2006/3/14, keren_arbel <keren_arbel@...>:

>
> Dear All,
>
> I read a post of Dmytro on Sanskrit and Pali in the Pali forum of
> Esangha, and I wanted to ask few questions:
> 1. It is correct to say, that Pali (as I understood it, is a mixture
> of dialects that are now known as Pali, the language of the Theravada
> canon) is actually a descendent of the Vedic language and not of
> Sanskrit as a lot of scholars used to say?

Pali is a Middle-Indo-Aryan dialect. This means it's progressed out of Old
Indo-Aryan and that it's has changed on a number of fronts with regard to
the older stratum of Indo-Aryan. 'Pali' is in itself not a language, as it
means 'text'.Pali cannot logically be derived of Sanskrit, because at the
time the Buddha started preaching Sanskrit was the standard (elite) language
of the brahmin caste and there would be no time OR necessity to develop a
dialect as 'Pali'. Probably Sanskrit and dialects leading to the emergence
of 'Pali' were both spoken, but 'Pali' was the Vedic in a linguistically
more evolved phase. Maybe the Buddha spoke 'Pali' as a way to create a
separate identity from the brahmin language, or just as a vernacular. I'm
pretty sure the Buddha spoke Sanskrit, or at least understood it: several
suttas mention him being versed in the 3 Vedas.
There are big differences between Vedic and Sanskrit: euphony or sandhi is
different, the subjunctive is lost in Sanskrit, many Vedic words have been
lost in Sanskrit, and so on.


2. Does Ardha-Magadhi is a dialect of Vedic?


Of course. And then still, there was no standard Vedic, but 'Vedics'
characterized by standard features. Magadhi is a dialect which has had its
influence on Pali texts, but Pali is not Magadhi. Some scholars find
'magadhisms' in the Pali texts.

3. What than is the connection between Pali and Sanskrit, and is

> Sanskrit a systematic Vedic?

Sanskrit (= 'correct, polished'; sam+kr: 'put together') is a highly
technical language which has a large degree of artificiality in this sense
that it has not undergone the linguistic changes that most other languages
undergo. Pali (= a 'PrAkrit', vernacular) and Sanskrit are related in that
they have common roots in Vedic. Whether Sanskrit is a systematic Vedic I
cannot answer.

For a table with relations between the aforementioned languages you might
want to have a look at

http://www.webster.com/mw/table/indoeuro.htm

Cheers,

Stefan
Leuven, Belgium


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