Re: [tied] Re: Prakrit cha 'six'

From: Andy Howey
Message: 28738
Date: 2003-12-23

Hi, Peter:
 
Actually, I didn't say that the Prakrits were derived from Vedic.  I know that the Prakrits are not the same as or derived from either Vedic or Sanskrit.  I quoted Masica as saying that Vedic was apparentyly based on a far western Old IA dialect.  I then speculated that at least some of the Prakrits dialects could have been derived from the same dialect or set of dialects from which Vedic was derived.  Just like in West Gemanic, Old Saxon led to Plattdeutsch and there is are "Old" Bavarian and "Old" Allemanic dialects that are part of Althochdeutsch, isn't it feasible that not all of the Prakrits dialects were derived from the same base set of Old IA dialects?  In fact, Masica does allude to that -- the Early Middle IA Asokan Prakrits were recorded in at least four dialect groups (south-western, north-western, east-central, and eastern, but not midland).
 
Andy Howey

P&G <petegray@...> wrote:

> According to Colin P. Masica in _The Indo-Aryan Languages_ (Cambridge
Language >Surveys, 1991), Vedic "was based apparently on a far western
dialect, perhaps influenced >by Iranian".  That's as opposed to Sanskrit,
which he says was based on a midland >dialect.  If that's indeed the case,
and if at least some of the Prakrits were derived from the >same source as
Vedic, then that could bear out your hypothesis.  What do you think?

The Prakrits seem to be not directly from Vedic, but from other sources.  It
has been suggested that it was a dialect east of that which gave rise to
Sanskrit, but since we have to look at a variety of origins, it may be a
mistake to exclude northwestern dialects.  See Masica (op cit above pages
51-52).  At any rate, we cannot derive the Prakrits directly from either
Sanskrit or Vedic.

Peter