Au: The Last of the Vowels

Au is the fourteenth letter of the varnamala and the last of the vowels, the second strengthening of u and so the partner of ai on the labial side. Like the other combination vowels it is always long and always heavy, and its vowel sign combines an upright stroke to the right of the consonant with a pair of strokes above the headline, the same doubling that distinguishes ai from e. It is the least common of the four, appearing chiefly in derivatives formed at the second strengthening grade and in a small body of ordinary vocabulary. With au the vowel series closes, and the point at which it closes is where the design of the varnamala is easiest to see whole.

The series has laid out three basic vowel qualities in short and long pairs, added the two vocalic liquids with their long partners, and then derived four further vowels by combination and strengthening. What follows is a different kind of thing: twenty-five stops arranged in five classes by the place in the mouth where the closure is made, then four semivowels, then three sibilants and a breath. Nothing about that order is inherited or arbitrary. It is an analysis of the sound system of the language, and its authors set it out as a table because that is what it is.