[INDOLOGY] ळ in south Indian grantha sanskrit manuscripts
Anna Aurelia Esposito
anna.esposito at uni-wuerzburg.de
Fri Mar 24 13:48:45 UTC 2023
Dear Charles,
the second photo is Malayalam, not Kannada.
Best wishes,
Anna
Zitat von Charles Li via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Since we're on the topic of Kannada and the retroflex ḷ, I was
> wondering if anyone has seen this weird Devanagari sign for "ḷa".
> I'm attaching two photos of the same passage from a Kannada
> commentary on the Amarakoṣa, the first one in Devanagari script
> (British Library IO SAN 1758), and the second in Tigalari (IFP
> RE33635). The passage reads:
>
> guṇāḥ | guṇagaḷū |
>
> As seen in RE33635, the last character is "ḷū". But Devanagari
> scribe consistently uses a funny sign, a kind of ल with an extra
> hook, to transcribe this. Has anyone seen this anywhere else?
>
> Best,
>
> Charles
>
> On 2023-03-24 14:18, Andrew Ollett via INDOLOGY wrote:
>> Dear all,
>>
>> In Kannada, too, Sanskrit words are often written with a retroflex
>> ḷ (ಳ = ळ) where we might have expected l (ಲ = ल). The retroflex ḷ
>> in Sanskrit words is called by the name kṣaḷa (ಕ್ಷಳ) in Kēśava's
>> Śabdamaṇidarpaṇam (1260 CE). Kēśava (or Kēśirāja, as he is also
>> known) distinguishes this sound from the retroflex ḷ found in
>> Kannada words, called kuḷa (ಕುಳ), which is however written with
>> exactly the same letter (ಳ). Kēśava further notes that the kṣaḷa
>> and kuḷa (ಳ = ळ) can serve as equivalents for the sake of prāsa
>> (second-letter alliteration), whereas the dental l (ಲ = ल) cannot
>> alternate with either of them.
>>
>> I don't know precisely (a) why Kēśirāja felt it necessary to
>> distinguish between the Sanskrit and Kannada retroflex ḷ; and (b)
>> why the retroflex ḷ (kṣaḷa) occurs optionally in some Sanskrit
>> words, in some positions, and not in others. Kittel in his /Grammar
>> of the Kannada Language /pp. 14–15
>> <https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.23505/page/13/mode/2up>, §30,
>> says: “It is often used by Kannaḍa people as a substitute for the
>> Saṁskṛita ಲ (= ल), the sound of which in the Saṁskṛita language
>> apparently bears a dubious character for them, one that is neither
>> their ಲ (= ल) nor their ಳ (= ळ); this ಳ (= ळ) is Kêšava’s kṣaḷa.” I
>> interpret this to mean: whereas Kannada clearly distinguishes a
>> dental and retroflex lateral, Sanskrit does not, and the Sanskrit
>> lateral is pronounced somewhere between a dental and retroflex
>> position (kind of like the "dental" stops in most kinds of American
>> English), with some phonotactically-conditioned variation within
>> this range. The exact conditions of this variation remain a little
>> obscure, but Kēśava does after all call the consonant kṣaḷa, which
>> suggests that the retroflexion is found (among other places) in
>> those same contexts where dental n is retroflexed to ṇ.
>> Christophe's observation that retroflex ḷ is not used
>> word-initially accords with my impression of Kannada usage.
>>
>> Andrew
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 24, 2023 at 5:08 AM Christophe Vielle via INDOLOGY
>> <indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>> I was in course of stating more or less the same as Anna Aurelia
>> about the Malayalam script manuscripts, observing the regularity
>> of the use of the retroflex for peculiar words, which, I would
>> add, usually preserve this peculiarity in their
>> borrowing/inclusion within Malayalam language. The retroflex is
>> systematically replaced by -l- in the Devanagari manuscripts which
>> are transcripts of Malayalam script mss., with the problem that
>> this retroflex can in fact also sometime be used for -ḍ- (see
>> below /jaḷa/ for /jaḍa/ etc.).
>> Contrasting examples are /viḷambita/ (cf. /viḷambase/ in
>> Esposito's post) with a "forced" intervocalic -l- > -ḷ- after a
>> prefixe (/lamb- /alone being written with l-),
>> versus///vilo//ḷita/ keeping the initial -l- of the theme after
>> the prefixe. A more complete listing of the forms of the concerned
>> words (from the apparatus in crit. ed. mentioning them) should be
>> made for drawing linguistic conclusions. The references of Philipp
>> Maas are useful in this respect.
>>
>> A few samples from a text in course of edition
>>
>> vilolita : viloḷita
>> kuntala : kuntaḷa
>> lalita : laḷita
>> pulinā : puḷinā
>> milatpulakakuḍmalaṃ : miḷatpuḷakakuḍmaḷaṃ
>> valakṣagu : vaḷakṣagu
>> kalakala : kaḷakaḷa
>> alinda : aḷinda
>> gala : gaḷa
>> antarāla : antarāḷa
>> pacelima : paceḷima
>> bahala : bahaḷa
>> gadula : gaduḷa
>> nalina : naḷina
>> bakula : bakuḷa
>>
>> vilambita : viḷambita
>>
>> jaḍa : jaḷa
>>
>> From a purāṇa text:
>>
>> /pātāla /:///pātāḷa/
>> /śālin- /: /ṣāḷin//-/
>> /tolikā /: /toḷikā/
>> /argala-/: /arggaḷa-/
>> /vyāla/- : /vyāḷa/-
>> /bala- / : /vaḷa-/
>> /karāla- /:///karāḷa-/
>> /pralaya- /: /praḷaya-/
>> /dhūli/- : /dhūḷi/-
>> /alakā- : //aḷakā-/
>>
>> /-viluḍī/- : -/viluḷī/-
>> -/jaḍī/- : -/jaḷī/-
>> /-vrīḍam /: /-vrīḷam/
>> /kṣveḍita-/ : /kṣveḷita-/
>> /thuḍa- /:///thuḷa/-
>> /huḍa- / : / huḷa-/
>>
>>> Le 24 mars 2023 à 09:29, Anna Aurelia Esposito
>>> <anna.esposito at uni-wuerzburg.de> a écrit :
>>>
>>> Dear Harry Spier,
>>> I found the same in drama manuscripts written in Malayāḷam
>>> script. In particular Sanskrit words intervocalic l is replaced
>>> by ḷ. This usage persevers not only in all manuscripts, but also
>>> in the editions printed in Malayāḷam script (see e.g. the
>>> edition of the “Trivandrum Plays” ascribed to Bhasa of Bhāskaran,
>>> 1987).
>>>
>>> In Cārudatta ascribed to Bhāsa we find for example ḷ in I.2a
>>> dehaḷīnām, I.13b bahaḷa-, I.13b -kāḷā-, I.26.38 viḷambase, III.8b
>>> karāḷo, III.10b -kākaḷīṣu, III.12d nīḷa-, in Dūtavākya -kaḷaṅka-
>>> 35.1, -praḷaya- 47c and *49c, -laḷitā- *47a.
>>>
>>> So far, no one has been able to explain to me why the l has been
>>> changed to ḷ in these words, and consistently in every manuscript
>>> (and also in the printed edition). A possible explanation would
>>> be, as you suggest, that one scribe read the text and the other
>>> wrote it; but in some cases it is evident from the errors in the
>>> manuscripts that the text was copied and not written down by
>>> hearing. I am curious if someone from the list can give us an
>>> explanation.
>>>
>>> Best wishes,
>>> Anna Esposito
>>>
>>>
>>> Zitat von Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>:
>>>
>>>> Dear list members,
>>>> I'm looking at the devanagari transcription of a south indian
>>>> grantha
>>>> manuscript. most consonent l's are the classical sanskrit l
>>>> i.e. ल but
>>>> some words have the letter, ळ .
>>>> Some examples are:
>>>> प्रक्षाळ्य
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> नाळिकेरोद्भवंपादौप्रक्षाळ्याचम्यमुकुळीकृतियपिण्गळायवामांघ्र्यब्जदळासह्रिताम्अण्गुळ्यग्रेणशुद्धविद्यातत्वव्याप्तसर्वमणळोपेतं
>>>>
>>>> I'm pretty sure this isn't from typist misprints because प्रक्षाळ्य
>>>> occcurs many times always spelled with ळ
>>>>
>>>> Any explanations would be appreciated. My understanding is that
>>>> sometimes
>>>> manuscripts were created by one scribe speaking the text and
>>>> another scribe
>>>> writing what he hears. Is that a possible explanation for the
>>>> occurance of
>>>> this letter ळ . I.e. local pronounciation creeping in.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Harry Spier
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> **********
>>> PD Dr. Anna Aurelia Esposito
>>> **********
>>> Universität Würzburg
>>> Lehrstuhl für Indologie
>>> Philosophiegebäude, Zi. 8U6
>>> Am Hubland
>>> 97074 Würzburg
>>> Germany
>>> Tel: ++49-(0)931-3185512
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>>
>> –––––––––––––––––––
>> Christophe Vielle
>> <https://uclouvain.be/en/directories/christophe.vielle>
>> Louvain-la-Neuve
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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**********
PD Dr. Anna Aurelia Esposito
**********
Universität Würzburg
Lehrstuhl für Indologie
Philosophiegebäude, Zi. 8U6
Am Hubland
97074 Würzburg
Germany
Tel: ++49-(0)931-3185512
**********
https://www.phil.uni-wuerzburg.de/indologie/mitarbeiter/esposito/
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