appatissa, disobedient

Hello all,

I suggest that we leave the mysteries of compound formation for a while and
address an interesting lexicographico-linguistic problem: the term appatisso
(also spelled appa.tisso). There is no doubt about the denotation of the
term. It is an adjective meaning "disobedient," and it usually occurs in a
formula together with agaarava. The problem is the etymology of the term. It
is impossible to find a match for it in Sanskrit except in pratishrava. Pali
disallows the consonant clusters /pr/ and /shr/. Since /p/ and /sh/ stand
higher in the hierarchy of sonoritites than /r/, /r/ is elided. It is
reflected, however, in the geminations /pp/ and /ss/. On the other hand, one
would expect the reading to be patissava, but this hypothetical form is only
found in post canonical lit., although Dhammasangani records the abstract
formation patissavataa. How is this to be explained? The problem is
evidently the phonological representation of the group /ava/. In general
labial /v/ entails lowering of the back vowel /a/ to /o/, and the whole
group becomes /o/. patissava thus develops into patisso. Formally this form
in indistinguishable from any noun or adjective ending in /a/ + the
inflectional ending /s/ of the nominative singular, whose generalized sandhi
form is /o/. patisso was therefore re-interpreted as an adjective ending in
/a/ as can be observed from the m. pl. form appatissaa. Later generations of
Buddhists had difficulties with the term and evidently did not understand
the Pali form as can be observed in Buddhist Sanskrit and Buddhist Hybrid
Sanskrit. Thus, in the end there is no mystery at all, the term is fully
understandable with the background of the phonology of the canonical
language.

Ole Pind


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