Zeb

A couple of useful books to start with on this subject are:

Thomas Oberlies: Paali. A Grammar of the Language of the Theravaada
Tipi.tika. Berlin, de Gruyter 2001.

Richard Pischel: Grammatik der Prakrit-Sprache. Strassburg, Truebner 1900
(or the recent English translation published by Motilal Banarssidas)

Oskar von Hinueber: Das aeltere Mittelindisch im Ueberblick. Vienna 2001.

I suggest that Oberlies's is the best starting point because it is clear, up
to date and draws on a mass of recent research(but von Hinueber's is very
important - and it does not mean that there is not a lot more to do).

There are then other places to look depending on your library facilities
(such as Geiger, Bloch, Warder, Bechert, Caillat, Burrows etc - the
bibliography in Oberlies will be a good starting point)

I think you will find that the schema you suggest (Indo-European>
Indo-Aryan> Praakrit> Maagadhi) is more than a little oversimplified. Again,
the intro to Oberlies is useful here.

Cheers

Robert Didham

>From: zeb1001@...
>Reply-To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Pali] History
>Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2001 23:09:06 -0000
>
>I am trying to find out a little about the history of the Pali
>language, ie. the origins.There seems to be confliting views on the
>roll of sankrit as pertaining to the prakrit languages. Did the
>prakrits evolve from sanskrit, or is sanskrit a "polished" prakrit.
>
>Does this look right> Indo-european>Indo-ariyan>Prakrit>Magadhi>Pali.?
>
>Any info on this topic would be much appreciated.
>
> Metta zeb
>
>

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