From: Nina van Gorkom
Message: 14987
Date: 2010-09-28
> This is one of those words whose formation becomes clear when the------
> parallel word in Sanskrit is compared. The Skt word is sadbhi.h.
> Since Skt retains much older forms of Old Indo-Aryan, we can safely
> say that sadbhih had undergone certain regular phonetic
> simplifications and become sabbhi in popular speech and is found in
> that form in Pali.
>
> The Skt form itself consists of two elements sat+bhi.h. The first
> element (sat-) is the so-called weak form of sant. The second is
> the regular instrumental plural ending. (-tb- becomes -db- by Sandhi).