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. 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. 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. 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. Pali may refer to: Pali Canon, an important work relating to Buddhism. ... An extinct language is a language which no longer has any native speakers, in contrast to a dead language, which is is a language which has stopped changing in grammar, vocabulary, and the complete meaning of a sentence. ... A language family is a group of languages related by descent from a common proto-language. ... For other uses, see Indo-European. ... 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[1]) are a branch of the Indo-European language family. ... Writing systems of the world today. ... The Bengali script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts whose use is associated with the Bengali, Assamese, Manipuri and Sylheti languages. ... Myazedi (Yazakuma) Stone Instription The oldest surviving Burmese inscription, written in Burmese, Pyu, Mon, and Pali, it is the story of Prince Yazakuma. ... () is an abugida script used to write several Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati,Marathi, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Marwari, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Pahari (Garhwali and Kumaoni), Santhali, Nepali, Newari, Tharu and sometimes Kashmiri and Romani. ... This article or section uses Khmer characters which may be rendered as boxes or other nonsensical symbols. ... The Lao alphabet is used to write the Lao language. ... The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. ... Poster in Sinhala script for GCE Advanced Level Political science tuition class in Matale. ... 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 is an international standard for language codes. ... Image File history File links Example. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, descended from the BrāhmÄ« script of Mauryan India. ... IAST, or International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is the academic standard for writing the Sanskrit language with the Latin alphabet and very similar to National Library at Calcutta romanization standard being used with many Indic scripts. ... The Middle Indo-Aryan (Middle Indic) languages are the medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the medieval languages such as Apabhramsha or Abahatta, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindustani... Prakrit (also spelt Pracrit) (Sanskrit: , original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual, i. ... Standard edition of the Thai Pali Canon The Pali Canon is the standard scripture collection of the Theravada Buddhist tradition. ... The Tripitaka (Sanskrit, lit. ... A sacred language is a language, frequently a dead language, that is cultivated for religious reasons by people who speak another language in their daily life. ... Theravada (Pāli: theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, the Teaching of the Elders, or the Ancient Teaching) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and most of continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia... A writing system, also called a script, is used to visually record a language with symbols. ... The Brahmic family is a family of abugidas (writing systems) used in South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria, descended from the BrāhmÄ« script of Mauryan India. ... Abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz redirects here. ... Robert Caesar Childers (1838 - July 25, 1876) was a British Orientalist scholar, compiler of the first Pali dictionary. ... Thomas William Rhys Davids (May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was an British scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pali Text Society. ... The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids to foster and promote the study of Pali texts. Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. ...

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. To this day, there is no single, standard spelling of the term; all four spellings can be found in textbooks. Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ... Retroflex consonants are articulated with the tip of the tongue curled up and back so the bottom of the tip touches the roof of the mouth. ...

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. 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). A literary language is a register of a language that is used in writing, and which often differs in lexicon and syntax from the language used in speech. ... Prakrit (also spelt Pracrit) (Sanskrit: , original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual, i. ... First language (native language, mother tongue, or vernacular) is the language a person learns first. ... Magadha was an ancient kingdom of India, mentioned in both the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. ...

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 Sanskrit; rather it descends from a dialect (or a number of dialects) which was (/were), despite many similarities, different from Ṛgvedic.^[1] The Middle Indo-Aryan (Middle Indic) languages are the medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the medieval languages such as Apabhramsha or Abahatta, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindustani... Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, which are the earliest sacred texts of India,. The Vedas were first passed down orally and therefore have no known date. ...

Pāli was considered by early Buddhists to be linguistically similar to Old Magadhi or even a direct continuation of that language. Many Theravada sources refer to the Pāli language as “Magadhan” or the “language of Magadha”. 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. There are many remarkable analogies between Pali and Ardhamagadhi (Half Magadhi), an old form of Magadhi preserved in ancient Jain texts. 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. Buddhism is a variety of teachings, sometimes described as a religion[1] or way of life that attempts to identify the causes of human suffering and offer various ways that are claimed to end, or ease suffering. ... The Magadhi language (also known as मगही Magahi) is a language spoken by 11,362,000 people in India. ... Theravada (Pāli: theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, the Teaching of the Elders, or the Ancient Teaching) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and most of continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia... Ashoka redirects here. ... Prakrit (Sanskrit prakrta: natural, usual, vulgar) refers to the broad family of the Indic languages and dialects spoken in ancient India. ... Jain and Jaina redirect here. ... Idol of Lord Mahavira at Shri Mahaveerji (the holy town in Rajasthan named after Mahavira. ... The 24 Jinas carved on a rock in Ginjee, Tamilnadu In Jainism, a Tirthankar (Fordmaker) (also Tirthankara or Jina) is a human who by adopting asceticism achieves enlightenment (perfect knowledge), thus becoming a Jina (one who has conquered his inner enemies - anger, pride, deceit, desire etc. ... Jain and Jaina redirect here. ... Siddhartha and Gautama redirect here. ...

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. 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. 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. Thomas William Rhys Davids (May 12, 1843 - December 27, 1922) was an British scholar of the Pāli language and founder of the Pali Text Society. ... Wilhelm Ludwig Geiger (1856-1943) was a German Orientalist, in the fields of Indian and Iranian languages. ... Lingua franca, literally Frankish language in Italian, was originally a mixed language consisting largely of Italian plus a vocabulary drawn from Turkish, Persian, French, Greek and Arabic and used for communication throughout the Middle East. ... Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. ... Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල, ISO 15919: , pronounced ], earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. ...

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. 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. The Sanskrit language ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ... Indian postage stamp depicting (2004), with the implication that he used (IPA ) was an ancient Gandharan grammarian (approximately 5th century BC, but estimates range from the 7th to the 3rd centuries) who is most famous for formulating the 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology known as the . ... Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. ... Buddhism is a variety of teachings, sometimes described as a religion[1] or way of life that attempts to identify the causes of human suffering and offer various ways that are claimed to end, or ease suffering. ... The Visuddhimagga (The path to purity) is a Theravada Buddhist commentary written by Buddhaghosa approximately in 430 CE in Sri Lanka. ... Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa was a 5th century Indian Theravadin Buddhist commentator and scholar. ... Sinhalese or Sinhala (සිංහල, ISO 15919: , pronounced ], earlier referred to as Singhalese) is the mother tongue of the Sinhalese, the largest ethnic group of Sri Lanka. ...

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, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. 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. Buddhism is a variety of teachings, sometimes described as a religion[1] or way of life that attempts to identify the causes of human suffering and offer various ways that are claimed to end, or ease suffering. ... Theravada (Pāli: theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, the Teaching of the Elders, or the Ancient Teaching) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and most of continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia... Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ... Founded by Anagarika Dhammapala, the Maha Bodhi Society is a South Asian Buddhist society. ... Anagarika Dharmapala (1864 - 1933) was born David Hewavitarne in Colombo, Sri Lanka. ...

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. Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes romanized Pāli editions, along with many English translations of these sources. 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. It was the first Pali translated text in English and was published in 1872. Childers's Dictionary later received the Volney Prize in 1876. For other uses, see Europe (disambiguation). ... The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids to foster and promote the study of Pali texts. Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. ... Year 1881 (MDCCCLXXXI) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... 1869 (MDCCCLXIX) is a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar) of the Gregorian calendar or a common year starting on Sunday of the 12-day-slower Julian calendar. ... Robert Caesar Childers (1838 - July 25, 1876) was a British Orientalist scholar, compiler of the first Pali dictionary. ... The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids to foster and promote the study of Pali texts. Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Year 1872 (MDCCCLXXII) was a leap year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian Calendar (or a leap year starting on Saturday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). ... The Volney Prize (French language: Prix Volney) is awarded by the Institute of France after proposition by the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres to a work of comparative philology. ... Year 1876 (MDCCCLXXVI) // January 31 - United States orders all Indigenous peoples in the United States to move onto reservations February 2 - The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs of Major League Baseball is formed. ...

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. 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 Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids to foster and promote the study of Pali texts. Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. ... Indology refers to the academic study of the history, languages, and cultures of the Indian subcontinent, and as such a subset of Asian studies. ... For other uses, see England (disambiguation). ... Prakrit (also spelt Pracrit) (Sanskrit: , original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual, i. ... Anthem Kaba Ma Kyei Capital Naypyidaw Largest city Yangon Official languages Burmese Demonym Burmese Government Military junta  -  Chairman of the State Peace and Development Council Than Shwe  -  Prime Minister Soe Win  -  Acting Prime Minister Thein Sein Establishment  -  Bagan 849–1287   -  Taungoo Dynasty 1486–1752   -  Konbaung Dynasty 1752–1885   -  Colonial rule... The Royal Library in Copenhagen (Danish: Det Kongelige Bibliotek) is the national library of Denmark and the largest and most important library of Scandinavia. ...

Lexicon

Virtually every word in Pāḷi has cognates in the other Prakritic "Middle Indo-Aryan languages", e.g., the Jain Prakrits. The relationship to earlier Sanskrit (e.g., Vedic language) is less direct and more complicated. 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. Look up cognate in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... The Middle Indo-Aryan (Middle Indic) languages are the medieval dialects of the Indo-Aryan languages, the descendants of the Old Indo-Aryan dialects such as Sanskrit, and the predecessors of the medieval languages such as Apabhramsha or Abahatta, which eventually evolved into the contemporary Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindustani... Jain Prakrit is a term loosely used for the language of the Jain canon. ... Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, the earliest sacred texts of India. ...

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.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 Sutta Pitaka (suttapiá¹­aka; or Suttanta Pitaka; Sanskrit सूत्र पिटक Sutra Pitaka) is the second of the three divisions of the Tipitaka or Pali Canon, the great Pali collection of Buddhist writings, the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism. ... The Jataka stories are a significant body of works about the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. ...

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. Siddhartha and Gautama redirect here. ... Buddhism is a variety of teachings, sometimes described as a religion[1] or way of life that attempts to identify the causes of human suffering and offer various ways that are claimed to end, or ease suffering. ...

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.^{[citation needed]} Neither the Buddha nor his early followers shared the brahmans' reverence for the Vedic language or its sacred texts. 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] Emic and etic (also known as nemic and netic when used in an inter-cultural marketing context) are terms used by some in the social sciences and the behavioral sciences to refer to two different kinds of data concerning human behavior. ... The Sanskrit word denotes the scholar/teacher, priest, caste, class (), or tribe, that has been traditionally enjoined to live a life of learning, teaching and non-possessivenes . ... Buddhism is a variety of teachings, sometimes described as a religion[1] or way of life that attempts to identify the causes of human suffering and offer various ways that are claimed to end, or ease suffering. ... Siddhartha and Gautama redirect here. ... Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, which are the earliest sacred texts of India,. The Vedas were first passed down orally and therefore have no known date. ... The Vedas are part of the Hindu Shruti; these religious scriptures form part of the core of the Brahminical and Vedic traditions within Hinduism and are the inspirational, metaphysical and mythological foundation for later Vedanta, Yoga, Tantra and even Bhakti forms of Hinduism. ...

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.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. 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. Interestingly, there is nothing in the latter text that relates to this subject, and the origins of the custom are unclear. Spoken in: Ancient Egypt Language extinction: evolved into Demotic by 600 BC, into Coptic by AD 200, and was extinct (not spoken as a day-to-day language) by the 17th century. ... For other uses, see Latins and Latin (disambiguation). ... The word Hebrew most likely means to cross over, referring to the Semitic people crossing over the Euphrates River. ... Look up mystic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Supernatural (disambiguation). ... Dharani Kūkai advanced a general theory of language based on his analysis of two forms of Buddhist ritual language: dharani (dhāra. ... Theravada (Pāli: theravāda (cf Sanskrit: स्थविरवाद sthaviravāda); literally, the Teaching of the Elders, or the Ancient Teaching) is the oldest surviving Buddhist school, and for many centuries has been the predominant religion of Sri Lanka (about 70% of the population[1]) and most of continental Southeast Asia (Cambodia... Angulimala chases Gautama Buddha Angulimala (Pāli: The wearer of Garland of fingers) is an important early figure in Buddhism, particularly within the Theravada school. ... Abhidharma (Sanskrit: अभिधर्मा) Sinhala: අභිධර්ම) or Abhidhamma (Pāli: अभिधमा) is a category of Buddhist scriptures that attempts to use Buddhist teachings to create a systematic, abstract description of all worldly phenomena. ...

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.; 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. Anusvaara (or anusvaaram) appears in the alphabet of Indian languages like Sanskrit which use the Devanagari script, and in the Dravidian languages. ...

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. Articles with similar titles include the NATO phonetic alphabet, which has also informally been called the “International Phonetic Alphabet”. For information on how to read IPA transcriptions of English words, see IPA chart for English. ...

The sounds listed above, except for ṅ, ḷ and ḷh are distinct phonemes in Pāli. ṅ only occurs before velar stops. ḷ and ḷh are allophones of ḍ and ḍh when they occur singly between vowels. Places of articulation (passive & active): 1. ... In linguistics, manner of articulation describes how the tongue, lips, and other speech organs involved in making a sound make contact. ... A stop or plosive or occlusive is a consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the vocal tract. ... Approximants are speech sounds that could be regarded as intermediate between vowels and typical consonants. ... Fricatives (or spirants) are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. ... In phonetics, a voiceless consonant is a consonant that does not have voicing. ... A voiced consonant is a sound made as the vocal cords vibrate, as opposed to a voiceless consonant, where the vocal cords are relaxed. ... 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 sides of the tongue. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. ... A nasal consonant is produced when the velum—that fleshy part of the palate near the back—is lowered, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. ... Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate (the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum). ... 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). ... Sub-apical retroflex plosive In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. ... Dentals are consonants such as t, d, n, and l articulated with either the lower or the upper teeth, or both, rather than with the gum ridge as in English. ... 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) of the superior teeth. ... In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. ... In phonetics, labiodentals are consonants articulated with the lower lips and the upper teeth, or viceversa. ... Glottal consonants are consonants articulated with the glottis. ...

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). 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 linguistics, grammatical gender is a morphological category associated with the expression of gender through inflection or agreement. ... In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun indicates its grammatical function in a greater phrase or clause; such as the role of subject, of direct object, or of possessor. ... 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 verb arguments. ... 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 verb. ... In linguistics, the instrumental case (also called the eighth case) indicates that a noun is the instrument or means by which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action. ... The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. ... In linguistics, ablative case (also called the sixth case) (abbreviated ABL) is a name given to cases in various languages whose common thread is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Locative is a 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.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: Dharma (Sanskrit: धर्म) or Dhamma (Pāli: धम्म) in Buddhism has two primary meanings: the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment the constituent factors of the experienced world In East Asia, the character for Dharma is 法, pronounced fǎ in Mandarin and hō in Japanese. ...

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. 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." Dharma (Sanskrit: धर्म) or Dhamma (Pāli: धम्म) in Buddhism has two primary meanings: the teachings of the Buddha which lead to enlightenment the constituent factors of the experienced world In East Asia, the character for Dharma is 法, pronounced fǎ in Mandarin and hō in Japanese. ...

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. Indeed, a very large proportion of Pāli and Sanskrit word-stems are identical in form, differing only in details of inflection. ... Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, which are the earliest sacred texts of India,. The Vedas were first passed down orally and therefore have no known date. ... Sanskrit ( , for short ) is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and Jainism, and one of the 23 official languages of India. ...

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. 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. Prakrit (also spelt Pracrit) (Sanskrit: , original, natural, artless, normal, ordinary, usual, i. ...

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. 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.
• 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

Assimilation is a regular and frequent sound change process by which a phoneme changes to match an adjacent phoneme in a word. ... Listen to this article · (info) This audio file was created from the revision dated 2005-07-20, and does not reflect subsequent edits to the article. ... In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of air that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents. ...

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.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

Visarga () is a Sanskrit word meaning sending forth, discharge. In Sanskrit phonology (), (also called, equivalently, by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone, , written as IAST <>, Harvard-Kyoto <H>, Devanagari <>. Visarga is an allophone of and in pausa (at the end of an utterance). ...

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.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

A sibilant is a type of fricative or affricate, made by directing a jet of air through a narrow channel towards the sharp edge of the teeth. ...

Epenthesis

An epenthetic vowel is sometimes inserted between certain consonant-sequences. 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. In poetry and phonetics, epenthesis (, from Greek epi on + en in + thesis putting) is the insertion of a consonant, a vowel, or a whole syllable into a word, usually to facilitate pronunciation. ...

• 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)

Metathesis is a sound change that alters the order of phonemes in a word. ...

Exceptions

There are several notable exceptions to the rules above; many of them are common Prakrit words rather than borrowings from Sanskrit.

• 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. 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. Other local scripts, most prominently Khmer, Burmese, and in modern times Thai (since 1893), Devanāgarī and Mongolian have been used to record Pāli. Poster in Sinhala script for GCE Advanced Level Political science tuition class in Matale. ... This article or section uses Khmer characters which may be rendered as boxes or other nonsensical symbols. ... () is an abugida script used to write several Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Gujarati,Marathi, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Marwari, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Pahari (Garhwali and Kumaoni), Santhali, Nepali, Newari, Tharu and sometimes Kashmiri and Romani. ... The Mongolian language historically has four writing systems that have been used over the centuries. ...

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 mark or accent mark is an additional mark added to a basic letter. ...

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. The Unicode Standard, Version 5. ...

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.) ISBN 0080431674
• Warder, A.K. (1991). Introduction to Pali, third edition, Pali Text Society. 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. 

Kenneth Roy Norman is a leading scholar of Middle Indo-Aryan or Prakrit, particularly of Pali. ... Anthony Kennedy Warder is a scholar of Indology, mostly in Buddhist studies and related fields. ... The Pali Text Society was founded in 1881 by T.W. Rhys Davids to foster and promote the study of Pali texts. Pali is the language in which the texts of the Theravada school of Buddhism is preserved. ...

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

Pali edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• 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 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).