Editing Gandhari language (section)

==Phonology==
In general terms, Gāndhārī is a Middle Prakrit, a term for middle-stage Middle Indo-Aryan languages. It only begins to show the characteristics of the Late Prakrits in the 1st century of the Common Era.{{sfn|Salomon|Allchin|Barnard|1999|p=125}} The Middle Prakrit phonetic features are the weakening of intervocalic consonants: degemination and voicing, such as the shift of OIA *''k'' to ''g''. The most rapid loss was the dentals, which started to disappear completely even before the late period as with *''t'' > ''∅'' as in *''pitar'' > ''piu''; in contrast, [[retroflex consonant]]s were never lost.{{sfn|Salomon|Allchin|Barnard|1999|p=125-6}} There is also evidence of the loss of a distinction between aspirates and plain stops as well, which is unusual in the [[Indo-Aryan languages]].{{sfn|Salomon|Allchin|Barnard|1999|p=127}}

In Central Asian Gāndhārī, there is often confusion in writing nasals with homorganic stops;{{sfn|Salomon|Allchin|Barnard|1999|p=129}} it is unclear if this might represent assimilation of the stop or the appearance of [[prenasalized consonant]]s to the phonetic inventory.