Comprehensive Critical Dictionary of Prakrit Languages Volum 01

Author(s): A M Ghatage
Publisher: Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute

Page 25

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18)
the word is found in the Nom. sg. ending in -e or -0 (4) The use of a dental n and a retroflex ņ in the base in these dialects will be given with -ya and Prakrit has become a rallying point of different views pot -. The writing of syllables like it. T, etc. are different practices. The Prakrit grammarians differ which sporadically occur will be given as .. , mi etc. frou each other and on some essential points the interIn case of the dialects Mäharasti and the dramatic pietations of the rules of grammurians have become a Prakrits and some Apa, works, the ya sruti will be avoided matier of doubt for some scholars. Different normalisathough the citations will show them with the ya sutitions have been suggested and used by scholars and even it the edition uses it, particularly in a work like the antiquity of a work is made to depend on it. DiaLila vaikahā, and stray verses cited in other works. The lectal differences play a prominent part in it. Hence writing of the astia will be avoided in setting up the some amount of clanication must be attempted before a lemmata but ured where it occurs in the MSS. as an Sche ne is suggested and followed in this dicticnary. exclusive form. If both forms occur the form with a
Some amount of basic clarification can be achieved will be avoided as far as possible. The reader will
by trying to use the chosemic prirciple for this purpose. locate all such words in the place 1 reper for it, as it
This will help to separate the writing conventions from the writing of the ais absurt. No form with the
the phonetic values of the sounds involved. The generally Agfa will be given as lemmata unless po form without
accepted writing mode for a given l'rakrit dialect may also lut occurs. The ayfa will be treitled as occurring
be us d for this purpose. Pali, and Paiści with its subregularly and will be so noted both in the liminata and
variety Culka Paisaci use only a to represent this sound in the citations.
and it will be retained here as it is. Like the absence
of yil-šruti in non-Jina works and MSS., a is mostly (2) Another writing convention, which has become
absent and only o and we are found. The Jaina works very common in Prakrit, pertains to the writing of Anu
except those in the dialect called JS. mostly give both svāra for all kinds of pasal sounds. While Sanskrit uses
ay and as optional suunds and are so written in the It before such sounds as the semivowels, sibilants and the
initial position. In the intervocalic position is prevoiced aspirate, Prakrit writing convention is to extend it
ferred, aud in case of the clusters resulting in a to all the places, before the stops, and before pause,
geminated nasal, both and are used like other for all nasalised vowels and all the na al consonants
consonants. No fial nasal sound occurs and the final except before n and m, where it is a similated to the
-n in the original Sanskrit words is represented by an following pasal consonant. But in all such cases its
96 . Thus there remain two positions in the phonooriginal phonetic value remains in act. When the earlier
logy of Prakrit words where both the sounds are used in Prakrit works used the nasal consonants following the
writing. These are the inital and inter vocalic positions Sanskrit mode of writing and made a distinction between
where both n and ? und nn and yn are used with no an Anusvira and a pasalised vowel, no such distinction is
discernible principles.
discernible made in Prakrit Devanagari orthography. Even at the and of a word or a metrical line, where Saaskrit insists
in the initial position both ? and n are used at upon the use of -m, the Prakrits will use an Anasvára. rand m or one or the other is used exclusively in a given The writing of the Apus vāra will be tied in this Prakrit dialect and hence there results no contrast dictionary whatever the mode of writing in various
between the two. In the medial position an ungeeditions which are found to be inconsistent, sed therefore minated sound is mostly used as op and not giving call for some kind of normalisation.
rise o no contrast as such. But in the inter vocalic
posit on the geminated sounds and any are found, but (3) Tbe distinction between an Anusvära and ther distribution in it given dialect does not coincide a nasalised vowel will be made only where the metrical
with the distribution of an initial for u. In this rulos do not belp us to decide the length of the syllable as position both and a contrast with 1. Hence one
may regard the relation betweea initial nin as in compleelther short or long, which otherwise decides whether
mentation with an and nn in the medial position and the sound is a full Anusvāra making the syllable long or
consider a medial single or as a different phoneme. This only a nasalization which keeps the value of the syllable
view is in agreement with the development of these unchanged. In practice nasalised vowels may be occa
sounds in the New indc-Aryan languages. Hence the siopally mai ked with the sign of nasalzation (called writing of the initial n and may be b.ised on the Cand, abindu ) at the ecd of words in Apabhiamsa where writing conventions of a given dialect, and selling aside the length of the syllable is not determinable.
the writing of both us and 7 (or not) as two distinct