Dear Frank,

Whithout basically any knowledge of Pali whatsover, I think that your
guess that the variation has arised due to (Thai or other) accent is
absolutely true. The Pali recordings I've heard (to the extent that I
can judge phonetically) show great regional variation, which seems very
logical, since there really are very many different peoples using Pali.
So my guess is that the phonemes /j, jh/ do not have any "etymological"
alternations (allophons), but only regional. Also the IPA transcription
on the audio site linked to uses the sign for a voiced palatal stop (a
kind of j-like d), not an affricate (like twice in English <judge>).
By the way, if I haven't introduced myself earlier, I'm a Phd-student of
Helsinki University (Altaic linguistics), with an interest in Buddhist
thought and language in a broad sense.

Best wishes,
Anton Bjerke


frank skrev:

>
> Thanks for the comments, Patrick and Bryan.
> As a beginner,
>
> I'm looking for consistent simple rules I can rely in, and it sure was
> confusing to hear so many different sounds made with "jj" depending on
> the context.
> for reference:
> http://studies.worldtipitaka.org/audio_alpha?page=1&op0=starts&filter0=v%C4%ABriya
> <http://studies.worldtipitaka.org/audio_alpha?page=1&op0=starts&filter0=v%C4%ABriya>
>
>
> is it 4 different contexts? The four words in question all are just
> slight variations of "viriyasambojjang", but the jj sounds vary .
>
> I still don't know the answer to whether the "jj" sound in those 4 words
> supposed to all sound the same, or slightly different because there's a
> context that's too subtle for a beginner to see? Is the variation due to
> a Thai accent in the speaker?
> Apologies to Bryan if your post explained the answer but I was unable to
> comprehend it. I assumed Bryan's explanation referred to words that
> varied more radically than very minor variations of "viryasambojjhanga"
>
> -Frank
>
>
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