Re: Kaccaayana: introductory verses (2)

Jim and Ma Vajira,

Thanks for the effort you put into looking for a definition of akkhara, and tracing the various meanings it has had.  I am sure that such research will help us to understand Kaccaayana, Pali and even Buddhavacana.  But I am not sure that it is relevant to the point I was trying to make, which has primarily to do with English rather than Pali (not to mention Dhamma).

The English word 'letter', so far as I know, refers (whether in everyday language, traditional grammar or modern linguistics) to graphic symbols, and never to phonetics.  Thus we can say 'people speak using sounds' but not 'people speak using letters'.  The latter might possibly mean that people speak by orally spelling each word; then perhaps it would not be nonsense, but simply false.

Thus when U Nandisena gives the English translation (b) of sentence (a) in the vutti of Kaccaayana 1, his translation is referring to things like a, b, c, ...

(a)  Sabbavacanaanam attho akkhareh' eva sa~n~naayate.
(b)  The meaning of all words is only known by letters.

On the basis of English (b) one might well infer that we cannot understand anything unless we read it in a book.  Not perhaps what U Nandisena takes the Pali sentence to mean.

It is of course true that letters are (by design) related to speech sounds.  Jim asks:

> When we read written letters and words, don't we normally have to transform (consciously or subconsciously) these into audible or imaginary sounds in order for us to comprehend or relate to them? >

I think perhaps we do, and if so, I would take it as evidence that sounds are primary and letters secondary.  But we do have to clearly distinguish the two,

(c)  I readthat book yesterday.
(d)  I will readthat book tomorrow.

(e)  That book is red.
(f)  That book is often read.

In (c) and (d) illustrate two words which have the same letters but different sounds, while (e) and (f) illustrate two words which have the same sounds but different letters.

It is not that 'sound' is a perfect translation of Pali akkhara; each word has various meanings and usage which the other does not share.  But I remain of the opinion that 'sound' is a much better translation than 'letter' in the cases in question.
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George Bedell
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