Dear Bryan,
Thanks. I understand janīyāt (Skt.) > jaññā (Pali). The main query I had is regarding the usage of jaññā as a third person *plural* optative.
Regards,
Chris
Hi Chris, Aleix
The standard optative for jñā (a class 9 verb) in Skt. is janīyāt, 3rd person singl.
In the Prakrits the -īy- is assimilated to the final consonat of the verb (-n) and becomes ñña- doubled because of the two consonants - this linguistic phenomena is called palatization. The final -t is dropped, which is a common Pkt change, and the vowel lengthened to reflect the dropped final consonant.
So the derivation is janīyāt > jaññāt > jaññā
so it is a standārd Skt > Prakrit derivation.
Best wishes, Bryan
From: "Aleix Ruiz Falqués ruydaleixo@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2016 5:03 AM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] jaññā
Dear Chris,
Perhaps a form of subjunctive (after all the conditional, optative and subjunctive are the modes of the irreal) 3rd plural ending in -an, like bhavān, so Pāli jaññā < *janyān (<jan-ya-an) (cf. Burrow, section on subjunctive). I am not sure at all, but I think the 3rd pl. -an of the Skt subjunctive seems to me a decent candidate, because the suffix -yāt that Geiger calls an optative is actually subjunctive in Skt.
Best wishes,
Aleix
2016-03-24 15:31 GMT+07:00 Chris Clark chris.clark@... [palistudy] <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>:
Dear all,
The second and third person singular optative is sometimes formed with the ending -yā (Skt. -yāḥ and -yāt, respectively; Geiger § 129A). Thus, the second and third person singular optative of √jñā can be jaññā (there are other forms, of course).
In Cone’s “A Dictionary of Pāli” (s.v. jānāti), jaññā is also listed as a third person plural optative. A number of passages are quoted which seem to support this. Assuming Cone is correct, does anyone know the historical process that led to this form? Is the ending -yā found in other third person plural optative verbs?
Regards,
Chris