Re: suttas 3-6: vowels & consonants

Dear Amara,

>I think [PaliStudy] looks great myself, come to think of it!

I went so far as to change it to [PaliStudy] but then changed my mind about
it soon afterwards, so it's back to the usual for now. I have been
reconsidering Sarah's preference for palistudygroup.

>Could you also tell us what the possible meanings of Saddaniiti are?

I find myself taking it to mean a 'guide to the sounds' (of Pali). I have
had difficulties with what the word 'sadda' might actually mean here. I
looked up the meaning of 'sound' in the English dictionary (COD) and found a
sense that seems to come close: "any of a series of articulate utterances
([eg.] vowel and consonant sounds)". The Saddaniti often refers to a word as
a sound (sadda). There are other possible meanings for sadda such as word,
speech, voice, language, even grammar but I think 'sound' as defined above
seems the mostly likely one to me.

>It reminds me that the Thai uses 'nitipannati' for the government
>legislation department.

I think 'niiti' as the prior member of a compound does carry the sense of
governing, leading, directing. Some Sanskrit compounds are niitividyaa
(political science) and niiti"saastram (science of ethics or of politics;
morality).

>Consequently, it makes me think of Gayan, wouldn't it be great if he
>had the time to join our group?  He seems quite knowledgeable in Pali
>and once said that Singhalese was derived from the Pali for the most
>part.  Our studies would familiarize him with how Pali is written in
>romanized alphabets as well as the proper translations.  And he could
>certainly help us with his linguistic heritage which is probably the
>closest we could get to the original, don't you think?

Yes, I agree. I have thought of inviting Gayan but have postponed it for a
little while longer. I think it would be prudent to keep this group fairly
small in its early stages -- at least until we get our feet on the ground
and the time seems right for more invitations.

>>I think 'kappa' here might be referring to the prescribed rules for
>sandhi.
>
>>The 'kappa' as in 'mahaakappa' (great eon) means something quite
>different,
>>although both kappas come from the same root 'kapp' which carries 3
>basic
>>meanings.
>
>May I ask for more details; which three meanings?

The three basic meanings given for the root 'kapp' in the Dhaatumaala are
vitakka (thought), vidhi (this has too many meanings for me to sift through
for the most basic one) and chedana (cutting). I would say that the kappa in
sandhikappa is connected to vidhi as it carries a meaning of rule, precept.
I'm not sure which one of these meanings the sense of eon comes from but
perhaps vidhi also. The Sanskrit equivalent of  'kappa' is 'kalpa' which is
derived differently from the Pali one in that its root is k.rp where the .r
is then changed to .l for k.lp and the meaning associated with this root is
saamarthya -- ability. So you can see that kappa (with or without a prefix)
is rather a difficult word to fully understand with so many different
meanings associated with it.

Best wishes,
Jim