Southern pronunciations ? (Re: INDOLOGY FAQ

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

The earliest version of the name we come across in Tamil is vāraṇavāci in Kalittokai 24.13 of the Classical Tamil literature. There are places called vāraṇavāci in today's Tamil Nadu too.

Regards,
Palaniappan

On Feb 15, 2010, at 5:29 AM, Jean-Luc Chevillard wrote:

> 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
>>> 
>>