An Introduction to Kachch Ana's Grammar of the Pali Language (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 edition. Excerpt: ...varenyam as vareniam; amdtyam as amktiam; svadhraram as siuidvaram; and svastibhih as suastibhih. Now as this mode of lengthening words is common in Prakrit, it would appear that the Prakrit pronunciation agrees in this respect with that of the old Sanskrit, in contradistinction to the more recent.' Such are the relations which the oldest Sanskrit now accessible to us, bears to the Pali; and it must be borne in mind that the former is (1) a modification of two sorts of language, the Vedic or the sacred Sanskrit, and the vyavaharika or the Vernacular;--that (2) the vernacular, or the 'current' language of the Brahmans was in course of time assimilated to their Vedic Sanskrit;--and (3) that the Vedas themselves have been tampered with, so that whilst they received additions and mutations in point of substance, the language itself has indeed undergone a considerable change in point of form. We have thus no truthful evidence of the normal development of the Vedic Sanskrit, and which, if we had, might, perhaps, exhibit that many other forms of - Zeitschrift for die Kunde rtes Morgenl&ndes, iii., 80. + Hama Ywli, Intruduetitm. '-': . the Pali, which are distinguishable from their corresponding forms in the Sanskrit, were at one time as much identical with the Anti-Vedic, as several remnants of the Vedic forms are decidedly the same in the Pali. A few words may however be deemed necessary in support of the above propositions; and 1. That the Brahmans ha I two kinds of language. It is a well known fact in the East generally, that nearly every nation has a book-dialect and a vernacular speech. Take, for instince, the Sinhalese. Our vernacular language is generally without the contrivance of Sandhi and compounds; whereas the dialect in which..