Re: KR Norman on by/vy alternation

Dear Ven. Nyanatusita,

Thank-you very much for forwarding Dr. Norman's excellent reply to
your query. Looking through M. Cone's transcription of the Patna
Dharmapada (JPTS XIII) I spotted a -vv- for Skt. -vy- (divvesu =
dibbesu in Dhp 187) in verse 146 (p. 141); also, -vv- for -rv- is
often seen in many places but 'nibbaa.na' is used for 'nirvaa.na'.
According to M. Cone's introductory remarks the MS is written in a
proto-Bengali script and comparable to other 11th-12th century MSS
written in the same script and notes that v and b (along with other
pairs) are indistinguishable in the MS.

Owing to Ole's use of phonetic terms unfamiliar to me, I've started to
read Indira Y. Junghare's Topics in Pali Historical Phonology (Motilal
Banarsidass, 1979) which has been sitting unread on my bookshelf since
1979. In her introduction she writes:

"Paali is an archaic Prakrit, a middle Indian language which is a
descendant of one of the Old Indo-Aryan languages. It is very closely
related to both Vedic and Sanskrit, although by no means identical
with either one of them." (p. 1)

There is also some agreement with Dr. Norman's remark about Pali being
an artificial language in the following:

"But, by and large, correspondences between Paali and Old Indic are
regular and we may safely conclude that Pali is very close to a Middle
Indic language spoken somewhere in the Indian cultural area but
artificially modified in a few respects on the basis of other Middle
Indic languages and Classical Sanskrit." (p. 3)

Best wishes,
Jim

> Dear Lance, Jim, etc,
>
> I asked Dr K.R. Norman about the initial by/by alternation and got
the
> reply reproduced below.
> Bh. Nyanatusita
>


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