--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, "Richard Wordingham"
<richard.wordingham@...> wrote:
> > So one thought that leaps to mind is that Thai forms with /#w-/
> are either
> > from dialects that retained /#w-/, or else direct borrowings
from
> Skt at a
> > later date, giving a doublet in Thai. Worldwide, such doublets
are
> > commonplace.
>
> I'm pretty confident that the Thai words in w- are borrowed
directly
> from Sanskrit, or if not, adjusted to accord with Sanskrit, as
with
> many loans from Latin in English.
>
> The problem with the words in ph- is that they generally
correspond
> pretty well with Pali (apart from the initial consonant), though
> some show signs of being partially adjusted towards Sanskrit,
> especially where it has little or no effect on the Thai
> pronunciation.
>
> There may be a parallel in Javanese - I asked Austronesianists how
> common such doublets are.
I think I've found the explanation toe the Thai doublets and their
respective associations with Sanskrit (for w-) and Pali (for ph-)
through Waruno Mahdi, particularly in messages
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/austronesian/message/2555,
also 2558 and 2566. (Unfortunately, the archives there are only
available to members.)
In general, there is a strong tendency for Pali manuscripts not to
distinguish /b/ and /v/. It may help that the letters are very
similar in some Indian scripts, e.g Devanagari. This tendency is
far from unknown in other Prakrits.
The explanation for the strength of this habit may lie in the Malay
kingdom of Sri Vijaya, which was a major centre of Buddhist
learning, and certainly had a strong influence on the territory of
Thailand prior to Thai rule. Its script, the 'Old Sumatran' script
(a variety of the Pallava script) did not have separate characters
for b and v, even though it distinguished the Sanskrit sibilants.
Sanksrit /b/ and /v/ are usually represented by /b/ in modern
Malay. Old Malay lacked /w/.
Thus it seems entirely plausible that there arose a Thai tradition
of pronouncing and writing both Pali <b> and Pali <v> as <b>. With
the Great Thai Consonant Shift, this became /ph/.
Waruno Mahdi supplied facts, for which I thank him; I have added
interpretation, which may well be wrong.
Richard.