Re: about the "n

Hi Bhante Yuttadhammo,

>
>
>Sorry for the simple question, but is it true that the "n character (the
>gutteral nasal) in the pali language only occurs before a k, kh, g, or gh?
>Or can it exist elsewhere on its own?
>

I can't give a definitive answer, but one other place it can occur is before the short 'a', though the examples are somewhat artifical and are taken from grammatical literature:

"na-sadda,
"na-kaara,
ka kha ga gha "na,

What all these examples have in common is that they are designating the sound (the gutteral nasal) itself. So we could say these occurences are in the meta-language of Pali (Pali about Pali), even if they aren't in the basic language. Still I don't dare rule out entirely that the sound occurs in a normal word somewhere. I've been surprised before by very odd forms.

best regards,

/Rett