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ayañca

aya

demonstrative pronoun + conjunction (sandhi form)

1. aya (masc): good luck; good fortune
2. aya (adj): coming; going
3. aya (masc): way
4. aya (masc): reason, source
5. aya (nt): iron
6. ayañca (sandhi): but this; and this
7. ayas (masc): iron
8. ayaṃ (pron): this; this person; this thing
9. …

Built from

• aya — root · this, here
  Demonstrative pronoun from *ay- (approach, go toward). The particle originally marked direction toward the speaker; it became a general proximal demonstrative.
• ṃ — ending · nominative singular neuter
  Neuter nominative ending -ṃ; marks the pronoun in its nominative role as subject or predicate nominative.
• ca — prefix · and, also
  Coordinating conjunction, enclitic; cognate with Latin -que and Sanskrit ca. Originally marked addition or sequence; here it adds the demonstrative to a preceding clause or thought.

Analysis. ayaṃ (demonstrative pronoun, nominative singular neuter) + ca (conjunction 'and'), contracted by sandhi: the final -ṃ of ayaṃ assimilates to the initial c- of ca, yielding -ñc-.

Etymology. ayaṃ is from Indo-European *ay- (to go, approach), visible in Latin iter (journey) and English iter-. The sense 'this' develops from the demonstrative force of directional deixis — pointing toward something approaching the speaker. ca is an ancient coordinating particle cognate with Latin que and Sanskrit ca, from *kʷe.

Meanings from the Digital Pāḷi Dictionary; morphology and etymology by Claude.

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