Re: Kaccaayana: introductory verses (2)

Jim,

It seems to me that your citation from Webster confirms what I said about the meaning of the word 'letter' in English.  And I have no problem with Cone's definition: 'a vowel; a letter, phoneme (a, ā, etc.)' except that I would not use 'letter' here but '(speech) sound' for precisely the same reasons as in the translation case.

'Phoneme' might be a better translation of akkhara than 'sound'; unfortunately it is not ordinary English but a technical term whose meaning will be familiar only to those who have studied linguistics.

> I think "letters" in the translation is fine as long as we take it in the meaning of
> Cone's defn. 2. We might also substitute "letters or sounds" for "letters" to make
> that meaning clearer.

I find it difficult to see the point of translating akkhara as 'letter' if in order to correctly understand the translation, the user must consult Cone, and sort through the various meanings of akkhara she gives..  I thought the purpose of a translation was to avoid this (as far as possible).

Translating akkhara as 'letter' is actually worse than 'phoneme' because in the latter case a user of the translation will immediately realize that he or she must seek out the meaning of the definiens (up-to-date English dictionaries will include 'phoneme'), while in the former case, because the problem is an unfamiliar meaning rather than an unfamiliar word, misunderstanding and confusion are more likely.

Cheers,

*     *     *     *     *
George Bedell
230/5 Suan Lanna Village, Huay Kaew Road,
t. Chang Phuak, a. Muang
Chiang Mai 50300, Thailand
+66-53-414100



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