compounds in -guu

Dear Pali study group

Pali compounds like addha-guu and paara-guu have been mentioned recently.
They are peculiar because they end in -guu instead of the expected form -ga
like in Sanskrit. However, -guu is also found in Sanskrit in the same sense
as -ga, which is generally not known to Pali scholars, who sometimes offer
fantastic explanations of the occurrences. There is, however, no agreement
about how to interpret the evidence in Sanskrit. In the case of -guu we are
in all likelihood dealing with a form of the root gaa, etymologically
derived from ge + a consonantal phoneme (a so-called laryngeal) followed by
a labial appendix like w. Interestingly roots ending in aa like sthaa, paa,
jñaa, and daa have cognate forms in u/uu, in Sanskrit and other
Indo-European languages like Latin and Greek. Interestingly we have -ññuu in
Pali < jñaa.

Ole Holten Pind


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