A study of consonant phonology in the Gāndhārī language. Insights into patterns of language variation and change

Abstract

The consonant phonology of the Gāndhārī language is described in detail. Gāndhārī is a MIA language which was spoken in ancient Gandhāra, covering areas of modern-day northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. It is attested from the third century BCE to the fourth century CE, in sources including rock inscriptions and Buddhist manuscripts. It is recorded in the Kharoṣṭhī script, which was developed from the Aramaic, but does not convey all features of the Indian sound system. While the Gāndhārī phonology has been described in earlier publications, these are mostly prepared in the context of Buddhist studies and focused on single inscriptions and manuscripts. This material is collated into a systematic format, offering an extensive Gāndhārī language resource. This has facilitated linguistic analysis of the changes which occurred in Gāndhārī to the consonants of the OIA ancestor languages. A common feature in the source materials is the use of variant graphemes to represent many of the phonemes. These include historic and advanced forms as well as forms indicating allophones arising in particular environments, suggesting the co-existence of sounds represented by these forms in the spoken language. Along with evident doubts about the correct representation of the language by the scribes, the Kharoṣṭhī materials offer an invaluable record of patterns of language change in progress in a two thousand year old language. A system for categorising the variable phonemic forms in a practical shorthand format is proposed, enabling a simpler recording of the variations and analysis of the associated sound changes. Selection of the most appropriate representation of the Gāndhārī phonemes for use in the lemmas of words is also considered. Comparison of the Gāndhārī phonology with other MIA languages, including Pali, offers insights into processes of manner assimilation which occurred in the OIA consonant clusters, while aspects of the nature of Pali are reviewed in this context.