Any suggestions!

[Hans Henrich Hock]

Alternatively, this practice might simply reflect the fact that
before voiced (aspirate) stop the contrast voiced : voiceless is
neutralized, so that it from the perspective of phonological contrast
it doesn't matter how we write that sound. A more wide-spread
parallel is the common variation between anusvara and homorganic
nasal before stops where, again, there is no contrast between the two
in that particular environment.  To check on whether this makes sense
it would be helpful to see what happens in cases such as zabda
(written zapda??) or labdha (lapdha)?  If these are not written with
voiceless stops, then a more idiosyncratic account, possibly in terms
of calligraphic concerns (or more down to earth, some notion of ease
of writing), would be more appropriate.

Best wishes to all for 2002, Pongal, Lohri, ityaadi,

Hans Henrich Hock


>As in Sanskrit *tdha is phonetically impossible, I think the best way is to
>consider the ligature graphically built up of t- and -dha as representing a
>local variety of ddha, probably in a linguistic environment where the
>opposition between sonants and surds is not particularly strong.
>
>Yours,
>Ferenc
>----------------------------------------------------
>Ferenc Ruzsa
>assistant professor of philosophy,
>ELTE University Budapest
>ferenc.ruzsa at elte.hu
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at UMICH.EDU>
>To: INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk <INDOLOGY at liverpool.ac.uk>
>Date: 2002. január 23. 14.51
>Subject: Re: Any suggestions!
>
>
>>Allen has indeed brought up an important question.  I wonder how one would
>>go about distinguishing between orthographic versus calligraphic
>>interpretation.  In my manuscript, I find zraatdha for zraaddha, zutdha for
>>zuddha, sitdha for siddha, batdha for baddha.  However, I found one
>>instance where one clearly reads prasiddha and not the expected prasitdha.
>>This one instance tells me that the copyist can calligraphically
>>distinguish between -tdha- and -ddha-, though in 99.99% of the cases, he
>>uses -tdha-.  With this data, what might one conclude?  Best,
>>                                         Madhav
>>
>>--On Tuesday, January 22, 2002 11:51 AM -0500 Allen W Thrasher
>><athr at LOC.GOV> wrote:
>>
>>>  There is the epistemological problem how to know whether this is a
>>>  question of orthography (spelling) or of calligraphy, i.e. whether the
>>>  scribe thought the sign was the equivalent of ta+virama+dha or
>>>  d+virama+dha.
>>>
>>>  Allen
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>  Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
>>>
>>>  Senior Reference Librarian       101 Independence Ave., SE
>>>  Southern Asia Section               LJ-150
>>>  Asian Division                            Washington, DC 20540-4810
>>>  Library of Congress                     U.S.A.
>>>  tel. 202-707-3732                       fax 202-707-1724
>>>  Email: athr at loc.gov
>>>
>>>  The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the
>>>  Library of Congress.
>>

--

Hans Henrich Hock, Director
Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
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