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ArchivesRe: meaning
in reply to a message by ירד
Thanks for the detective work: I do indeed know sagyAn as a word, though not as a name.
The root jnA (with a palatal n) is indeed cognate with, and means the same as, English know. With -na we get the infinitive jnAna, that is knowledge, and sa/saha/sama/saM etc. is related etymologically to English same, and often means `with'. sajnAna therefore means `with knowledge' and is the common word for conscious.
The combination jn (both consonants palatal) has not survived in most North Indian languages. In parts of India (west/south-west) it has shifted to dn (both consonants dental), and in some others (east and north) it has shifted to gy with an nasalization in some dialects. In most of these languages a schwa at the end (the -a of sajnAna) disappears, and that's what gives sagyAn. (The aa is a standard transcription for the long open A). Incidentally in some languages, the yA further shifted to an -a- like in English cat, with a duplication of the preceding stop, and the first -a- got elaborated into an aw sound as in English saw (i.e. like sawggan).
The root jnA (with a palatal n) is indeed cognate with, and means the same as, English know. With -na we get the infinitive jnAna, that is knowledge, and sa/saha/sama/saM etc. is related etymologically to English same, and often means `with'. sajnAna therefore means `with knowledge' and is the common word for conscious.
The combination jn (both consonants palatal) has not survived in most North Indian languages. In parts of India (west/south-west) it has shifted to dn (both consonants dental), and in some others (east and north) it has shifted to gy with an nasalization in some dialects. In most of these languages a schwa at the end (the -a of sajnAna) disappears, and that's what gives sagyAn. (The aa is a standard transcription for the long open A). Incidentally in some languages, the yA further shifted to an -a- like in English cat, with a duplication of the preceding stop, and the first -a- got elaborated into an aw sound as in English saw (i.e. like sawggan).
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