Update: 2015-06-19 02:30 PM -0400

TIL

A Pali grammar on the basis of
Kachchayano

c02.htm

by F. Mason, 1868, downloaded - PDF-Mason (link chk 150619)
See also downloaded - PDF-EM (link chk 150619)
Downloaded and edited with additions by U Kyaw Tun (UKT) (M.S., I.P.S.T., USA) and staff of Tun Institute of Learning (TIL) . Not for sale. No copyright. Free for everyone. Prepared for students and staff of TIL  Computing and Language Center, Yangon, MYANMAR :  http://www.tuninst.net

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c02. Permutation
When two vowels meet

Total contents of this page:
When two vowels meet. 021. Kaccayano's rules. 027. General rules. 028. Insertion of consonants. 028. When vowels are followed by consonants. 029. The nasal symbol, anuswara. 031.

UKT notes :

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Chapter 02: Permutation

(p021begin)(EMp046)
In Greek, a vowel if short at the end of a word, is sometimes dropped when followed by another word beginning with a vowel; and if long, the two vowels are occasionally contracted into one. A final n (?) before a classified letter is usually changed to a letter of that class, and the classified letters themselves are subject to certain changes when united to others.

In Pali, when two words meet similar changes occur, but much more extensively than in Greek ; and this part of the Grammar Sanskrit grammarians denominate "Combination and Permutation" ; but it embraces only the same things than in Greek Grammars have been previously named Contraction, Crasis, Elision and Euphonic changes of consonants .

 

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When two vowels meet

§034. When one word ends in a vowel, and the next one begins with a vowel, one vowel is usually substituted for the two and attached to the first word.

 

a followed by a

§035. When {a.}  a at the end of one word is followed by  {a.} at the beginning of the next:

UKT: Instead of the term "word", I prefer to use the term 'syllable'. Remember the canonical form of the syllable: CVC or C(VC), where C = consonants, and V = peak or nucleus vowel. Thus, I would say:

" {a.} of the first syllable (zero-coda) is followed by {a.} of the second syllable (zero-onset)".

The reader should note that in order to present the Bur-Myan pronunciation, Romabama is forced to change the vowel which results in /a/ (represented by {a.}) changing to /ʌ/ (represented by {û}) . Please note that {û} is NOT {u} .

{û} is /ʌ/ as in English <but> /bʌ/, and,
{u} is /ʊ/ as in English <put> /pʊt/.

Please remember that English speech written in Latin script is non-phonetic, whereas Pal-Myan and Bur-Myan are phonetic, and you can arrive at the pronunciation from the spelling. This fact is usually lost to the Western phoneticians and linguists [I have two Americans with whom I have email correspondence] who argue with me that I am wrong in asserting that in Bur-Myan the addage is "What is written is correct; what is spoken is just sound" (meaning "sound or speech is lost as soon as uttered" and is not to be relied on).

Though F. Mason would show the combination rules as:

xy formed from x and y , which amounts to right-to-left presentation.

xy <-- x + y

I use the presentation form commonly used in Chemistry, i.e. from left-to-right. Accordingly, I have changed the presentation to:

x + y --> xy

§035-1 One V is elided as:

{na.} + {ût~ti.} --> {nût~hti.} 'is not'

In the Asokan inscription this compound is written with the short vowel. [UKT ¶]

UKT 150619: Although I would surely like to present the Asokan script (now dubbed Brahmi) because about one third of the Bur-Myan consonants have a close resemblance to it, I have to omit the Asokan glyphs because they are not part of the Windows Unicode fonts. I already have my hands full of the Myanmar glyphs because they also are not part of the Windows Unicode fonts.

§035-2 The two short vowels are sometimes changed to long á - shown in Romabama as {a} or {aa};

{ta.tra.} + {a.Bi.ra.ti.} --> {ta.tra-Bi.ra.ti.} 'great pleasure there'.

This is the rule in Sanskrit, and in the [Asokan] Girnar and other [stone] inscriptions, where the verb takes the Sanskrit form, the Sanskrit rule of Permutation is followed, and the long vowel is written as: नास्ति = ना स् ति  násti  'is not'  {naaþ~ti.} .
(p021end)

Continue reading in : - PDF-Mason (link chk 150619), and - PDF-EM (link chk 150619)

 

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UKT notes

 

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End of TIL file