the 41 sounds

Dear group,

The first sutta of the Saddaniiti states:

1. appabhutekataaliisa saddaa va.n.naa.

1. The forty-one sounds beginning with 'a' are (called) va.n.na-s.

The vutti comments:

The forty-one sounds beginning with 'a' in the word (paavacana) of the
Blessed One are called va.n.na-s as follows:

a aa i ii u uu e o ka kha ga gha "na ca cha ja jha ~na .ta .tha .da
.dha .na ta tha da dha na pa pha ba bha ma ya ra la va sa ha .la a.m

2. akkharaa ca te.

2. These (sounds) are also (called) akkhara-s.

=========================

There's still more to come. Here are some thoughts that came up while
I was pondering over the first sutta. At first I was going to call the
set of 41 sounds 'the alphabet' as that is what Warder, Narada, &
Buddhadatta calls it in the introductory pages of their primers (but
note that the consonants are listed without the accompanying 'a' as
above). I wondered about this word 'alphabet' and felt that it had
more to do with the graphic symbols used to represent the sounds
rather than simply presenting a set of sounds (phonemes) used for a
particular language. If one considers the English alphabet, many of
the individual letters can have several pronunciations such as the
simple vowels, 'c' (= s, k, sh), and so on. Although the English
alphabet has only 26 letters the set of phonemes used in the language
is far greater. One table shows English as having 24 consonantal and
25 vowel sounds.

The most important Pali grammars that follow the old Indian system
are:

1. Kaccaayanavyaakara.na by Kaccaayana
2. Saddaniiti by Aggava.msa (12th cent. Burma)
3. Moggallaanavyaakara.na by Moggallaana

I'm not sure of the dating of the 1st and 3rd but I know that the
first is the oldest. There are also many other grammatical texts based
on these three. AFAIK, nothing has been translated into English -- so
if you want to study them you have to read them in Pali. They are
available on-line for downloading. The one I have studied the most is
the Saddaniiti which is the largest one with 928pp. in 3 vols. for the
edition I use. The last volume (not online) is called the Suttamaala
(garland of aphorisms). There are 1347 suttas, usually short, like the
ones given at the top of this message and most of them are followed by
explanations. The first 23 suttas deal with the sound system of Pali
and I would like to present these to you. Warder's section on the
alphabet is based on them but he does deviate on a number of points.
What I have given so far is just the set of 41 sounds. The
classification of the sounds comes next. Kaccaayana and Aggava.msa
agree on the exact set of 41. Moggallaana adds two more vowels (a
short e & o) to make it 43. To me the set of 41 sounds is a reduction
of the language down to its simplest elements, the building blocks and
in a way like the reduction of dhammas down to a small number of
paramattha dhammas.

Feel free to ask questions or make comments on anything relating to
Pali. If you see anything in the primers or grammars, a Pali word
or phrase or something you'd like to bring up for some feedback -- go
ahead.

Best wishes,
Jim