瑜伽論記 21.389

21.389

第三解字身中，景師等云：言字身者乃至四十九字者，如多字名說未滿時，名不究竟；說若滿時，名為究竟，句中亦爾，皆以彼字為依，以攬字成名，攬名成句，故一切字體自無究竟不究竟別，以無詮表故。三十九字者，三藏云：西方自有三釋，一、家音有十四，依西國十四音次第云：（悉談）哀阿一伊鄔烏紇呂訖閭，呂𦟐[嘌-示+土]藹（此四當魯流盧樓）污隩闇惡，闇惡二音，多是助句之辭，後家取之，添為十六字，招聲八者超聲有八，毘聲有二十五，加彼悉譚二字為四十九；第二家云：悉譚二字但是總標，非是字數，別加濫（時鮔）意，超聲毘聲頭數多少如前；第三家云：音有十六，加闇惡（去聲）超聲有八，毘聲有二十五，今準涅槃經文字品三十五字，名為字體，更有十四字，名呼字音，今此文中總牒彼諸字故云四十九也。

Third, in explaining "the group of phonemes / syllables (akṣara-kāya)", Master Jing and others say: "Regarding the words 'group of phonemes' up to 'the forty-nine phonemes', just as when a polysyllabic name is spoken incompletely it is called inconclusive, and when spoken completely it is called conclusive, so too is it in a sentence: all rely upon those phonemes, because phonemes are gathered to form names, and names are gathered to form sentences. Therefore, all phonemic essences themselves have no distinction of conclusive and inconclusive, because they have no expressive denotation." Regarding the "thirty-nine phonemes", the Tripiṭaka Master says: in the Western regions there are themselves three explanations. First: the sounds of vowels (svara) are fourteen; according to the order of the fourteen vowels in the Western regions: (siddhaṃ) a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, ṛ, ṝ, ḷ, ḹ, e, ai (these four correspond to lu, liu, lu, lou), o, au, aṃ, aḥ. The two sounds *aṃ* and *aḥ* are mostly particles that assist the sentence; later masters took them and added them to make sixteen phonemes. The "eight called sounds" (udātta/anudātta/svarita, etc.) are the eight transcendent sounds; the *vi*-sounds (vyañjana, consonants) are twenty-five. Adding those two phonemes of *siddham* makes forty-nine. The second master says: the two phonemes of *siddham* are merely a general heading and are not part of the number of phonemes; one separately adds *laṃ* and *e*. The numbers of transcendent sounds and *vi*-sounds are as before. The third master says: the vowels are sixteen, adding *aṃ* and *aḥ* (falling tone); the transcendent sounds are eight; the *vi*-sounds are twenty-five. Now, according to the thirty-five phonemes in the "Chapter on Letters" in the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra*, these are called the essences of the phonemes; there are further fourteen phonemes called the vowels for vocalising the phonemes. Now in this text, those various phonemes are summed up together, hence it says forty-nine.