Southern pronunciations ? (Re: INDOLOGY FAQ

[Jean-Luc Chevillard]

As a post-scriptum to my first remark,
I want to addd that I have just had a look at Kittel's Kannada-English 
dictionary

it contains on page 1392
an entry "vâraṇâsi"
and the authority given is "Bp. 54, 65; 58, 34; My."

The list abbreviations gives

Bp. = "Basava purāṇa. Bibliotheca Carnâtaka, Mangalore, 1850"

If as early as the 6th century, which is a date often given for the 
Tamil /Maṇimēkalai /, we find the spelling vāraṇāci,
and if that spelling has remained the norm in Tamil
[See: 
<http://ta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E0%AE%B5%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%A3%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%9A%E0%AE%BF>]
there must be a reason.

It would be interesting to have additional data for other indian languages

-- Jean-Luc Chevillard (CNRS, Paris)



Le 2/15/2010 10:43 AM, Jean-Luc Chevillard a écrit :
> I would be interested in having comments
> on the Tamil form: வாரணாசி [vāraṇāci].
>
> See the Tamil Lexicon (p. 3610)
>
> வாரணாசி vāraṇāci, n. < Vāraṇasī. Benares, situate between the rivers 
> Varaṇā and Asī; காசி. வாரணாசியோர் மறையோம்பாளன் (மணி. 13, 3).
>
> See also another entry (p.3609), which gives a different spelling.
>
> வாரணசி vāraṇaci, n. < vāraṇasī. See வாரணாசி. (யாழ். அக.)
>
> The authority quoted by the Tamil Lexicon for the spelling vāraṇāci is 
> the Maṇimēkalai
> and comes from the chapter that tells the story of ஆபுததிரன்.
>
> -- Jean-Luc Chevillard (Paris)
>
>
> Le 2/15/2010 6:42 AM, Gary Tubb a écrit :
>> I am tempted to add, in the section on mispronunciations, an entry on 
>> "vaaraaNasii" (as the name of the city), with a note to the effect 
>> that, for the same reasons as given for "mahaabhaarata" and 
>> "raamaayaNa," the third syllable in this name is the least 
>> appropriate place to apply a stress accent.  But I have been struck 
>> over the years by the frequency with which many people I respect as 
>> experts on Banaras habitually lengthen and stress the vowel in the 
>> third syllable---so much so that I wonder whether they might be 
>> following some local tradition unknown to me, despite the official 
>> spelling of the name.  Are they?  Is there any good reason to make 
>> the third "a" vowel in "Varanasi" long?
>>
>> ---
>> Gary Tubb, Professor and Chair
>> Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations
>> The University of Chicago
>>
>