SV: Query: Etymology of sanskrit "aham"/ I

[Lars Martin Fosse]

Pascale Didier [SMTP:pad at FTO.DE] skrev 09. november 1999 10:57:
>
> i am looking for the etymology of the sanskrit (or pali) word
> "aham"= I.

aham is etymologically related to Latin ego and Greek egoon. The Skt. form goes
back to an earlier form *egHom, where the H represents a laryngeal.

>
> further i would have a question to the instrumental Form of "aham":
> maya.
>
> Does this instrumental Form from aham "maya" have any
> etymology relation to the substantiv "maya = illusion"?

There is no connection between mayaa "by me" and  maayaa "illusion". It is
simply part of the paradigm of the first person pronoun. You will find more
details about these paradigms in e.g. Szemerenyi's Introduction to Historical
Linguistics.

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse

Dr. art. Lars Martin Fosse
Haugerudvn. 76, Leil. 114,
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Phone/Fax: +47 22 32 12 19
Email: lmfosse at online.no