Re: KR Norman on by/vy alternation
From: Eisel Mazard
Message: 1445
Date: 2005-10-31
Re:
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I've started to read
Indira Y. Junghare's Topics in Pali Historical Phonology (Motilal
Banarsidass, 1979)
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I read as much as I could of that book (and cited it in my short
article on the origins of the Pali language). Junghare makes a few
interesting observations, however, I found much of the analysis to be
"genuinely pointless" from any standpoint except a detached interest
in the proliferation of linguistic methodology.
Re: the similarities between empirical Pali and _de jure_ Paninian
Sanskrit --while many have suggested that this is because Pali is
somehow "more akin to spoken language" than Sk. epic poetry (etc.), I
wonder if this is not instead because the spoken language described by
Panini and that of the Tipitaka are equally artificial languages.
Nyanatusita's (excellent) list of Pali sources names a Pali & Prakrit
"mixed" work collecting together wit, plays-on-words, and innuendo. I
had not heard of this work before --it would probably be a very rich
source for comparative Pali & Prakrit linguistic research (if this has
not been done already...).
I also would like to complain about my own ignorance in one special
respect (there are many):
Do the Jains have any grammatical works sufficiently early to be of
interest to a comparative study of Jain prakrit, Pali, & Sk.? I have
never read of such sources; but I am dimly aware that only the
earliest Jain texts have a strong resemblance to canonical Pali.
E.M.