Pali Language Puns

A Course in the Pali Language

https://bodhimonastery.org/a-course-in-the-pali-language.html

Pali is the language used to preserve the Buddhist canon of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, which is regarded as the oldest complete collection of Buddhist texts surviving in an Indian language. Pali is closely related to Sanskrit, but its grammar and structure are simpler. Traditional Theravadins regard Pali as the language spoken by the Buddha himself, but in the opinion of leading linguistic scholars, Pali was probably a synthetic language created from several vernaculars to make the Buddhist texts comprehensible to Buddhist monks living in different parts of northern India. It is rooted in the Prakrits, the vernacular languages, used in northern India during the Middle period of Indian linguistic evolution. As Theravada Buddhism spread to other parts of southern Asia, the use of Pali as the language of the texts spread along with it, and thus Pali became a sacred language in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Pali has been used almost exclusively for Buddhist teachings, although many religious and literary works related to Buddhism were written in Pali at a time when it was already forgotten in India.

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I’m curious if there’s been any research or other literature that systematically approaches how Sanskrit & Pali [and any other Prakrits] are transcribed using Chinese Characters — I did a quick crawl of the internet, but couldn’t particularly find much.

How do translators know the actually meanings of the pali words, given that the language is no longer in use? Many pali words have such rich meanings that I am curious how we have cultivated confidence in the definitions that we accept for them.

In a course on the Pali language conducted through Oxford, a really smart Ph.D-holder said "In recent scholarship, the view that Pali is the language of the Buddha has been rejected, and we disagree with this... [fluffy language about politely disagreeing] ... our judgment is that Pali is a Western lingua franca, older than the [Shokum] <-- (what I think he said) Prakrit, and hence it is likely to be the language of the Buddha himself."

I'm new to this debate between Pali and Prakrit being the spoken language of the Buddha. Can any scholars clue me in on what's going on here?

Bomhard’s An Introductory Grammar of the Pali Language

Yet another grammar. Quite clear and usable.

If you go back in history, will you find a group of people speaking in Pali?

This is probably me just me being a regular old English speaker who wants everyone to learn their language rather than learn someone else's but I'm struggling with the number of terms I need to know in Pali or Sanskrit.

Is there like, a list of terms or a specific translation or something to make this easier? If not I guess I'll just do my best.

In reading the Buddhist, Sikh, and Hindu texts, I'm astonished at the cognates that I've read. For examples:

• 'sant' - means "saint" in Punjabi.
• 'anguli' - means "finger" in Pali. There was a mass murderer who was allowed into Buddhism named "Anguli Mala" because he made a necklace out of his victim's fingers. The word "ankle" is cognate with this word.

The Northern Indian languages are mostly Indo-European, and so it shouldn't come as a surprise.

Therefore, I was wondering if three very important words in Buddhism had English cognates. Are there cognates in the English language for the following words: "Buddha" ('awakened'), "Sangha" ('congregation'), and "Dharma" ('truth')?

To clarify, by KJV or King James Version, I’m referring to the much praised grandeur of style of that translation of the Bible.

https://www.ocbs-courses.org/blog/buddhism-and-pali/

Not very often that something like this comes along: a short book for a general audience on the Pali language and how it relates to Buddhism. The author, Richard Gombrich, would has had a long history in Pali studies, having taught at Oxford and been an editor for the Pali Text Society.

There are some rather controversial opinions in here — he argues that the Buddha spoke Pali, not a popular opinion among modern scholars. Still it’s an interesting read and might appeal to some of you.

Hello everyone.

I was wondering if anyone in this sub understands Pali language? If so, I'd really appreciate if you would help me out by providing me links to a few helpful resources to get started.

Also, does it help to learn Pali if you know Nepali? Because few words(for eg: dukkha) seem to be common to both the languages. Does "Pali" have anything to do with Ne-"Pali"?
Thanks.

Pali (Pāli or Magadhan) is a Prakit language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is a widely studied language, because the earliest extant sources of Buddhist literature, the Pali Cannon, as well as several Hindu sacred texts, are written in it. The language died out as a spoken language at some indeterminant time in the past, though it continued as a literary language, in large part due to Buddhism, in India until the 14th century, and other places until the 18th. There are several movements promoting the language, such as the Maha Bodhi Society and the Pali Text Society.

Linguistics

Pali is Prakit, meaning that it is an Indo-Aryan language and a sister language to Sanskrit. It is also distantly related to other languages such as Hittite, Persian and English, as all are members of the Indo-European language family.

Classification

Pali's full classification is as follows:

Indo-European (Proto-Indo-European) > Indo-Iranian(Proto-Indo-Iranian) > Indo-Aryan (Proto-Indo-Aryan) > Prakit (refers to a group of Middle Indo-Aryan languages) > Pali

Phonology and Phonotactics

Pali has five distinct vowels (/i e ɐ o u/), three of which contrast based on length in open syllables (only short is allowed in closed), giving a total of 8 contrasting vowels. The other two /e o/ do show long vowels, but they are in a complementary distribution with the long form appearing in open syllables and the short form in closed syllables.

A sound called anusvāra (Skt.; Pali: nigghahita), represented by the letter ṁ or ṃ in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, aṁ, iṁ and uṁ represented [ã], [ĩ] and [ũ]. In many traditional pronunciations, however, the anusvāra is pronounced more strongly, like the velar nasal [ŋ], so

Basically, I'd like to learn Pali and read the original sutras in their original language while also living the life of a monastic for a few months or years. Is the opportunity for that available anywhere in the US?

And if not in the US, any other country?

Rohan Murthy is apparently helping rally the funds for this great project, in association with Columbia University's Professor Sheldon Pollock. The project aims to bring to common access, the huge literary cosmos that India has generated over the centuries but still finds little mention when compared to Greek or English texts, largely due to the inaccesibility due to unawareness of Indian languages to non-Indian readers.

> Many classic Indic texts have never reached a global audience, while others are becoming increasingly inaccessible even to Indian readers. The creation of a classical library of India is intended to reintroduce these works to a new generation of readers.

The publishing partner is the phenomenal Harvard University Press. The methodology of presentation and the qwality of the stuff is also commendable.

> The text in the appropriate regional script will appear alongside the translation. An introduction, explanatory commentary, and textual notes will accompany each work with the aim of making these volumes the most authoritative and accessible available.

They have already published 5 volumes and are planning to come up with a lot more in future. And these are getting noticed too.

A literary colossus

The Many Strands of Indian Identity

More than 2,000 years of India’s lost literature is coming back into print.

I'm interested in learning the actual symbols, not an anglicized version. Ultimately I want to be able to comprehend the Pali cannon. Does anybody have a good place to start or a collection of resources the are willing to share?

Please PM if you are able to help. Compensation of course applies. STILL LOOKING

Let's assume for the sake of discussion that the Buddha spoke a language closely related to Pali.

I'm told that "dukkha" means "suffering," in Pali. I'm told that dukkha literally means "a broken cart wheel."

So, here's what I wonder about:

Did the Buddha mean to use a figure of speech when he said "Dukkha"? Did he mean to say, "Life is like a broken cart wheel, because it's a rough ride, and unreliable"?

Or is dukkha a word that has two separate literal meanings, "broken cart wheel" and "suffering"?

Or is dukkha a word that has a literal meaning, suffering, plus connotations or an underlying etymology related to broken cart wheel?

For instance, in English, for the last hundred years or more, to be "fired" is to be terminated involuntarily from one's employment. But, it also means "to be set on fire." The meaning of job termination arises from its etymology and connotations, because it's painful and harmful to be fired from one's job, just like it's painful and harmful to be set on fire. At one point, getting fired might have been a metaphor, but the metaphor was forgotten, and "fired" took on a new literal meaning, separate from the literal meaning of "fire."

Is Pali the sort of language where most words have at least two meanings, one a literal and more ancient meaning, like "broken cart wheel" and another, more abstract or metaphorical, like "suffering"?

Complicated and difficult questions, I know. Probably only a few subscribers know the answer. It interests me, maybe it will interest a few others. Similar questions might arise about a variety of other Pali terms central to Buddhism.

A Course in the Pali Language

https://bodhimonastery.org/a-course-in-the-pali-language.html

Pali is the language used to preserve the Buddhist canon of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, which is regarded as the oldest complete collection of Buddhist texts surviving in an Indian language. Pali is closely related to Sanskrit, but its grammar and structure are simpler. Traditional Theravadins regard Pali as the language spoken by the Buddha himself, but in the opinion of leading linguistic scholars, Pali was probably a synthetic language created from several vernaculars to make the Buddhist texts comprehensible to Buddhist monks living in different parts of northern India. It is rooted in the Prakrits, the vernacular languages, used in northern India during the Middle period of Indian linguistic evolution. As Theravada Buddhism spread to other parts of southern Asia, the use of Pali as the language of the texts spread along with it, and thus Pali became a sacred language in Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. Pali has been used almost exclusively for Buddhist teachings, although many religious and literary works related to Buddhism were written in Pali at a time when it was already forgotten in India.

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I have found this to be helpful