Dear Nina,
Yor will find the Saddaniiti listed inside the back cover (Recent
Publications) of the PTS 2002 List of Issues. This information has
already been posted to the Pali group by Rene Salm. See my msg no.
2590, May 10, 2003 which I reproduce below for a review of the work.
Please note that Teng Kee criticized the remarks I made in the last
paragraph. I think you may have been away at the time.
Jim
> Dear Jim,
> thank you. How shall we get this info to Pali yahoo list?
> I could not find in the PTS catalogue: H. Smith's edition of the
> Saddaniiti
> Nina.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Anderson" <jimanderson_on@...>
To: <Pali@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 10, 2003 6:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Pali] PTS; Ven. N. (Saddaniiti)
> Dear Rene,
>
> I was away when you sent the following message on Mar. 27. I'm just
> now catching up with it.
>
> > Dear Pali friends--
> >
> > I was recently looking at the most recent list of issues of the
Pali
> > Text Society and am curious about a number of them. Does anyone
own
> any
> > of the following, or have information about them?
> >
> > -- The Saddaniiti (5 vols.) The description says: "The greatest of
> the
> > extant Pali grammars, written by Aggavamsa of Arimaddana in Burma
in
> > A.D. 1154." I am curious about this work, as I understand it looks
> > at Pali from the point of view of the roots, which is my preferred
> way
> > of studying the language.
>
> It is fortunate that this work has recently been reprinted. I
acquired
> it with some difficulty in 1982-3 as the first two volumes were out
of
> print at the time. I had to photocopy these in the library of the
> University of Toronto. I found one volume in a second-hand bookstore
> and ordered the remaining ones from Munksgaard. After making good
use
> of these volumes for many years I can say that they are definitely
> well worth having. Here is some information to give you an idea as
to
> what these volumes contain:
>
> The title of the work is: Saddaniiti -- La Grammaire Palie
> d'Aggava.msa. ed. by Helmer Smith.
>
> The Pali text itself takes up the first 3 volumes as follows:
>
> 1. Padamaalaa. This one starts with the first verbal root
(dhaatu) --
> bhuu sattaaya.m, which is explained in great detail giving nearly
all
> the words derived from it and providing complete conjugational and
> declensional paradigms. It also covers other kinds of words like
> pronouns and numerals.
> 2. Dhaatumaalaa. This covers roots no. 2 to 1687 in eight classes
> (ga.na-s)
> 3. Suttamaalaa. This contains 1347 suttas in seven chapters in an
> arrangement much like those found in the grammars of Kaccaayana and
> Moggallaana. The 8th chapter treats word classes, and has some
useful
> material on prefixes (upasagga-s) and indeclinables (nipaata-s). The
> 9th chapter deals with textual matters eg. it starts off by
> classifying texts into paa.li, a.t.thakathaa, .tiikaa, and
> pakara.na.m.
>
> The next two volumes are appendices containing tables and indices.
>
> 4. Tables (first part). Contains all sorts of listings such as an
> alphabetical list of roots with page references and with
> correspondences to the roots of Panini's Dhaatupaa.tha (class and
root
> nos. only). There is also a listing of affixes and augments and a
> summary of the grammatical system which is written in French with
> translations of the Pali grammatical terms.
>
> 5. Tables (second part -- actually this takes up 2 volumes).
Contains
> an alphabetical index of words found in the Saddaniiti. Altogether,
> the five volumes take up 1795 pp.
>
> A different version of the Padamaala and the Dhaatumaala are
available
> online at tipitaka.org and on the CSCD which apparently do not have
> the Suttamaalaa. There is a very good article on the Saddaniiti in
> JPTS XVII, pp. 1-212 'Exploring the Saddaniiti', by E.G. Kahrs. It's
a
> critical study and translation of the kaaraka suttas (ยง547-573) in
the
> Suttamaalaa.
>
> If one can't find all the information one seeks concerning the Pali
> language in modern European-style grammars and primers, I think it
> then becomes necessary to turn to the long-standing tradition of
> grammatical texts written in Pali and going back many centuries. But
> these grammars can also be incomplete in some respects and one may
> then have to turn to native Sanskrit grammars to supplement one's
Pali
> studies. It may even become desirable to study Panini (as I do) in
> order to understand the often cryptic grammatical suttas and to find
> more detailed explanations about affixes, etc. and how words are
> formed.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jim
>