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sutanti
suta
past participle; nominative/accusative neuter plural in -anti (cf. bhavanti "they are")
- suta (pp): heard
- suta (pp): learned; lit. heard
- suta (nt): what is heard; something heard; lit. heard
- suta (nt): learning; knowledge; lit. heard
- suta (masc): son
- sutā (fem): daughter
Built from
- su — root · hear, listen
√su (sṛṇoti) denotes the act of perceiving by ear. Cognate with Sanskrit śru-, Greek κλύ-, Latin clueo; all descend from PIE *k̂leu-.
- ta — ending · past participle
The -ta suffix forms past participles from verbal roots, marking completed action or state. Here it creates an adjective "heard, learned".
- ni — ending · neuter plural nominative
The neuter plural nominative ending -ni (as in sutāni) identifies the word as nominative/accusative plural neuter, making the construction nominalizable.
- iti — ending · thus, so; quotative particle
From the locative of the demonstrative *id-. When attached to sutaṃ (accusative singular, the form before sandhi), it creates the invariant quotative form sutanti, signaling reported speech or canonical authority.
Analysis. sutaṃ + iti, "it is heard"; the neuter plural nominative sutāni contracts with iti ("thus, so") to form the indeclinable sutanti, often used adverbially to mean "so it is said" or functioning as a quotative particle in the canon.
Etymology. √su (sṛṇoti, sunoti "hear, listen") + -ta, the past participle suffix. The root cognates with Sanskrit śru-, Greek *kluō- (Doric κλῦ-, Latin clueo "be called, heard", whence English "hear"). The particle iti is the locative of the demonstrative pronoun *id- (*it, *that").