Re: Ablative/-to

Dear Tadao,

>Hi, Jim:
>Thank you for your further comments on /-to/. I had firmly belived that
>/-to/ is the other way of expressing ablative case than using the
>regular ablative case endings, and never thought that it could mark
>other cases. It is however, true that (with retrspective) I had had
>an uneasy feeling with /-to/ and a neive doubt about its significance
>(of being an ablative case marker). (Sanskrit doesn't seem to have
>this kind of affixes.) Do you think there is any way we can trace the
>etimological origin of /-to/?  I think it is a type of so-called
>grammaticalization (i.e., the attribution of a grammatical character
>to a once automomous  word). (Do we not have any Prakrit
>specilists on the web?)
>tadao

Sanskrit (and Vedic) has the same affix. I think the best way to trace the
origin of this affix is through older Sanskrit works. It is thought that the
Vedas are quite ancient (as far back as 1500 BCE) and I think Panini's
grammar is pre-3rd cent. BCE. The Pali taddhita affix /-to/ corresponds to
the Sanskrit taddhita affix /-tas/ which occurs also in the Rgveda (eg. ato
bhuuya.h). In Panini's Astadhyayi this affix is represented by /tasi/ and
/tasil/. The -i and -il  at the end are indicatory letters which are
dropped. The uses of these two affixes are described in the following 13
sutras:

tasi
IV.III.113-4 in the sense of "in the same direction with that" (tenaikadik)
V.IV.44-5 ablative; 46-7 instrumental; 48-9 genitive

tasil (after kim, most pronouns, bahu, pari, abhi)
V.III.7-9 ablative; 13 locative; 14 all remaining cases

I don't know if there are any Prakrit specialists on the web. One would have
to do some searching to find out.

Best wishes,
Jim



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