double s sandhi of southern Bharata

[Guest guest]

Dear list, I am sure that someone can quickly tell me what kind of sandhi

produces all the double esses in the southern recension of the Mahabharata,

where I would expect visarga s instead of ss. Is this a purely southern

sandhi or is it one that is recognized by classical grammarians.

 

Many thanks,

 

Phillip

[Guest guest]

Hello Phillip,

 

For a detailed discussion of this phenomenon, see pp. 305-306 of my

edition of the zaunakIya caturAdhyAyikA, HOS vol. 52, 1997. The best

historical account is to be found in W.S. Allen's 1953 book Phonetics

in Ancient India (p. 51), which suggests that in an environment like

rAmaH+zete, the outcome rAmazzete is probably historically earlier.

Then at some late point "there appears to have been a tendency for -H

to extend its usage to contexts other than in pausa. The earliest of

these extensions was to the position before the initial fricatives z-

, S-, s-, where it replaced the homorganic final -z, -S, -s. This

practice was then extended to the position before the velar and

labial voiceless stops: in connexion with this innovation we find

mentioned the names of Agnivezya, vAlmIki, zAkalya, and the

mAdhyandina school, while the ancient grammarian zAkaTAyana is quoted

as holding to the more conservative practice. These changes have

been generally accepted so far as the writing of Sanskrit is

concerned, and A.H. Fry in his article 'A Phonemic Interpretation of

Visarga' has suggested that the spread of -H was due to the writers

of Classical Sanskrit operating with a pohnemic orthography." The

reference to practice of writing is rather problematic, since none of

the prAtizAkhyas seem to be giving rules in relation to writing, but

only with reference to oral recitation of Vedic texts. So the sort

of changes proposed by Allen need to be thought of in relation to

pronunciation of Sanskrit, and not so much in relation to its late

orthography. Rather a complex topic all in all.

 

Madhav Deshpande

 

 

INDOLOGY, phillip.ernest@v... wrote:

>

> Dear list, I am sure that someone can quickly tell me what kind of

sandhi

> produces all the double esses in the southern recension of the

Mahabharata,

> where I would expect visarga s instead of ss. Is this a purely

southern

> sandhi or is it one that is recognized by classical grammarians.

>

> Many thanks,

>

> Phillip