Aśokan Phonology and the Language of the Earliest Buddhist Tradition
The extant Middle Indic Buddhist scriptures in Pāli, BHS and Gāndhārī, are translation remnants from a lost oral transmission dialect called Buddhist Middle Indic (BMI). BMI was a kind of Buddhist lingua franca, a phonologically simplified portmanteau language, free of the most conspicuous differenc...
| Published in: | Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Simon Fraser University, David See Chai Lam Centre for International Communication
2010
|
| In: |
Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies
|
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | The extant Middle Indic Buddhist scriptures in Pāli, BHS and Gāndhārī, are translation remnants from a lost oral transmission dialect called Buddhist Middle Indic (BMI). BMI was a kind of Buddhist lingua franca, a phonologically simplified portmanteau language, free of the most conspicuous differences between the different dialects spoken at that time, and characterized by loss of conjunct consonants, disappearance or lenition of intervocalic consonants, including replacement of stops by glides, change ofaspirate stops to aspirates only, and other features facilitating cross-dialect communication. At the same time, because of the phonological simplifications, many homonyms resulted which caused potential confusion when the teachings were written down. Most of the linguistic features in BMI are also found in the Aśokan rock inscriptions, especially those from Shāhbāzgaṛhī(Sh.) in the northwest, a correspondence that may be due to Buddhism’s rapid spread on existing trade routes to the northwest, the early development of writing in that area and the prestige of the northwestern form of speech. A study of the phonological development of the dialects in the Sh. and other Aśokan edicts are a useful template for the corresponding phonological evolution of the surviving witnesses of BMI (Pāli and the other Prakrits), helping to isolate and disambiguate some of the confusions that have resulted through the oral transmission process., |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1710-825X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Canadian Journal of Buddhist Studies
|