[Buddha-l] the true authority on meanings

[Richard Hayes]

On Mon, 2007-10-22 at 10:36 -0600, jkirk wrote:

> I wonder when Buddha will end up being spelled Booda.

That was a fairly standard spelling in the 19th century, at the time
when India was still crawling with Hindoos, Seeks and Mohamedans. And,
of course, in Dutch one finds references to Boeddha, and in French to
Bouddha. Why should English not follow suit? Despite how logical it
would be to use the spelling 'booda', most of my undergraduate students
seem to prefer the contemporary spelling: budah. (When sending text
messages by mobile phone, of course, one can drop the final 'h'.)

Speaking of creative spelling, did any of you see the article in today's
NY Times on the Durga Pujo? (Somehow New York Sanskrit "puujaa" has
become a masculine noun pronounced with a Bengali accent.)

-- 
Richard Hayes
Department of Philosophy
University of New Mexico