Re: Lampang acquisitions: Kaccaayana

Dear Rett, Eisel, Phra Yuttadhammo, and Justin,

Rett wrote:
> In Senart's Kaccaayana edition, in the vutti text, vya~njana is
> consistently written bya~njana (at least in the Sandhikappa, which
> is where I looked). I've seen it a number of other places as well.
> The PED even has entries for bya- initials, usually referring to the
> corresponding vya- entries. I've just accepted it without knowing
> the reason behind it.

Perhaps the reason for the by- spelling of vy- is that the 'v'  is
commonly pronounced 'w' by native speakers in South Asia. Since it
does not seem possible to pronounce a 'w' and a 'y' at the same time,
the 'w' sound became a 'b' (v => w => b) before 'y'. I believe the
classical description of Pali 'v' as a labio-dental (danto.t.thaja) is
the familiar 'v' in English but less aspirated. Unless a rule in
Kaccaayana or elsewhere can be found that allows for the alternative
'by-', it would seem that 'by-' cannot be considered pure Pali.

There is also a related problem in whether to pronounce 'tv-' (as in
'tva.m') as 'tw-' or 'tv-'. I think most speakers, as I do myself,
pronounce it as 'tw-' as in 'twin'.

Best wishes,
Jim

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