Pāli Pāḷi
Pronunciation:	[paːli]
Spoken in:	Sri Lanka, Myanmar , Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, India, Nepal, Bangladesh
Language extinction:	No native speakers, used as a literary and liturgical language only
Language family:	Indo-European  Indo-Iranian   Indo-Aryan    Pāli
Writing system:	Can be written in various scripts such as Bengali, Burmese, Devanāgarī, Khmer, Lanna, Lao, Roman Alphabet, Sinhala, Thai
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	pi
ISO 639-2:	pli
ISO 639-3:	pli
This page contains Indic text. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East Laos (ˈlɑːoʊs or /ˈlaʊs/ officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a Landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma Vietnam (ˌviːɛtˈnɑːm Việt Nam) officially India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Nepal (नेपाल) is a Landlocked country in South Asia. ( Bengali: বাংলাদেশ inc-Latn Bangladesh) officially According to some definitions an extinct language is a Language which no longer has any speakers, whereas a dead language is a language which is no longer spoken List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Indo-Iranian language group constitutes the easternmost extant branch of the Indo-European family of languages The Indo-Aryan languages (within the context of Indo-European studies also Indic) are a branch of the Indo-European language family A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Bengali script ( Bengali: বাংলা লিপি Bangla lipi) is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Assamese and The Burmese abugida ( Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ mjànmà eʔkʰəyà is a script in the Brahmic family used in Burma for writing The Khmer script (អក្ខរក្រមខេមរភាសា âkkhârâkrâm khémârâ phéasa informally aksar Khmer អក្សរខ្មែរ is used to write the The Lao script is used mainly to write the Lao language. The minority languages of Laos are also written in the Lao script and officially it is the only script The Sinhala script is an Abugida script used in Sri Lanka to write the Official language Sinhala and also sometimes the Liturgical The Thai Alphabet (อักษรไทย àksŏn thai) is used to write the Thai language and other minority languages in Thailand ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Pali (IAST: Pāḷi) is a Middle Indo-Aryan language or prakrit of India. The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST) is a popular Transliteration scheme that allows a lossless Romanization of Indic The Middle Indo-Aryan ( Middle Indic) languages are the early medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Prakrit (also transliterated as Pracrit) ( Sanskrit: prākṛta प्राकृत (from pra-kṛti प्रकृति according to one India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country It is best known as the language of the earliest extant Buddhist canon, the Pāḷi Canon (Pāḷi: Tipitaka), and as the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices A sacred language, or liturgical language, is a Language that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation Pāli has since been written in a variety of scripts, from the Brahmic family scripts through to a romanised form devised with the research and contributions of Robert Caesar Childers and T. W. Rhys Davids, both of the Pali Text Society. A writing system is a type of Symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in Language. The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central Asia and East Asia, Robert Caesar Childers ( 1838 - July 25, 1876) was a British Orientalist scholar compiler of the first Pāli - Thomas William Rhys Davids ( May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was a British scholar of the Pāli language and founder of The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by TW Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts"

Origin and development

The word Pāli itself signifies "line" or "(canonical) text", and this name for the language seems to have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the "Pāḷi" (in the sense of the line of original text quoted) was distinguished from the commentary or the vernacular following after it on the manuscript page. As such, the name of the language has caused some debate among scholars of all ages; the spelling of the name also varies, being found with both long "ā" [ɑː] and short "a" [a], and also with either a retroflex [ɭ] or non-retroflex [l] "l" sound. In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants To this day, there is no single, standard spelling of the term; all four spellings can be found in textbooks.

Pāli is a literary language of the Prakrit language family; it is not now (and never was) an informal, spoken language, in the sense of a mother tongue. A literary language is a register of a Language that is used in Literary Writing. Prakrit (also transliterated as Pracrit) ( Sanskrit: prākṛta प्राकृत (from pra-kṛti प्रकृति according to one A first language (also mother tongue, native language, arterial language, or L1) is the language a human being learns from birth Despite excellent scholarship on this problem, there is persistent confusion as to the inter-relation of Pāḷi to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha (now modern-day Bihār). Magadha (मगध formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas ( Sanskrit, "great countries" or regions in ancient India.

Pāli as a Middle Indo-Aryan language is different from Sanskrit not so much with regard to the time of its origin than as to its dialectal base, since a number of its morphological and lexical features betray the fact that it is not a direct continuation of Ṛgvedic Vedic Sanskrit; rather it descends from a dialect (or a number of dialects) which was (/were), despite many similarities, different from Ṛgvedic. The Middle Indo-Aryan ( Middle Indic) languages are the early medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. ^[1]

Pāli was considered by early Buddhists to be linguistically similar to Old Magadhi or even a direct continuation of that language. The Magadhi language (also known as मगही Magahi is a language spoken by 17449446 people in India. Many Theravada sources refer to the Pāli language as “Magadhan” or the “language of Magadha”. History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation However, the later form of Magadhi of Asoka's inscriptions (3rd century BC) is an Eastern Indian language whereas Pāli most closely resembles Western Indian inscriptions. Ashoka ( Devanāgarī: अशोकः IAST: Aśokaḥ, aɕoːkə(hə Prakrit Imperial title Devanampriya Priyadarsi There are many remarkable analogies between Pali and Ardhamagadhi (Half Magadhi), an old form of Magadhi preserved in ancient Jain texts. Jain Prakrit is a term loosely used for the language of the Jain canon Jainism, traditionally known as Jain Dharma / Shraman Dharma (जैन धर्म is an ancient religion of India. Ardhamagadhi differs from Magadhi proper on similar points as Pali. For example, Ardhamagadhi too does not change r into l, and in the noun inflexion it shows the ending -o instead of Magadhic -e at least in many metrical places. This similarity is not accidental, since Mahavira, the 24th Tirthankara of Jainism preached in the same area (Magadha) as Buddha Gotama. Mahavira (महावीर lit Great Hero) (599 – 527 BCE is the name most commonly used to refer to the Indian sage Vardhamana ( Sanskrit: वर्धमान In Jainism, a Tirthankar (" Fordmaker " (also Tirthankara or Jina) is a Human being who achieves enlightenment (perfect Jainism, traditionally known as Jain Dharma / Shraman Dharma (जैन धर्म is an ancient religion of India. Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual Teacher from Ancient India and the founder

T. W. Rhys Davids in his book Buddhist India, and Wilhelm Geiger in his book Pali Literature and Language suggested that Pāli may have originated as a form of lingua franca or common language of cultured laity, used at the time of the Buddha. Wilhelm Ludwig Geiger (1856-1943 was a German Orientalist in the fields of Indian and Iranian languages A lingua franca (from Italian, literally meaning Frankish language, see etymology under Sabir and Italian below is any Language widely Siddhārtha Gautama ( Sanskrit; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual Teacher from Ancient India and the founder However, most modern scholars consider that Pali evolved over a period of centuries, becoming fairly fixed when the Pāli Canon was written down in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island It continued to be preserved entirely in Pāli, while the commentarial tradition that accompanied it (according to the information provided by Buddhaghosa) was translated into Sinhalese and preserved in local languages for several generations. Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල ISO 15919: siṁhala ˈsiŋhələ earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the language of the Sinhalese

However it was ultimately supplanted in India by Sanskrit as a literary and religious language following the formulation of Classical Sanskrit by the scholar Panini. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country Pāṇini ( IAST: Pāṇini Dēvanāgarī: sa पाणिनि a Patronymic meaning "descendant of {{IAST|Paṇi}} " was an ancient In Sri Lanka, Pāli is thought to have entered into a period of decline ending around the 4th or 5th Century (as Sanskrit rose in prominence), but ultimately survived. The work of Buddhaghosa was largely responsible for its reemergence as an important scholarly language in Buddhist thought. The Visuddhimagga and the other commentaries that Buddhaghosa compiled codified and condensed the Sinhalese commentarial tradition that had been preserved and expanded in Sri Lanka since the 3rd Century BCE. Summary It is composed of four parts which discuss 1 Sila (discipline 2 Samadhi (meditative concentration 3 The land of wisdom Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල ISO 15919: siṁhala ˈsiŋhələ earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the language of the Sinhalese

Today Pāli is studied mainly to gain access to Buddhist scriptures, and is frequently chanted in a ritual context. The secular literature of Pāli historical chronicles, medical texts, and inscriptions, is also of great historical importance. The great centers of Pāli learning remain in the Theravada nations of South-East Asia: Myanmar (Burma), Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. History Origin of the school The Theravāda school is ultimately derived from the Vibhajjavāda (or 'doctrine of analysis' grouping which was a continuation Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj Laos (ˈlɑːoʊs or /ˈlaʊs/ officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a Landlocked country in Southeast Asia, bordered by Burma The Kingdom of Cambodia ( formerly known as Kampuchea (, transliterated: Preăh Réachéanachâkr Kâmpŭchea) is a country in South East Since the 19th century, various societies for the revival of Pāli studies in India have promoted awareness of the language and its literature, perhaps most notably the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Anagarika Dhammapala. India, officially the Republic of India (भारत गणराज्य inc-Latn Bhārat Gaṇarājya; see also other Indian languages) is a country The Maha Bodhi Society is a South Asian Buddhist society founded by the Sri Lankan Buddhist leader Anagarika Dharmapala. Anagarika Dharmapala ( 17 September 1864 - 29 April 1933 was a leading figure in initiating two outstanding features of Buddhism in the twentieth century

In Europe, the Pali Text Society has been a major force in promoting the study of Pāli by Western scholars since its founding in 1881. Year 1881 ( MDCCCLXXXI) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes romanized Pāli editions, along with many English translations of these sources. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States In 1869, the first Pali Dictionary was published using the research of Robert Caesar Childers, one of the founding members of the Pali Text Society. Year 1869 ( MDCCCLXIX) is a Common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year It was the first Pali translated text in English and was published in 1872. Year 1872 ( MDCCCLXXII) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year Childers's Dictionary later received the Volney Prize in 1876. The Volney Prize (Prix Volney is awarded by the Institute of France after proposition by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres to a work of Comparative Year 1876 ( MDCCCLXXVI) was a Leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar (or a Leap year

The Pali Text Society was in part founded to compensate for the very low level of funds allocated to Indology in late 19th century England; incongruously, the English were not nearly so robust in Sanskrit and Prakrit language studies as Germany, Russia and even Denmark—a situation that many would say continues to this day. Indology refers to the academic study of the languages texts History and Cultures of the Indian subcontinent, and as such a subset of Asian studies England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Prakrit (also transliterated as Pracrit) ( Sanskrit: prākṛta प्राकृत (from pra-kṛti प्रकृति according to one Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The Kingdom of Denmark ( ˈd̥ænmɑɡ̊ (archaic ˈd̥anmɑːɡ̊ commonly known as Denmark, is a country in the Scandinavian region of northern Europe Without the inspiration of colonial holdings such as the former British occupation of Sri Lanka and Burma, institutions such as the Danish Royal Library have built up major collections of Pāli manuscripts, and major traditions of Pāli studies. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located Burma, officially the Union of Myanmar ( pjìdàunzṵ mjàmmà nàinŋàndɔ̀ is the largest country by geographical area in mainland Southeast Asia.

Lexicon

Virtually every word in Pāḷi has cognates in the other Prakritic "Middle Indo-Aryan languages", e. Cognates in Linguistics are words that have a common origin They may occur within a language such as shirt and skirt as two English words descended from The Middle Indo-Aryan ( Middle Indic) languages are the early medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as g. , the Jain Prakrits. Jain Prakrit is a term loosely used for the language of the Jain canon The relationship to earlier Sanskrit (e. g. , Vedic language) is less direct and more complicated. Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. Historically, influence between Pāli and Sanskrit has been felt in both directions. The Pāli language's resemblance to Sanskrit is often exaggerated by comparing it to later Sanskrit compositions -- which were written centuries after Sanskrit ceased to be a living language, and are influenced by developments in Middle Indic, including the direct borrowing of a portion of the Middle Indic lexicon; whereas, a good deal of later Pāli technical terminology has been borrowed from the vocabulary of equivalent disciplines in Sanskrit, either directly or with certain phonological adaptations.

Post-canonical Pāli also possesses a few loan-words from local languages where Pāli was used (e. g. Sri Lankans adding Sinhalese words to Pāli). These usages differentiate the Pāli found in the Suttapiṭaka from later compositions such as the Pāli commentaries on the canon and folklore (e. The Sutta Pitaka (suttapiṭaka or Suttanta Pitaka cf Sanskrit सूत्र पिटक Sutra Pitaka) is the second of the three divisions of the Tipitaka or g. , the stories of the Jātaka commentaries), and comparative study (and dating) of texts on the basis of such loan-words is now a specialized field unto itself. The Jātaka Tales ( Sanskrit जातक and Pali, Malay: jetaka Lao: satok refer to a voluminous body of Folklore -like literature

Pāli was not exclusively used to convey the teachings of the Buddha, as can be deduced from the existence of a number of secular texts, such as books of medical science/instruction, in Pāli. However, scholarly interest in the language has been focused upon religious and philosophical literature, because of the unique window it opens on one phase in the development of Buddhism. Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices

Emic views of Pāli

Although Sanskrit was said, in brahmanical tradition, to be the unchanging language spoken by the gods, in which each word had an inherent significance, this view of language was not shared in the early Buddhist tradition, in which words were only conventional and mutable signs. Emic and etic are terms used by some in the Social sciences and the Behavioral sciences to refer to two different kinds of Data concerning human Brahmin ( Brāhmaṇa, sa ब्राह्मणः is the class of educators scholars and preachers in Brahminical Hinduism. Neither the Buddha nor his early followers shared the brahmans' reverence for the Vedic language or its sacred texts. Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. "Veda" redirects here For other uses see Veda (disambiguation. This view of language naturally extended to Pāli, and may have contributed to its usage (as an approximation or standardization of local Middle Indic dialects) in place of Sanskrit. However, by the time of the compilation of the Pali commentaries (4th or 5th century), Pali was regarded as the natural language, the root language of all beings. ^[2]

Comparable to Ancient Egyptian, Latin or Hebrew in the mystic traditions of the West, Pāli recitations were often thought to have a supernatural power (which could be attributed to their meaning, the character of the reciter, or the qualities of the language itself), and in the early strata of Buddhist literature we can already see Pāli dhāraṇīs used as charms, e. Egyptian is an Afro-Asiatic language most closely related to the Berber, Semitic, Somali and Beja languages Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The term supernatural or supranatural ( Latin: super, supra "above" + natura "nature" pertains to entities events A dhāraṇī is a type of ritual speech similar to a Mantra. g. against the bite of snakes. Many people in Theravada cultures still believe that taking a vow in Pāli has a special significance, and, as one example of the supernatural power assigned to chanting in the language, the recitation of the vows of Aṅgulimāla are believed to alleviate the pain of childbirth in Sri Lanka. Angulimala (Pāli "garland of fingers" is an important early figure in Buddhism, particularly within the Theravada school In Thailand, the chanting of a portion of the Abhidhammapiṭaka is believed to be beneficial to the recently departed, and this ceremony routinely occupies as much as seven working days. The Kingdom of Thailand (ˈtaɪlænd ราชอาณาจักรไทย, râːtɕʰa-ʔaːnaːtɕɑ̀k-tʰɑj Origins According to the commentarial tradition In the commentaries of Theravada Buddhism it was held that the Abhidhamma was not a later addition to the tradition Interestingly, there is nothing in the latter text that relates to this subject, and the origins of the custom are unclear.

Phonology

Vowels

Long and short vowels are only contrastive in open syllables; in closed syllables, all vowels are always short. Short and long e and o are in complementary distribution: the short variants occur only in closed syllables, the long variants occur only in open syllables. Short and long e and o are therefore not distinct phonemes.

A sound called anusvāra (Skt. Anusvara (Dev अनुस्वार anusvāra) is the diacritic used to mark a type of Nasalization used in a number of Indic languages. ; Pali: nigghahita), represented by the symbol ṃ in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, aṃ, iṃ and uṃ represented [ ã ], [ ĩ ] and [ ũ ]. In many traditional pronunciations, however, the anusvāra is pronounced more strongly, like the velar nasal [ ŋ ], so that these sounds are pronounced instead [ ãŋ ], [ ĩŋ ] and [ ũŋ ]. However pronounced, ṃ never follows a long vowel; ā, ī and ū are converted to the corresponding short vowels when ṃ is added to a stem ending in a long vowel, e. g. kathā + ṃ becomes kathaṃ, not *kathāṃ, devī + ṃ becomes deviṃ, not *devīṃ.

Consonants

The table below lists the consonants of Pāli. In bold is the letter in traditional romanisation, in brackets is its pronunciation in the IPA. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic

The sounds listed above, except for ṅ, ḷ and ḷh are distinct phonemes in Pāli. In Articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a Consonant is the point of contact where an Obstruction In Linguistics ( Articulatory phonetics) manner of articulation describes how the tongue lips and other speech organs are involved in making a sound make A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Laterals are "L"-like Consonants pronounced with an occlusion made somewhere along the axis of the tongue while air from the lungs escapes at one side or both Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the Palatal consonants are Consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the Hard palate (the middle part of the roof of the mouth In Phonetics, retroflex consonants are Consonant sounds used in some Languages (They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consonants In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior Alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli (the sockets In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. ṅ only occurs before velar stops. ḷ and ḷh are allophones of ḍ and ḍh when they occur singly between vowels.

Morphology

Pāli is a highly inflected language, in which almost every word contains, besides the root conveying the basic meaning, one or more affixes (usually suffixes) which modify the meaning in some way. Nouns are inflected for gender, number, and case; verbal inflections convey information about person, number, tense and mood.

Nominal inflection

Pāli nouns inflect for three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, and plural). In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong The nouns also, in principle, display eight cases: nominative or paccatta case, vocative, accusative or upayoga case, instrumental or karaṇa case, dative or sampadāna case, ablative, genitive or sāmin case, and locative or bhumma case; however, in many instances, two or more of these cases are identical in form; this is especially true of the genitive and dative cases. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other The vocative case is the case used for a Noun identifying the person (animal object etc The accusative case ( abbreviated ACC) of a Noun is the Grammatical case used to mark the Direct object of a Transitive The instrumental case (also called the eighth case) is a Grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the The dative case is a Grammatical case generally used to indicate the Noun to whom something is given In Linguistics, ablative case ( abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic In Grammar, the genitive case or possessive case (also called the second case) is the case that marks a Noun as modifying another Locative (also called the seventh case) is a Grammatical case which indicates a location

a-stems

a-stems, whose uninflected stem ends in short a (/ə/), are either masculine or neuter. The masculine and neuter forms differ only in the nominative, vocative, and accusative cases.

ā-stems

Nouns ending in ā (/aː/) are almost always feminine.

i-stems and u-stems

i-stems and u-stems are either masculine or neuter. The masculine and neuter forms differ only in the nominative and accusative cases. The vocative has the same form as the nominative.

Example of Pāli with English translation

Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā;

Manasā ce paduṭṭhena, bhāsati vā karoti vā,

Tato nam dukkhaṃ anveti, cakkaṃ'va vahato padaṃ.

Element for element gloss

Mano-pubbaṅ-gam=ā dhamm=ā, mano-seṭṭh=ā mano-may=ā;

Mind-before-going=m. pl. nom. dharma=m. Dhamma ( Pāli: धम्म or Dharma (धर्म in Buddhism has two primary meanings the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment pl. nom. , mind-foremost=m. nom. pl. mind-made=m. nom. pl.

Manas=ā ce paduṭṭh=ena, bhāsa=ti vā karo=ti vā,

Mind=n. sg. inst. if corrupted=n. sg. inst. speak=3. sg. pr. either act=3. sg. pr. or,

Ta=to naṃ dukkhaṃ anv-e=ti, cakkaṃ 'va vahat=o pad=aṃ.

That=from him suffering after-go=3. sg. pr. , wheel as carrying(beast)=m. sg. gen. foot=n. sg. acc.

The three compounds in the first line literally mean:

manopubbaṅgama "whose precursor is mind", "having mind as a fore-goer or leader"

manoseṭṭha "whose foremost member is mind", "having mind as chief"

manomaya "consisting of mind" or "made by mind"

The literal meaning is therefore: "The dharmas have mind as their leader, mind as their chief, are made of/by mind. Dhamma ( Pāli: धम्म or Dharma (धर्म in Buddhism has two primary meanings the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment If [someone] either speaks or acts with a corrupted mind, from that [cause] suffering goes after him, as the wheel [of a cart follows] the foot of a draught animal. "

A slightly freer translation by Acharya Buddharakkhita

Mind precedes all mental states. Mind is their chief; they are all mind-wrought.

If with an impure mind a person speaks or acts suffering follows him

like the wheel that follows the foot of the ox.

Pāli and Sanskrit

Although Pāli cannot be considered a direct descendant of either Classical Sanskrit or of the older Vedic dialect, the languages are obviously very closely related and the common characteristics of Pāli and Sanskrit were always easily recognized by those in India who were familiar with both. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Vedic Sanskrit is an ancient Indian language, the language of the Vedas, the oldest Shruti texts of Hinduism. Sanskrit (sa संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk, for short sa संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam) is a historical Indeed, a very large proportion of Pāli and Sanskrit word-stems are identical in form, differing only in details of inflection.

The connections were sufficiently well-known that technical terms from Sanskrit were easily converted into Pāli by a set of conventional phonological transformations. These transformations mimicked a subset of the phonological developments that had occurred in Proto-Pāli. Because of the prevalence of these transformations, it is not always possible to tell whether a given Pāli word is a part of the old Prakrit lexicon, or a transformed borrowing from Sanskrit. Prakrit (also transliterated as Pracrit) ( Sanskrit: prākṛta प्राकृत (from pra-kṛti प्रकृति according to one The existence of a Sanskrit word regularly corresponding to a Pāli word is not always secure evidence of the Pāli etymology, since, in some cases, artificial Sanskrit words were created by back-formation from Prakrit words.

The following phonological processes are not intended as an exhaustive description of the historical changes which produced Pāli from its Old Indic ancestor, but rather are a summary of the most common phonological equations between Sanskrit and Pāli, with no claim to completeness.

Vowels and diphthongs

• Sanskrit ai and au always monophthongize to Pāli e and o, respectively

Examples: maitrī → mettā, auṣadha → osadha

• Sanskrit aya and ava likewise often reduce to Pāli e and o

Examples: dhārayati → dhāreti, avatāra → otāra, bhavati → hoti

• Sanskrit avi becomes Pāli e (i. e. avi → ai → e)

Example: sthavira → thera

• Sanskrit ṛ appears in Pāli as a, i or u, often agreeing with the vowel in the following syllable. ṛ also sometimes becomes u after labial consonants.

Examples: kṛta → kata, tṛṣṇa → taṇha, smṛti → sati, ṛṣi → isi, dṛṣṭi → diṭṭhi, ṛddhi → iddhi, ṛju → uju, spṛṣṭa → phuṭṭha, vṛddha → vuddha

• Sanskrit long vowels are shortened before a sequence of two following consonants.

Examples: kṣānti → khanti, rājya → rajja, īśvara → issara, tīrṇa → tiṇṇa, pūrva → pubba

Consonants

Sound changes

• The Sanskrit sibilants ś, ṣ, and s merge together as Pāli s

Examples: śaraṇa → saraṇa, doṣa → dosa

• The Sanskrit stops ḍ and ḍh become ḷ and ḷh between vowels (as in Vedic)

Example: cakravāḍa → cakkavāḷa, virūḍha → virūḷha

Assimilations

General rules

• Many assimilations of one consonant to a neighboring consonant occurred in the development of Pāli, producing a large number of geminate (double) consonants. Assimilation is a common Phonological process by which the phonetics of a speech segment becomes more like that of another segment in a word (or at a word boundary In Phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken Consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short Consonant. Since aspiration of a geminate consonant is only phonetically detectable on the last consonant of a cluster, geminate kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, th, dh, ph and bh appear as kkh, ggh, cch, jjh, ṭṭh, ḍḍh, tth, ddh, pph and bbh, not as khkh, ghgh etc. Description Voiceless consonants are produced with the Vocal cords open and voiced consonants are produced when the vocal folds are fractionally closed
• When assimilation would produce a geminate consonant (or a sequence of unaspirated stop+aspirated stop) at the beginning of a word, the initial geminate is simplified to a single consonant.

Examples: prāṇa → pāṇa (not ppāṇa), sthavira → thera (not tthera), dhyāna → jhāna (not jjhāna), jñāti → ñāti (not ññāti)

• When assimilation would produce a sequence of three consonants in the middle of a word, geminates are simplified until there are only two consonants in sequence.

Examples: uttrāsa → uttāsa (not utttāsa), mantra → manta (not mantta), indra → inda (not indda), vandhya → vañjha (not vañjjha)

• The sequence vv resulting from assimilation changes to bb

Example: sarva → savva → sabba, pravrajati → pavvajati → pabbajati, divya → divva → dibba

Total assimilation

Total assimilation, where one sound becomes identical to a neighboring sound, is of two types: progressive, where the assimilated sound becomes identical to the following sound; and regressive, where it becomes identical to the preceding sound.

Progressive assimilations

• Internal visarga assimilates to a following voiceless stop or sibilant

Examples: duḥkṛta → dukkata, duḥkha → dukkha, duḥprajña → duppañña, niḥkrodha (=niṣkrodha) → nikkodha, niḥpakva (=niṣpakva) → nippakka, niḥśoka → nissoka, niḥsattva → nissatta

• In a sequence of two dissimilar Sanskrit stops, the first stop assimilates to the second stop

Examples: vimukti → vimutti, dugdha → duddha, utpāda → uppāda, pudgala → puggala, udghoṣa → ugghosa, adbhuta → abbhuta, śabda → sadda

• In a sequence of two dissimilar nasals, the first nasal assimilates to the second nasal

Example: unmatta → ummatta, pradyumna → pajjunna

• j assimilates to a following ñ (i. Visarga ( visarga) is a Sanskrit word meaning "sending forth discharge" e. , jñ becomes ññ)

Examples: prajñā → paññā, jñāti → ñāti

• The Sanskrit liquid consonants r and l assimilate to a following stop, nasal, sibilant, or v

Examples: mārga → magga, karma → kamma, varṣa → vassa, kalpa → kappa, sarva → savva → sabba

• r assimilates to a following l

Examples: durlabha → dullabha, nirlopa → nillopa

• d sometimes assimilates to a following v, producing vv → bb

Examples: udvigna → uvvigga → ubbigga, dvādaśa → bārasa (beside dvādasa)

• t and d may assimilate to a following s or y when a morpheme boundary intervenes

Examples: ut+sava → ussava, ud+yāna → uyyāna

Regressive assimilations

• Nasals sometimes assimilate to a preceding stop (in other cases epenthesis occurs; see below)

Examples: agni → aggi, ātman → atta, prāpnoti → pappoti, śaknoti → sakkoti

• m assimilates to an initial sibilant

Examples: smarati → sarati, smṛti → sati

• Nasals assimilate to a preceding stop+sibilant cluster, which then develops in the same way as such clusters without following nasals (see Partial assimilations below)

Examples: tīkṣṇa → tikṣa → tikkha, lakṣmī → lakṣī →lakkhī

• The Sanskrit liquid consonants r and l assimilate to a preceding stop, nasal, sibilant, or v

Examples: prāṇa → pāṇa, grāma → gāma, śrāvaka → sāvaka, agra → agga, indra → inda, pravrajati → pavvajati → pabbajati, aśru → assu

• y assimilates to preceding non-dental/retroflex stops or nasals

Examples: cyavati → cavati, jyotiṣ → joti, rājya → rajja, matsya → macchya → maccha, lapsyate → lacchyate → lacchati, abhyāgata → abbhāgata, ākhyāti → akkhāti, saṃkhyā → saṅkhā (but also saṅkhyā), ramya → ramma

• y assimilates to preceding non-initial v, producing vv → bb

Example: divya → divva → dibba, veditavya → veditavva → veditabba, bhāvya → bhavva → bhabba

• y and v assimilate to any preceding sibilant, producing ss

Examples: paśyati → passati, śyena → sena, aśva → assa, īśvara → issara, kariṣyati → karissati, tasya → tassa, svāmin → sāmī

• v sometimes assimilates to a preceding stop

Examples: pakva → pakka, catvāri → cattāri, sattva → satta, dhvaja → dhaja

Partial and mutual assimilation

• Sanskrit sibilants before a stop assimilate to that stop, and if that stop is not already aspirated, it becomes aspirated; e. A sibilant is a type of Fricative or Affricate Consonant, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel in the Vocal tract towards g. śc, st, ṣṭ and sp become cch, tth, ṭṭh and pph

Examples: paścāt → pacchā, asti → atthi, stava → thava, śreṣṭha → seṭṭha, aṣṭa → aṭṭha, sparśa → phassa

• In sibilant-stop-liquid sequences, the liquid is assimilated to the preceding consonant, and the cluster behaves like sibilant-stop sequences; e. g. str and ṣṭr become tth and ṭṭh

Examples: śāstra → śasta → sattha, rāṣṭra → raṣṭa → raṭṭha

• t and p become c before s, and the sibilant assimilates to the preceding sound as an aspirate (i. e. , the sequences ts and ps become cch)

Examples: vatsa → vaccha, apsaras → accharā

• A sibilant assimilates to a preceding k as an aspirate (i. e. , the sequence kṣ becomes kkh)

Examples: bhikṣu → bhikkhu, kṣānti → khanti

• Any dental or retroflex stop or nasal followed by y converts to the corresponding palatal sound, and the y assimilates to this new consonant, i. e. ty, thy, dy, dhy, ny become cc, cch, jj, jjh, ññ; likewise ṇy becomes ññ. Nasals preceding a stop that becomes palatal share this change.

Examples: tyajati → cyajati → cajati, satya → sacya → sacca, mithyā → michyā → micchā, vidyā → vijyā → vijjā, madhya → majhya → majjha, anya → añya → añña, puṇya → puñya → puñña, vandhya → vañjhya → vañjjha → vañjha

• The sequence mr becomes mb, via the epenthesis of a stop between the nasal and liquid, followed by assimilation of the liquid to the stop and subsequent simplification of the resulting geminate.

Examples: āmra → ambra → amba, tāmra → tamba

Epenthesis

An epenthetic vowel is sometimes inserted between certain consonant-sequences. In Phonology, epenthesis (/əˈpɛnθəsɪs/ Ancient Greek ἐπένθεσις - epenthesis from epi "on" + en "in" As with ṛ, the vowel may be a, i, or u, depending on the influence of a neighboring consonant or of the vowel in the following syllable. i is often found near i, y, or palatal consonants; u is found near u, v, or labial consonants.

• Sequences of stop + nasal are sometimes separated by a or u

Example: ratna → ratana, padma → paduma (u influenced by labial m)

• The sequence sn may become sin initially

Examples: snāna → sināna, sneha → sineha

• i may be inserted between a consonant and l

Examples: kleśa → kilesa, glāna → gilāna, mlāyati → milāyati, ślāghati → silāghati

• An epenthetic vowel may be inserted between an initial sibilant and r

Example: śrī → sirī

• The sequence ry generally becomes riy (i influenced by following y), but is still treated as a two-consonant sequence for the purposes of vowel-shortening

Example: ārya → arya → ariya, sūrya → surya → suriya, vīrya → virya → viriya

• a or i is inserted between r and h

Example: arhati → arahati, garhā → garahā, barhiṣ → barihisa

• There is sporadic epenthesis between other consonant sequences

Examples: caitya → cetiya (not cecca), vajra → vajira (not vajja)

Other changes

• Any Sanskrit sibilant before a nasal becomes a sequence of nasal followed by h, i. e. ṣṇ, sn and sm become ṇh, nh, and mh

Examples: tṛṣṇa → taṇha, uṣṇīṣa → uṇhīsa, asmi → amhi

• The sequence śn becomes ñh, due to assimilation of the n to the preceding palatal sibilant

Example: praśna → praśña → pañha

• The sequences hy and hv undergo metathesis

Examples: jihvā → jivhā, gṛhya → gayha, guhya → guyha

• h undergoes metathesis with a following nasal

Example: gṛhṇāti → gaṇhāti

• y is geminated between e and a vowel

Examples: śreyas → seyya, Maitreya → Metteyya

• Voiced aspirates such as bh and gh on rare occasions become h

Examples: bhavati → hoti, -ebhiṣ → -ehi, laghu → lahu

• Dental and retroflex sounds sporadically change into one another

Examples: jñāna → ñāṇa (not ñāna), dahati → ḍahati (beside Pāli dahati) nīḍa → nīla (not nīḷa), sthāna → ṭhāna (not thāna), duḥkṛta → dukkaṭa (beside Pāli dukkata)

Exceptions

There are several notable exceptions to the rules above; many of them are common Prakrit words rather than borrowings from Sanskrit. Metathesis (məˈtæθəsɨs is a Sound change that alters the order of Phonemes in a Word.

• ārya → ayya (beside ariya)
• guru → garu (adj. ) (beside guru (n. ))
• puruṣa → purisa (not purusa)
• vṛkṣa → rukṣa → rukkha (not vakkha)

Pāli writing

Pāli alphabet with diacritics

Historically, the first written record of the Pāli canon is believed to have been composed in Sri Lanka, based on a prior oral tradition. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island As per Mahavamsa, great chronicle of Sri Lanka, due to a major famine in the country Buddhist monks wrote down the Pali canon during the time of King Vattagamini in 100 BC. The transmission of written Pāli has retained a universal system of alphabetic values, but has expressed those values in a stunning variety of actual scripts. This is confusing to many westerners, who tend to assume that one script is ineluctably tied to one set of phonemes.

In Sri Lanka, Pāli texts were recorded in Sinhala script. Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka ( Sinhalese:, இலங்கை known as Ceylon before 1972 is an Island The Sinhala script is an Abugida script used in Sri Lanka to write the Official language Sinhala and also sometimes the Liturgical Other local scripts, most prominently Khmer, Burmese, and in modern times Thai (since 1893), Devanāgarī and Mongolian have been used to record Pāli. The Khmer script (អក្ខរក្រមខេមរភាសា âkkhârâkrâm khémârâ phéasa informally aksar Khmer អក្សរខ្មែរ is used to write the The Burmese abugida ( Burmese: မြန်မာအက္ခရာ mjànmà eʔkʰəyà is a script in the Brahmic family used in Burma for writing The Thai Alphabet (อักษรไทย àksŏn thai) is used to write the Thai language and other minority languages in Thailand The classic vertical Mongolian script (ɣɣul bičig, cyrillic: Монгол бичиг Mongol bichig) was the first of many writing systems created

Since the 19th Century, Pāli has also been written in the Roman script. An alternate scheme devised by Frans Velthuis allows for typing without diacritics using plain-ASCII methods, but is much less readable than the standard Rhys Davids system (see below). A diacritic ( also called a diacritic or diacritical mark, point, or sign, is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation

The Pāli alphabetical order is as follows:

• a ā i ī u ū e o ṃ k kh g gh ṅ c ch j jh ñ ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ t th d dh n p ph b bh m y r l ḷ v s h

ḷh, although a single sound, is written with ligature of ḷ and h.

Pāli transliteration on computers

There are several fonts to use for Pāli transliteration. However, older ASCII fonts such as Leedsbit PaliTranslit, Times_Norman, Times_CSX+, Skt Times, Vri RomanPali CN/CB etc. , are not recommendable since they are not compatible with one another and technically out of date. On the contrary, fonts based on the Unicode standard are recommended because Unicode seems to be the future for all fonts and also because they are easily portable to one another. In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

However, not all Unicode fonts contain the necessary characters. To properly display all the diacritic marks used for romanized Pāli (or for that matter, Sanskrit), a Unicode font must contain the following character ranges:

       * Basic Latin: U+0000 – U+007F       * Latin-1 Supplement: U+0080 – U+00FF       * Latin Extended-A: U+0100 – U+017F       * Latin Extended-B: U+0180 – U+024F       * Latin Extended Additional: U+1E00 – U+1EFF

The Pali Text Society recommends VU-Times and Gandhari Unicode for Windows and Linux Computers. And The Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library recommends Times Ext Roman, and provides links to several of other Unicode diacritic fonts usable for typing Pāli together with ratings and installation instructions. Moreover, an English Buddhist monk titled Bhikkhu Pesala provides some Pāli Unicode fonts he has designed himself here, and some Pali keyboards for Windows XP here. Further, the font section of Alanwood's Unicode Resources have links to several general purpose fonts that can be used for Pāli typing if they cover the character ranges above.

Pāli text in ASCII

The Velthuis scheme was originally developed in 1991 by Frans Velthuis for use with his "devnag" Devanāgarī font, designed for the TEX typesetting system. This system of representing Pāli diacritical marks has been used in some websites and discussion lists.

The following table compares various conventional renderings and shortcut key assignments:

References

• See entries for "Pali" (written by K. R. Norman of the Pali Text Society) and "India--Buddhism" in The Concise Encyclopedia of Language and Religion, (Sawyer ed. Kenneth Roy Norman (b 1925 is a leading scholar of Middle Indo-Aryan or Prakrit particularly of Pali. ) ISBN 0080431674
• Warder, A.K. (1991). Anthony Kennedy Warder is a scholar of Indology, mostly in Buddhist studies and related fields such as the Pāli and Sanskrit languages Introduction to Pali, third edition, Pali Text Society. The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by TW Rhys Davids "to foster and promote the study of Pali texts" ISBN 0860131971.  
• de Silva, Lily (1994). Pali Primer, first edition, Vipassana Research Institute Publications. ISBN 817414014X.  
• Müller, Edward (1884,1995). Simplified Grammar of the Pali Language. Asian Educational Services. ISBN 8120611039.  

Further reading

• Gupta, K. M. (2006). Linguistic approach to meaning in Pali. New Delhi: Sundeep Prakashan. ISBN 8175741708
• Müller, E. (2003). The Pali language: a simplified grammar. Trubner's collection of simplified grammars. London: Trubner. ISBN 1844530019
• Oberlies, T. , & Pischel, R. (2001). Pāli: a grammar of the language of the Theravāda Tipiṭaka. Indian philology and South Asian studies, v. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 3110167638
• Hazra, K. L. (1994). Pāli language and literature: a systematic survey and historical study. Emerging perceptions in Buddhist studies, no. 4-5. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld. ISBN 812460004X
• American National Standards Institute. (1979). American National Standard system for the romanization of Lao, Khmer, and Pali. New York: The Institute.
• Soothill, W. E. , & Hodous, L. (1937). A dictionary of Chinese Buddhist terms: with Sanskrit and English equivalents and a Sanskrit-Pali index. London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.

See also

• Pali literature
• International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration

External links

• Pāli-English dictionary
• Buddhist India by T.W. Rhys Davids, chapter IX, Language and Literature
• Pāli at Ethnologue
• Pali.dk - A newly started project aimed at creating free online Pāli dictionaries and educational resources. Pali literature is concerned mainly with Theravada Buddhism, of which Pali is the traditional language The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration ( IAST) is a popular Transliteration scheme that allows a lossless Romanization of Indic
• Pali Text Society
• [1] Free searchable online database of Pali literature, including the whole Canon
• http://pali.pratyeka.org/ Eizel Mazard's excellent website on Pali resources, including
  • Resources for reading & writing Pāli in indigenous scripts: Burmese, Sri Lankan, & Cambodian
  • A textbook to teach yourself Pali (by Narada Thera)
  • A reference work on the grammar of the Pali language (by G Duroiselle)
• Complete Pāli Canon in romanized Pali and Sinhala, mostly also in English translation
• Pāli Canon selection
• A guide to learning the Pāli language
• "Pali Primer" by Lily De Silva (requires installation of special fonts)
• "Pali Primer" by Lily De Silva (UTF-8 encoded)
• Free/Public-Domain Elementary Pāli Course--PDF format
• Free/Public-Domain Pāli Course--html format
• Free/Public-Domain Pāli Grammar (in PDF file)
• Free/Public-Domain Pāli Buddhist Dictionary (in PDF file)
• Comprehensive list of Pāli texts on Wikisource
• Buddhist Dictionary of Pāli Proper Names, HTML version of the book by G. P. Malalasekera, 1937-8
• Pāli Text Reader (software)
• Jain Scriptures
• Pali help at Help.com Wiki
• "A Course in the Pali Language," audio lectures by Bhikkhu Bodhi based on Gair & Karunatilleke (1998). Bhikkhu Bodhi (b 1944 NYC) born Jeffrey Block, is an American Buddhist monk, ordained in Sri Lanka and currently teaching in the