Frank,

You wrote:
>
> Hello Ven. Pandita,
> Thank you for the explanation, however it confuses me more than it
> clarifies.

Sorry for your confusion. Actually, I wrote a paper on the problem of proper punctuation for Pali sandhi and compounds about three years ago. I sent it to a new journal in Thailand, but they even did not bother to reply, my paper just disappeared there.

I will edit and post to this Pali list when I am back from India.

with metta

Ven. Pandita