Many documents containing the "alphabet" in Devanagari and other scripts, ancient and modern, have kṣa, jña, and/or tra added in various combinations (one, two, or all three), at the end, after ha, because these are graphic ligatures, in the sense that they are (no longer) obviously combinations of their component graphs. The criteria are graphic, not phonetic (although coincidentally jña is phonetically distinct in most languages dialects from j-ñ). You can see some or all of these special graphs in various Indian primers for teaching reading to children.

The position of the ligatures at the end of the "alphabet" is part of a general pattern in script history whereby "extra" characters get added – understandably – at the end of the standard sequence. This is why, for example, our alphabet has v-w-x-y-z at the end; these were not part of the character sets in the scripts from which "Latin" is developed, going back to the Phoenician (and ultimately even to proto-Canaanite) script, which ended with t.

Rich Salomon


On Fri, Nov 1, 2019 at 2:20 AM Martin Joachim Kümmel via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear Madhav and colleagues,

 

in NW Indo-Aryan, old kṣ developed into a new phoneme, a retroflex affricate ṭṣh, and I have long been wondering if this might be one factor relevant for the special status of this akṣara. Although lack of l might also have been an originally NW feature, I am not sure this would still be relevant at the time, and for the other peculiarities, I don’t see how they might be explained as NW.

 

All the best,

Martin

 

 

 

 

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Martin Joachim Kümmel

Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Philosophische Fakultät

Institut für Orientalistik, Indogermanistik, Ur-und Frühgeschichtliche Archäologie

Seminar für Indogermanistik

Zwätzengasse 12, D-07743 Jena, Germany

Tel. +49-(0)3641-9443-81 Fax -82 Sekretariat -80

E-mail: martin-joachim.kuemmel@uni-jena.de

Homepage: http://www.oriindufa.uni-jena.de/k%C3%BCmmel_martin.html

 

Von: INDOLOGY <indology-bounces@list.indology.info> Im Auftrag von Madhav Deshpande via INDOLOGY
Gesendet: Donnerstag, 31. Oktober 2019 18:25
An: Indology <indology@list.indology.info>; Bharatiya Vidvat parishad <bvparishat@googlegroups.com>
Betreff: [INDOLOGY] The alphabet found in the Lalitavistara

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

     As I have been reading the Lipiśālāsandarśana-Parivarta of the Lalitavistara [p. 89, P. L. Vaidya edition], some interesting features of the alphabet popped up for me.  The Alphabet omits r̥ and l̥, but includes ai, au, and aḥ. Among the consonants, it adds kṣ at the end after h.  The version of this passage as given in the Bauddhāgamārthasaṅgraha [ed by P. L. Vaidya] also omits l, while it is included in the version of Lalitavistara edited by Vaidya himself.  I wonder if there are textual variants about this.  I don't know what this alphabet represents.  The omission of r̥ and l̥ goes along the phonologies of Prakrits, but the inclusion of ai, au, and aḥ goes in the direction of Sanskrit.  The addition of kṣ and the possible omission of l point to something else that I cannot figure out.  Any suggestions and references are welcome.

 

Madhav M. Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies

 

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

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