Notes on the Languages Used in this Course

INTRODUCTION
It has not been fully established what language the Buddha spoke, but scholars typically state that
he spoke a form of Magadhi, although some scholars contend that he may have more likely spoke in some
now lost Middle Indo-Aryan dialects more local to the regions in which he taught. As Buddhism
developed, the teachings were translated into other languages/dialects. In terms of Indic languages, the two
main languages used for Buddhist texts were Sanskrit and Pli. The process of translation into these
languages, while related to Magadhi, was not always a simple matter, leading to ongoing disagreements in
interpretation with respect to certain terms.
A. SANSKRIT
Sanskrit is the main liturgical language employed by Vedic traditions, Brahmanism and Hinduism
and was also employed to preserve the texts of Jainism and many forms of Buddhism, including
Sarvstivda, Mahyna and Tantric Buddhism. Sanskrit can be translated as refined, consecrated
and sanctified. It is currently, and has been historically, little used as an everyday spoken language.
SCRIPT: The first scripts employed for Indic languages do not appear to have been developed until ~4th3rd
c. BCE. There were various ways of modifying the Brahmi script in order to record Sanskrit, the most
widely used of which is the Devangar script.
TRANSLITERATION: There are a number of Romanization schemes for Sanskrit, the most commonly
encountered of which is the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST). Using an array of
diacritical marks, this system preserves all of the nuances found in Indic scripts used to write Sanskrit.
IAST is based on a standard initially established in 1894, and has been a standard for academic work since
1912. This is the form of transliteration generally encountered in the class materials and the class
textbooks.
PRONUNCIATION: Sanskrit pronunciation includes a number of sounds not represented by the English
alphabet. The pronunciation of Sanskrit is also complicated by the fact that a number of sounds alter
depending on their context both within a word and across word boundaries. Additionally, some
pronunciations have evolved over the centuries (for instance, in classical Sanskrit is approximated by er
as in better but is also currently read as ri). A few basic notes:
is a long a sound
ch is a ch sound (not a sh)
is a rd sound
is an ny sound

ph is a p sound (not an f)
is an rsh sound
is a sh sound
is a rt sound

See Appendix A of The Experience of Buddhism by Strong for a more detailed pronunciation guide.
You can find a number of additional basic pronunciation (and transliteration) guides online:
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sanskrit.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA_for_Sanskrit
http://www.happinessofbeing.com/Transliteration.pdf
http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/sk-pron/skpro-hp.htm
Two of the required texts for the class include basic but clear and helpful glossaries of Sanskrit and Pli
terms: Buddhist Thought by Williams et al. on page 192, and The Experience of Buddhism by Strong on
page 370.

B. PLI
Pli is the language in which the canonical texts of Theravda Buddhism have been preserved, and
is recited in Theravda liturgy. Pli initially developed in India. It appears to be a hybrid of a number of
dialects, perhaps including those originally employed by the Buddha. It may have arisen from a felt need to
develop a common language for Buddhist texts as time and geographical distribution led to greater
linguistic divergences among Buddhist communities. Pli and Sanskrit are closely related. Many terms
share the same word-stem and differ only in terms of inflections. Here are some examples of Sanskrit-Pli
equivalents illustrating some of the standard assimilations (which can be summarized in about 50 principle
transformations, along with a number of special cases):
Sanskrit
cakrava
dharma
di
dukha
karma
knti
maitr
nirva
praj
smti
sthavira
vimukti

Pli
cakkava
dhamma
dihi
dukkha
kamma
khanti
mett
nibbna
pa
sati
thera
vimutti

Meaning
world-sphere
teaching, law, etc.
view
suffering, pain
action
patience
loving-kindness
blown-out, release
wisdom, understanding
mindful, recollection
elder
liberation

For the most part, in the first half of the class (1st7th classes), I will try to include Pli equivalents
(in parentheses after p.) for Sanskrit terms. For the class on Theravda, I will mostly only use Pli (for
names, etc.), and for the classes on Mahyna Buddhism and Tantric Buddhism, I will mostly only use
Sanskrit.
TRANSLITERATION: IAST is also used for Pli, although with some problems. It is also common to
encounter the Hunterian system, which does not employ diacritical marks, and has been criticized for not
preserving important phonetic distinctions. Nevertheless, it is the officially adopted form of Romanization
used in India.
C. TIBETAN
We will encounter Tibetan mainly in the 13th class for names, places, schools, and key terms.
TRANSLITERATION: For the class materials, I will use the THL Simplified Phonetic Transcription of
standard Tibetan. Created in 2003, this is a simplified form of the Tournadre Phonetic System (Strong
employs a variant of this scheme). There are other transliteration schemes you may encounter, including the
Wylie scheme developed in 1959 which uses capitals rather than diacritical marks and is aimed at precisely
transcribing written Tibetan. While it is favored by academics for this precision, it can be difficult to
discern how the word should be pronounced from this transliteration. For example, Gelug (THL, important
school of Tibetan Buddhism) is dGe-Lugs in Wylie, Ngondro (THL, pronounced Nundro, preliminary
practices) is sngongro in Wylie, and Chenrezig (THL, Avalokitevara) is sPyan-ras-gzigs in Wylie. I may
try to include Wylie equivalents if there is time. Another form of transliteration is Tibetan Pinyin (also
known as SASM, GNC, and SRC romanizations) which is the official scheme used by the Peoples
Republic of China. The articles in Buddhism in Practice ed. by Lopez employ various approaches followed
by the Wylie in parentheses.