Etymology of honorific particle jI

[Artur Karp]

At 18:43 2005-06-23, you wrote:

>But, Artur,
>
>why should one require a precedent in Skt, Pkt or even
>Apabhramsha?


Dear Matthew,

Here are two articles of my belief.

Words survive only when they can continue to be used in useful contexts.

When we look for the etymology of words, we try to establish their original 
forms, testing our hyptheses not only via phonetic/morphophonetic laws, but 
also, wherever it's possible - by checking the contexts in which the 
supposed protoforms used to be used.

And so - if jIva (or upAdhyAya) are thought to be the predecessors of 
modern jI, then they should have been used in similar contexts. But they 
are not.

Equivalences like:

zRNotv AryaH/o/A - suno jI
pravizatu AryaH/oA - baiTho jI

point to Arya; and they seem more convincing than impossible constructions 
like: pravizatu jIva/jIvatu.

Regards, ji

Artur K.