My name is Thomas and I'm a university (undergrad) student here in
Texas. I just started learning Pali yesterday and decided to join
this group. I have de Silva's Pali Primer and Warder's Intro to Pali.
Gair/Karunatillake is in the mail.
I just started yesterday with Chapter 1 in de Silva, so my knowledge
is very limited. I hope my questions aren't too basic. Please go
easy on the new guy :).
In the vocabulary list (page 1 for those following along :P), de Silva
gives 3 words for "man": manussa, nara and purisa. I was wondering if
there are differences between these words.
I checked Warder and found that manussa "man, human" is opposed with
amanussa "non-human", so I think I understand the connotation of that
word.
I couldn't find anything concerning nara vs purisa. Are these two
words interchangable? Are there subtle differences? Do they mean
"man" in general as in "person"? Is one of them "man" as opposed to
"woman"? Is one more archaic than the other? Are there instances in
Pali sentence construction where one word could be used and not the
other due to a subtle difference in meaning?
I have the same questions about the words de Silva gives for "friend".
Are sahaaya, sahaayaka and mitta completely interchangable? Do they
have slight differences in meaning?
Any help will be appreciated. Sorry if it seems so basic :).