What is the correct syllabification of gerunds formed with the suffix -tvā: ka.tvā or kat.vā? According to Wikipedia, Sanskrit word kṛtvā is divided kṛt.vā, so I assume that in Pali it is kat.vā. Is it correct? And what about gantvā: gan.tvā or gant.vā? I’m a little confused because in Czech (my native language), word formation is taken into account when dividing words into syllables (for example “počkat” = “wait” is divided po.čkat, not poč.kat, because it is formed by prefix po-, and “možný” = “possible” is divided mož.ný, not mo.žný, because it is formed by suffix -ný). Thank you in advance for your time and advice.
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I think in Sri Lankan pali pronounciation it’d be ka-tvā and gan-tvā, in Thailand they add an a and pronounce it ka-ta-vā and gan-ta-vā.
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It’s actually kat.vā and gant.vā in Sri Lankan/Sinhala pronunciation, similar to the corresponding Sinhala words ka.ra.vā and gan.vā.
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When reading a Pali prose passage, tvā always stays intact. That is, one doesn’t split the t and v:
ka-tvā, gan-tvā.
When reading Pali verse, according to the patterns exemplified in Sangharakkhita’s treatise on prosody, the Vuttodaya:
tvā stays intact when preceded by a nasal consonant: gan-tvā.
But when it’s preceded by a vowel, then metri causa comes into play. For example, katvā will be syllabified as kat-vā if the metre requires two heavy syllables, but as ka-tvā if it requires a light syllable followed by a heavy one.
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