--- In
cybalist@yahoogroups.com, Andy Howey <andyandmae_howey@...>
wrote:> Please forgive me if I'm way off base here, but I thought,
and every (comparative) linguistics book that I've ever read
supports this, that the term "Prakrit" only applies to the IE Indian
vernaculars, those that, like Sanskrit, are derived from Old Indic
dialects.
No, Andy. Every comparative linguistics book that talks of Prakrits
is off base.
Samskr.tam (refined, well-defined) is a derivative from Pra_kr.t
(old, bha_s.a_).
Epigraphical evidence is emphatic: early epigraphs are all in
Prakrits. It is only later that Samskr.tam epigraphs appear, as in
Cambodia (Ka_mboja). All Jaina and Buddhists test attest Pali and
Buddhist Hybrid Samskr.tam (which is Pra_kr.ts presented in some
sort of samskr.tam grammatical structures).
To use the IE linguistic jargon, one can say Pra_kr.ts are Proto-
Indic dialects.