Pāḷi Grammars
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Kaccāyana-Byākaraṇaṃ · chapter 1 of 8

§32

E-he ñaṃ

When ‘e’ and ‘h’, ‘ñ’.

Text and translation

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32. 50. E-he ñaṃ (140)

[E-he + ñaṃ = 2 words]

Ekāra-hakāre pare niggahitaṃ (niggahita (nasalization)) kho ñakāraṃ pappoti vā.

Paccattañ ñeva parinibbāyissāmi (M. i, 318), tañ ñev' ettha paṭipucchissāmi (D. i, 57), evañ hi vo bhikkhave sikkhitabbaṃ (M. i, 171). Tañ hi tassa musā hoti (Khu. i, 396).

Vā ti kasmā? Evam etaṃ abhiññāya (Khu. i, 447), evaṃ hoti subhāsitaṃ.

When ‘e’ and ‘h’, ‘ñ’.
When the letters ‘e’ and ‘h’ follow, the niggahita optionally becomes ‘ñ’.
Examples: “Paccattañ ñeva parinibbāyissāmi”, “tañ ñev' ettha paṭipucchissāmi”, “evañ hi vo bhikkhave sikkhitabbaṃ”, “tañ hi tassa musā hoti”.
Examples [with formation sequence]

Paccattañ ñeva: paccattaṃ eva; paccattañ eva (§32); paccattaññ eva (§28); paccattaññeva (§11); paccattañ ñeva (ME).

Tañ ñev’ ettha: taṃ eva ettha; tañ ev’ ettha (§32); taññ ev’ ettha (§28); taññevettha (§11); tañ ñev’ ettha (ME).

Evañ hi: evaṃ hi; evañ hi (§32); evañhi (§11); evañ hi (ME).

Tañ hi: taṃ hi; tañ hi (§32); tañhi (§11); tañ hi (ME).

Why say “optionally”? [To prevent the operation of this rule in the following examples] “Evam etaṃ abhiññāya”, “evaṃ hoti subhāsitaṃ”.

Counter-examples

Evam etaṃ. Here the ‘ṃ’ of “evaṃ” is not followed by “eva”.

Evaṃ hoti. Here ‘ṃ’ is not followed by “hi”.

Without the footnotes: they are on the chapter card.

Where it is cited

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Pāḷi text and English translation by Bhikkhu Nandisena; edition, apparatus and glossary by the Instituto de Estudios Buddhistas Hispano (IEBH). This material may be reproduced for personal use and distributed free of charge. Copyright © 2026 IEBH. Published under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · DOI 10.5281/zenodo.21948010.