How do parse rattyā genitive singular of ratti
Hi,
Your question contains the answer! ratyā (/rattiyā) is a singular number, oblique case form (instr./dat./abl./gen./loc.) of the feminine noun ratti- ‘night’.
In Pali prose it’s always rattiyā, but in verse it may be shortened to ratyā when the metre requires it:
Rattiyā paṭhamaṃ yāmaṃ, pubbajātimanussariṃ;
Rattiyā majjhimaṃ yāmaṃ, dibbacakkhuṃ visodhayiṃ;
Rattiyā pacchime yāme, tamokhandhaṃ padālayiṃ.Tato ratyā vivasāne, sūriyassuggamanaṃ pati;
Indo brahmā ca āgantvā, maṃ namassiṃsu pañjalī.In the first watch of the night,
I recollected my past lives.
In the middle watch of the night,
I purified my clairvoyance.
In the last watch of the night,
I shattered the mass of darkness.At the end of the night,
as the sunrise drew near,
Indra and Brahmā came
and revered me with joined hands.
Thag. 12.2
The rattyā form seems to be found only in grammars.
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Oh! Just looked parsing up and it wasn’t exactly what I meant. I meant how do you break down the pronunciation? I’m guessing like this rat-tyā
Oh! Just looked parsing up and it wasn’t exactly what I meant. I meant how do you break down the pronunciation? I’m guessing like this rat-tyā
The syllabification of ratyā should be ra-tyā. However, in some styles of Pali chanting (and in Thailand all styles) it’s usual for a schwa or some other unstressed vowel to be inserted between the t and the y:
ra-tə-yā.
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Wouldn’t be rat-yā because the double consonant in ratyā
No. That’s how you do it when there are two vagga consonants, e.g., tta. But when, as in the present case, we have a vagga consonant followed by a glide, the two items form an unbreakable cluster.
Here’s a nice video from the Hare Krishnas explaining Sanskrit syllabification. I’m afraid I can’t find one for Pali, but once you’ve learned to syllabify Sanskrit, Pali is a doddle.
Fast-forward to the sixth minute to see how things are done with r and y.
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