Tagged: Single Oral Transmission Theory (SOTT)
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Karpik - A Reply to Bryan Levman’s The Language the Buddha Spoke (2019)
1In a comprehensive rebuttal to Bryan Levman's theory, Stefan Karpik rejects the proposition of an early "pre-Pali" *lingua franca* that evolved into a later, mutually unintelligible Pali. Karpik argues that Levman's reconstructions are undateable, do not prove a *lingua franca* over other possibilities like bilingualism, and fail to explain why an original transmission would be discarded. The core of Karpik's critique focuses on Levman's flawed linguistic methodology, particularly the incorrect assumption of directionality in sound changes, which leads to proposing numerous implausible and unattested "fortitions" (sound strengthening) where lenition, orthographic errors, or dialectical variations are more likely explanations. Karpik further dismisses the claim of rapid linguistic change and mutual unintelligibility due to a lack of syntactical evidence, accusing Levman of circular reasoning and misrepresenting other scholars, ultimately advocating for a simpler model of steady linguistic development where Pali itself is the pre-Aśokan language of the Buddha.
Karpik - The Buddha taught in Pali - A working hypothesis (2019)
2This paper challenges the scholarly consensus that the Buddha taught in multiple dialects like Māgadhī, a theory known as the Multiple Oral Transmission Theory (MOTT). Instead, it argues for a Single Oral Transmission Theory (SOTT), proposing that the Buddha used a single standard language, which is the language we now call Pali. The author contends that oral translation of the vast canon was impractical, unnecessary due to the mutual intelligibility of Indo-Aryan dialects, and explicitly discouraged by the suttas' emphasis on word-for-word transmission. The traditional identification of the Buddha's language as Māgadhī is based on a misreading of the term *Māgadhabhāsā* in the commentaries, which actually defined it as *Ariyaka* (Indo-Aryan), a pan-regional term. The paper posits that Pali was a natural, pre-existing standard language based on a western dialect, a precursor to the widespread Epigraphic Prakrit, and that the Buddha adopted this sociolect of the educated to ensure a fixed, albeit phonetically fluid, transmission of his teachings across different regions. This working hypothesis refutes the MOTT by explaining dialectal variants in Pali as natural artifacts of a single transmission rather than remnants of a translation, thereby aligning with the Theravada tradition's claim.