Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 436

Dictionary of Sanskrit on Historical Principles
427
phonology which NIEDERMANN gives in his Phonetique historique du Latin, and the same is true of the grammar in CHANTRAINE'S Morphologie historique du grec. A similar attempt can be made while dealing with the etymology of Sanskrit words.
The historical dictionary will have to bring out all such morphophonemic relations found in the words of a language and also deal with the derivations in full. It will also treat the relations between cognate words in Sanskrit like variations in verbs and nouns, though they cannot be regarded as derivations in Sanskrit itself. But should such a dictionary go further and include in its scope the history of the vocables up to their IE originals by the use of the material from the cognate languages ? To do this will amount to including in its scope the work of an etymological dictionary although both the OED and the Latin Thesaurus do so. But it must be realised that the level of confidence between these two fields is different and a careful perusal of the two Latin etymological dictionaries, one by A. WALDE and the other by ERNOUT and MEILLET, will indicate clearly the difference between a proved etymology and a merely probable one. As the etymologies of the first type are so few and so well-known, there is no real gain in going over them again and the probable ones are subject to such quick and drastic changes that a work of the type envisaged should better keep them out so as not to become outdated soon. Moreover, the historical dictionary is meant to supply to the etyymologists only the authenticated material so that he can build his etymologies on solid foundations. Naturally the historical material should not be coloured by any thought of preconceived etymologies.
There are, however, a couple of points on which the help of etymology will be urgently needed by the historical lexicographer. To decide whether or not to set up homonyms, he will have to use the etymology of the items under consideration as one of the means when semantic considerations either fail or are indecisive. Sometimes etymology may help him regard two items as identical in spite of the differences of meaning. Secondly, the etymology of a word may give him a clue to the more basic and historically original meaning when the purely chronological evidence leaves him in doubt. Meanings of cognates from the related languages will be of some help to him in this regard. In the present dictionary we will have to be satisfied with merely giving references to WALDE-POKORNY or POKORNY for IE and to TURNER for Indo-Aryan developments. For etymology proper, reference can be made to MAYRHOFER and for borrowals to DED of BURROW and EMENEAU and a few other standard dictionaries. Like the