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JOURNAL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BOMBAY
Some of the linguistic features attributed by Lüders to the language of the original canon are as follows: (1) voicing of unvoiced intervocal single and geminated
stops, e.g.-k- > -8- t- > -d-, -kkh- > .ggh., -ţth-> ś
-ddh(2) Weakening of intervocal voiced stops to y., c.g.-j- :
-Y., -d- > .y.. (8) .P > .V(4) use of 1 (and no r) (5) Abl. sg. of -a stems in -am, (cf. Páli : akatam dukkatam
seyyom Dh. 814 instead of akatam dukkatä seyyo). (6) Acc. pl. of -a stems in -am, e.g. kanhom dhammam Dh.
87 for kaņhe dhamme. (7) Loc. pl. of -a stems in -hi, e.g. virūpakkhehi me mettam
cullav. V. 6 for virūpakkesu. (8) nom. sg. of -& stems in e.
But a question is here justified. If the assumed original canon in the eastern language has been completely lost to us, how does Lüders formulate his views on the nature of the language of this canon ?
The method adopted by Lüders can be described in the following way.
(i) If Pāli, as a western dialect, shows a particular phonetic or morphological feature as its general characteristic, and also shows a few exceptions to the general pattern, then Lüders assumes that these exceptions occur due to these being borrowings from the original eastern canon. In that case the phonological or the morphological feature which occurs asexception in Pāli is to be looked upon as a regular characteristic of the eastern language. To give an example, if in Pāli -k- in the intervocal position happens to correspond generally to Sanskrit -k, but in a few cases Pāli -gcorresponds to Skt. -k, then according to Lüders, these words with -g- occur in Pāli on account of their being borrowings from the castern language. In that case -g- for Skt. -k- or voicing of intervocal sounds to sonants is to be considered as a regular feature of the eastern dialect. Similarly if Pāli gives acc. pl. forms of -a
Madhu Vidya/334
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