4. They could separate compound words, and pronounce ghri̅tâ̄nnāh or ghrĭtă-ānnāh, VII, 3, 1. They could insert a kind of shewa or svarabhakti in words like sâ̄mnē, or sâ̄mn̆ē, VIII, 6, 47; dhâ̄mnē or dhâ̄mn̆ē, VIII, 92, 25; ărâ̄vnāh and ărâ̄vn̆āh, IX, 63, 5. They might vary between pâ̄ntĭ and p̆â̄ntĭ, I, 41, 2; yâ̄thănă and y̆â̄thănă, I, 39, 3; nĭdhâ̄tōh and nĭdhâ̄t̆ōh, I, 41, 9; trēdhâ̄ and trēdh̆â̄, I, 34, 8; dēvâ̄h and dēv̆â̄h (besides devâsah), I, 23, 24; rōdăsî̄ and r̆ōdăsî̄, I, 33, 9; 59, 4; 64, 9; and r̄ŏdāsyōh, I, 33, 5; 59, 2; 117, 10;