bodhisattva/bodhisatva

[Stefan Baums]

> the linguistic and notional development of the term 
> "bodhi-satva" (roughly: *sakta > °satta > °satva).

If MIA bodhisatta (= OIA *bodhisakta) is in fact the origin of
Buddhist Sanskrit bodhisat(t)va, then it is conceivable that the
association with sattva was made at an intermediate linguistic
stage corresponding to Gāndhārī: (1) The regular G correspondent
of both OIA ttv and OIA tv is tv [tv] (probably in pronunciation
as well as in orthography). (2) Words transposed from other forms
of MIA in general show either preserved t [tt] or adjusted tv
[tv], most notably in the gerund suffix, but where clarity was
important (such as in the ablative ending of the abstract noun,
‐tva < ‐tvāt), tv is used consistently. By the same token,
other‐MIA *‐satta would be Gāndhārīized as ‐satva _if_ already
supported by the notion that the word corresponded to OIA ‐sattva
rather than ‐sakta. The attested G form is bosisatva. (3) One
might consider whether the prevalence Buddhist Sanskrit satva with
one t could be connected to G satva with one t.

Best wishes for the holidays,
Stefan Baums

-- 
Stefan Baums
Asian Languages and Literature
University of Washington