Introduction/Discussion

This section is going to deal with the Magic Power known as "Nirutti". There is not going to be any "explanation", only "presentation."

Here's what I want you to do (You need to have American Pictogram installed to view this properly):

Using American Pictogram, I want you to draw yourself (that means you draw the letter, not you type the letter using the American Pictogram font, for help drawing the characters click on the individual letters of the American Pictogram Character Set , for example, see A), the following words, in the following order, each on a separate piece of good quality paper (alternatively you can do this with cheap ball-point pens and magic markers on cheap paper, but in either case, do it over and over until you have made something you can be proud of.

Pāḷi

appamāda

satipaṭṭhānā

paṭhavi

Āpo

tejo

vāyo

bhūta

devas

pajāpati

brahma

abhassara

subhakiṇṇa

vihapphala

abhibhu

ākāsānacāyatana

viññāṇacāyatana

Akincāññāyatana

n'evasananāsaññāyatana

diṭṭha

suta

muta

viññāta

ekatta

nānata

sabbaṇg

nibbāna

And then what I want you to do is to look up these words in your Pāḷi English Dictionary (check out the various translations of some of these terms in Examining the Mulapariyaya) and I want you to look up the words defining these words in English in some English dictionary of quality such as Webster's Third New International Dictionary, or The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, and write down on that same sheet of paper every meaning you find, every fact you learn. And while you are doing this I want you to be thinking about the following words (never mind that this is an apparent contradiction in intentions):

recognizing paṭhavi as earth (etc)
I know about earth.
let me not think about earth.
let me not think of earth
in whatever ways I think of earth.
let me not think in terms of "my" with regard to earth.
let me take no delight in earth.
how come?
because this way
this matter may be fully understood by me,
so they say.

 

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Links:

Margo's Magical Letter Page
Sound Symbolism, Phonosemantics, Phonetic Symbolism, Mimologics, Iconism, Cratylus
Ideophones, Synaesthesia
The Alphabet, The Word
http://www.trismegistos.com/MagicalLetterPage/

I suggest you begin with:
http://www.trismegistos.com/Dissertation/

and
http://www.trismegistos.com/MagicalLetterPage/Theory.html

A very extensive gathering of references as well as original material.

 

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Individual pages and papers:

The Influence of Phonesthesia on the English Language
http://reocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9783/phonpap1.html
An excellent treatment of the subject although primarily directed at the study as it relates to the English language.

Sound Symbolism
http://www.percepp.com/soundsmb.htm
A good paper on the subject

Vowels and sound symbolism:
http://www.linguistlist.org/issues/6/6-1115.html

 

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A very interesting resource in this field of research is the material on London Slang. The websites change locations too frequently to list: do a Google Search.