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(24) : Jaina Philosophy of Language Three Marahastha languages (languages spoken in Maharastra region) Three Lāda languages (languages spoken in Lāda region) Three Mālawa languages (languages spoken in Mālawa region) Three Māgadha languages (languages spoken in Magadha region) Three Gauda languages ((languages spoken in Gauda region)
The various languages prevalent in India today are constructed and refined in due course of time by these above languages.
In the anārya class of languages all the non-Indian languages are included. According to Jainācāryas, there are some seven hundred such languages including Pārasi, Singhali and Barbaric, etc. 20 It seems that the Jainācāryas were not familiar with all the non-Indian languages. That is why they could enumerate only some known non-Indian languages. It is difficult to say that how correct is the number of non-Indian languages that they have given, but looking to the prevalent languages and dialects today this number does not seem to be quite imaginary or exaggerated. It is expected that modern linguists will carry on research on the Indian and non-Indian languages, which are mentioned in Jaina Scriptures. As our concern is linguistic philosophy and not linguistics, it is not possible for us to go deep into such analysis. Anakṣarātmaka Bhāṣā (Non-alphabetical Language)
According to Jainācāryas the meaningful sound-symbols and body-movements capable of giving expressions to thought but bereft of letters (vowels and consonants) are called non-alphabetical languages. They hold that the divine voices of the Tīrthankaras, sound-symbols and body-movements of all the two, three and four sensed and five-sensed non-rational living beings, as well as of the dumb and the child, ail are the forms of non-alphabetical language. 2" It is necessary to accept the existence of language in the two-sensed living beings and the like because all these animals understand the meanings of the sound signals etc. In Viseșāvaśyaka-bhāșya it is clearly mentioned that sounds of exclamation, spitting, coughing, sneezing and clapping, etc. are non-alphabetical languages (anakşara-śruta) because they carry the feelings.22 Similarly, other body-movements, which are capable of expressing meaning, may be considered as a form of non-alphabetical language. It is possible to
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