Re: Kc 1

All,

Consider the English sentence (1):

(1)  "The meaning is correctly known through the letters."

Pretend (for the sake of argument) that we don't know (a) that this is a translation from Pali, (b) what the translated Pali words are, (c) what the Sanskrit words are which correspond to them, (d) what later commentaries have said about them, or (e) how they are defined or analyzed in Pali dictionaries and grammars.

What does (1) tell us?  First of all, it is talking about written, not spoken language..  Maybe it is telling us to be careful in reading and writing; if we don't know how to spell, we may misunderstand or cause others to misunderstand. 

What about (2); what does it tell us (those of us who know a little Pali and are studying Kaccaayana)? 

(2)  Attho akkharasaññāto.

It isn't about written language or spelling at all, but a fairly profound statement about the relation between sound and meaning either in Pali or (I would like to think) in all languages, whether in pre-literate or literate times.  I propose (1') as a preferable translation of (2):

(1')  "Meaning is known through sounds."

I have eliminated the definite article since this is the first statement in the grammar, and there are no specific meanings or letters to which it refers.  And 'correctly' is redundant (since incorrect knowledge would not be knowledge at all).  We still need to ask exactly what Kaccaayana means by (2), but to insist on 'letter' as opposed to 'sound' (for whatever reason) still strikes me as mistaken.

I think this agrees with Ma Vajira when she said:
> We need to understand as much as possible what is written in Kaccaayana, but
> we also need to develop an English translation that is meaningful and practical.

*     *     *     *     *
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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