By-/vy alternation in hinter-India

Dear Jim,


>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.
> 
>
It is not clear to me what mean with ``it does not seem possible to
pronounce a 'w' and a 'y' at the same time''? I probably misunderstand
you but as far as I know they are not pronounced at the same time. The
'v' is  pronounced in a way in between the English `v' and 'w' and there
is apparently no exactly corresponding sound in English. The 'y' in vy-
and by- is pronounced as in `yes' with a trace of an `i' in between the
v/b and y, like a Svarabhakti vowel.

I had a look at Geiger again and he states (para 53.3) that initially
only `v' appears. I assumed earlier that the medial v/b alternation
could also take place initially but maybe this is not the case.
Geiger (para 54.6) also states that the by- form is written for vy- in
manuscripts from hinter-India. I suppose that he means Burma with
hinter-India, but am not sure. However, I see no clear correlation
between the origin of the Patimokkha MSS and editions I have and the
initial by-/vy- alternation.

Norman (``Dialect form in Paali'') notes an initial v/bh alternation in
Middle Indo-aryan and states that it is dialectical. I could not find
anything in his writings about an initial vy-/by- alternation.
Initial by- is not found in the Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
Dictionary, however the MW Sanskrit English Dictionary gives byu.s (as
well as pyu.s) as a reading for vyu.s (in the sense of `dividing'.)

Ignorant English speakers pronounce the Pali -by- or -vy- like in the
English words bye and vying, but this is incorrect.

>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'.

I think that this is o.k. In the transliteration of proper names in Sri
Lanka one gets the Sinhala v/w character sometimes transliterated into
English as `v' and sometimes as `w', e.g., nuvara and nuwara. This can
be a bit confusing. For the transcription of Pali and Sanskrit texts the
`v' was originally chosen, but the `w' could have been chosen just as well.

Best wishes,
                 Bh. Nyanatusita