OROGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PALI LANGUAGE & LITERATURE

(From Pre Buddhistic Period to Decline of Buddhism in India)

Pāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan language (or prakrit) of India. It is best known as the language of
many of the earliest extant Buddhist scriptures, as collected in the Pāli Canon or Tipitaka, and as
the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism.
Contents
1 Origin and development
2 Lexicon
3 Emic views of Pali
4 Phonology
4.1 Vowels
4.2 Consonants
5 Morphology
5.1 Nominal inflection
5.1.1 a-stems
5.1.2 ā-stems
5.1.3 i-stems and u-stems
6 Example of Pali with English translation
7 Pali and Ardha-Magadhi
8 Pali and Sanskrit
8.1 Vowels and diphthongs
8.2 Consonants
8.2.1 Sound changes
8.2.2 Assimilations
8.2.2.1 General rules
8.2.2.2 Total assimilation
8.2.2.2.1 Progressive assimilations
8.2.2.2.2 Regressive assimilations
8.2.2.3 Partial and mutual assimilation
8.2.3 Epenthesis
8.2.4 Other changes
8.3 Exceptions
9 Pali writing
9.1 Pali alphabet with diacritics
9.2 Pali transliteration on computers
9.3 Pali text in ASCII
10 See also
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links

Origin and development

The word Pali itself signifies "line" or "(canonical) text", and this name for the language seems to
have its origins in commentarial traditions, wherein the "Pāli" (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. R.C. Childers
translates the word as "series" and states that the language "bears the epithet in consequence of
the perfection of its grammatical structure."[1]
Pali is a literary language of the Prakrit language family. When the canonical texts were written
down in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE, Pali stood close to a living language; this is not the
case for the commentaries.[2] Despite excellent scholarship on this problem, there is persistent
confusion as to the relation of Pāli to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of Magadha,
which was located around modern-day Bihār.
Pali as a Middle Indo-Aryan language is different from Sanskrit not so much with regard to the
time of its origin 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 Rgvedic Vedic Sanskrit; rather it descends
from a dialect (or a number of dialects) which was (/were), despite many similarities, different
from Rgvedic.[3]
Pali 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 Pali language as
“Magadhan” or the “language of Magadha.” This identification first appears in the commentaries,
and may have been an attempt by Buddhists to associate themselves more closely with the
Mauryans. The Buddha taught in Magadha, but the four most important places in his life are all
outside of it. It is likely that he taught in several closely related dialects of Middle Indo-Aryan,
which had a very high degree of mutual intelligibilty.
There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali. Pali has some
commonalities with both the Ashokan inscriptions at Girnar in the West of India, and at
Hathigumpha in the East. Similarities to the Western inscription may be misleading, because the
inscription suggests that the Ashokan scribe may not have translated the material he received
from Magadha into the vernacular of the people there.
According to Norman, it is likely that the viharas in North India had separate collections of
material, preserved in the local dialect. In the early period it is likely that no degree of translation
was necessary in communicating this material to other areas. Around the time of Ashoka there
had been more linguistic divergence, and an attempt was made to assemble all the material. It is
possible that a language quite close to the Pali of the canon emerged as a result of this process as
a compromise of the various dialects in which the earliest material had been preserved, and this
language functioned as a lingua franca among Eastern Buddhists in India from then on. Following
this period, the language underwent a small degree of Sanskritisation (i.e., MIA bamhana ->
brahmana, tta -> tva in some cases).[4]
T.W. Rhys Davids in his book Buddhist India, and Wilhelm Geiger in his book Pali Literature
and Language suggested that Pali may have originated as a form of lingua franca or common
language of culture among people who used differing dialects in North India, used at the time of
the Buddha and employed by him. Another scholar states that at that time it was "a refined and
elegant vernacular of all Aryan-speaking people."[5] Modern scholarship has not arrived at a
consensus on the issue; there are a variety of conflicting theories with supporters and detractors.
[6] After the death of the Buddha, Pali may have evolved among Buddhists out of the language of
the Buddha as a new artificial language.[7] Bhikkhu Bodhi, summarizing the current state of
scholarship, states that the language is "closely related to the language (or, more likely, the
various regional dialects) that the Buddha himself spoke." He goes on to write:
Scholars regard this language as a hybrid showing features of several Prakrit dialects used around
the third century BCE, subjected to a partial process of Sanskritization. While the language is not
identical with any the Buddha himself would have spoken, it belongs to the same broad linguistic
family as those he might have used and originates from the same conceptual matrix. This
language thus reflects the thought-world that the Buddha inherited from the wider Indian culture
into which he was born, so that its words capture the subtle nuances of that thought-world.[8]
Whatever the relationship of the Buddha's speech to Pali, the Canon was eventually transcribed
and preserved entirely in it, 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. R.C. Childers, who held to the theory that Pali was Old
Magadhi, wrote: "Had Gautama never preached, it is unlikely that Magadhese would have been
distinguished from the many other vernaculars of Hindustan, except perhaps by an inherent grace
and strength which make it a sort of Tuscan among the Prakrits."[9]
However Pali 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, Pali is thought
to have entered into a period of decline ending around the 4th or 5th Century (as Sanskrit rose in
prominence, and simultaneously, Buddhism's adherents increasingly became a smaller portion of
the subcontinent), 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.
Today Pali is studied mainly to gain access to Buddhist scriptures, and is frequently chanted in a
ritual context. The secular literature of Pali historical chronicles, medical texts, and inscriptions,
is also of great historical importance. The great centers of Pali learning remain in the Theravada
nations of South-East Asia: Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. Since the 19th
century, various societies for the revival of Pali studies in India have promoted awareness of the
language and its literature, perhaps most notably the Maha Bodhi Society founded by Anagarika
Dhammapala.
In Europe, the Pali Text Society has been a major force in promoting the study of Pali by Western
scholars since its founding in 1881. Based in the United Kingdom, the society publishes
romanized Pali 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.
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. 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 Pali manuscripts,
and major traditions of Pali studies.
Lexicon
Virtually every word in Pāli 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 Pali and Sanskrit has been felt in both
directions. The Pali 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 Pali technical terminology has
been borrowed from the vocabulary of equivalent disciplines in Sanskrit, either directly or with
certain phonological adaptations.
Post-canonical Pali also possesses a few loan-words from local languages where Pali was used
(e.g. Sri Lankans adding Sinhalese words to Pali). These usages differentiate the Pali found in the
Suttapitaka from later compositions such as the Pali 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.
Pali 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 Pali.
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.
[edit] Emic views of Pali
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.[10]
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 Pali, 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.[11]
Comparable to Ancient Egyptian, Latin or Hebrew in the mystic traditions of the West, Pali
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 Pali dhāranīs used as charms, e.g. against the bite of
snakes. Many people in Theravada cultures still believe that taking a vow in Pali has a special
significance, and, as one example of the supernatural power assigned to chanting in the language,
the recitation of the vows of Angulimāla are believed to alleviate the pain of childbirth in Sri
Lanka. In Thailand, the chanting of a portion of the Abhidhammapitaka 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.
Phonology
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without
proper rendering support, you may see question marks,
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With regard to its phonology, R.C. Childers compared Pali to Italian: "Like Italian, Pali is at once
flowing and sonorous: it is a characteristic of both languages that nearly every word ends in a
vowel, and that all harsh conjunctions are softened down by assimilation, elision, or crasis, while
on the other hand both lend themselves easily to the expression of sublime and vigorous
thought."[12]
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 letter ṁ (ISO 15919) or ṃ
(ALA-LC) 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 that these sounds are pronounced instead [ãŋ], [ĩŋ] and [ũŋ]. However
pronounced, ṁ never follows a long vowel; ā, ī and ū are converted to the corresponding short
vowels when ṁ is added to a stem ending in a long vowel, e.g. kathā + ṁ becomes kathaṁ, not
*kathāṁ, devī + ṁ becomes deviṁ, not *devīṁ.
Consonants
The table below lists the consonants of Pali. In bold is the letter in traditional romanisation, in
brackets is its pronunciation in the IPA.
The sounds listed above, except for ṅ, ḷ and ḷh are distinct phonemes in Pali. ṅ only occurs
before velar stops. ḷ and ḷh are allophones of ḍ and ḍh when they occur singly between vowels.
[edit] Morphology
Pali 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.
[edit] Nominal inflection
Pali 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.
[edit] 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.
Masculine (loka- "world") Neuter (yāna- "carriage")
Singular Plural Singular Plural
Nominative loko
lokā
Vocative loka yānaṁ yānāni
Accusative lokaṁ loke
Instrumenta
lokena yānena
l
lokehi yānehi
lokā (lokamhā, lokasmā; yānā (yānamhā, yānasmā;
Ablative
lokato) yānato)
Dative lokassa (lokāya) yānassa (yānāya)
lokānaṁ yānānaṁ
Genitive lokassa yānassa
Locative loke (lokasmiṁ) lokesu yāne (yānasmiṁ) yānesu
[edit] 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 Pali with English translation
Manopubbaṅgamā dhammā, manoseṭṭhā manomayā;
Manasā ce paduṭṭhena, bhāsati vā karoti vā,
Tato nam dukkhaṁ anveti, cakkaṁ'va vahato padaṁ.
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 naṁ dukkhaṁ anv-e=ti, cakkaṁ 'va vahat=o pad=aṁ.
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. 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.
[edit] Pali and Ardha-Magadhi
The most archaic of the Middle Indo-Aryan languages are the inscriptional Aśokan Prakrit on the
one hand and Pāli and Ardhamāgadhī on the other, both literary languages.
The Indo-Aryan languages are commonly assigned to three major groups - Old, Middle and New
Indo-Aryan -, a linguistic and not strictly chronological classification as the MIA languages ar not
younger than ('Classical') Sanskrit. And a number of their morphophonological and lexical
features betray the fact that they are not direct continuations of Ṛgvedic Sanskrit, the main base
of 'Classical' Sanskrit; rather they descend from dialects which, despite many similarities, were
different from Ṛgvedic and in some regards even more archaic.
MIA languages, though individually distinct, share features of phonology and morphology which
characterize them as parallel descendants of Old Indo-Aryan. Various sound changes are typical
of the MIA phonology:
(1) The vocalic liquids 'ṛ' and 'ḷ' are replaced by 'a', 'i' or 'u'; (2) the diptongs 'ai' and 'au' are
monophthongized to 'e' and 'o'; (3) long vowels before two or more consonants are shortened; (4)
the three sibilants of OIA are reduced to one, either 'ś' or 's'; (5) the often complex consonant
clusters of OIA are reduced to more readily pronounceable forms, either by assimilation or by
splitting; (6) single intervocalic stops are progressively weakened; (7) dentals are palatalized by a
following '-y-'; (8) all final consonants except '-ṃ' are dropped unless they are retained in 'sandhi'
junctions.
The most conspicuous features of the morphological system of these languages are: loss of the
dual; thematicization of consonantal stems; merger of the f. 'i-/u-' and 'ī-/ū-' in one 'ī-/ū-'
inflexion, elimination of the dative, whose functions are taken over by the genitive, simultaneous
use of different case-endings in one paradigm; employment of 'mahyaṃ' and 'tubhyaṃ' as
genitives and 'me' and 'te' as instrumentals; gradual disappearance of the middle voice;
coexistence of historical and new verbal forms based on the present stem; and use of active
endings for the passive. In the vocabulary, the MIA languages are mostly dependent on Old Indo-
Aryan, with addition of a few so-called 'deśī' words of (often) uncertain origin.
[edit] Pali and Sanskrit
Although Pali 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
Pali and Sanskrit were always easily recognized by those in India who were familiar with both.
Indeed, a very large proportion of Pali 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 Pali by a set of conventional phonological transformations. These transformations
mimicked a subset of the phonological developments that had occurred in Proto-Pali. Because of
the prevalence of these transformations, it is not always possible to tell whether a given Pali 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 Pali word is not always secure evidence of the Pali
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 Pali from its Old Indic ancestor, but rather are a summary of
the most common phonological equations between Sanskrit and Pali, with no claim to
completeness.
[edit] Vowels and diphthongs
Sanskrit ai and au always monophthongize to Pali e and o, respectively
Examples: maitrī → mettā, auṣadha → osadha
Sanskrit aya and ava likewise often reduce to Pali e and o
Examples: dhārayati → dhāreti, avatāra → otāra, bhavati → hoti
Sanskrit avi becomes Pali e (i.e. avi → ai → e)
Example: sthavira → thera
Sanskrit ṛ appears in Pali 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
[edit] Consonants
[edit] Sound changes
The Sanskrit sibilants ś, ṣ, and s merge together as Pali 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
[edit] Assimilations
[edit] General rules
Many assimilations of one consonant to a neighboring consonant occurred in the development of
Pali, 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
[edit] 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.
[edit] 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
[edit] 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, saṁkhyā →
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
[edit] 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
[edit] 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.
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)
[edit] 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 Pali dahati) nīḍa → nīla (not nīḷa),
sthāna → ṭhāna (not thāna), duḥkṛta → dukkaṭa (beside Pali dukkata)
[edit] 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)
[edit] Pali writing
[edit] Pali alphabet with diacritics
King Ashoka erected a number of pillars with his edicts in at least three regional prakrits in
Brahmi script, [13] all of which are quite similar to Pali. Historically, the first written record of
the Pali canon is believed to have been composed in Sri Lanka, based on a prior oral tradition. As
per the Mahavamsa (the 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 Pali has retained a universal system of alphabetic values, but has
expressed those values in a stunning variety of actual scripts.
In Sri Lanka, Pali 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 Pali.
Since the 19th Century, Pali 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
arguably less readable than the standard Rhys Davids system, which uses diacritical marks.
The Pali alphabetical order is as follows:
a ā i ī u ū e o ṁ 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.
[edit] Pali transliteration on computers
There are several fonts to use for Pali 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.
However, not all Unicode fonts contain the necessary characters. To properly display all the
diacritic marks used for romanized Pali (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
Some Unicode fonts freely available for typesetting Romanized Pali are as follows:
The Pali Text Society recommends VU-Times and Gandhari Unicode for Windows and Linux
Computers.
The Tibetan & Himalayan Digital Library recommends Times Ext Roman, and provides links to
several of other Unicode diacritic fonts usable for typing Pali together with ratings and
installation instructions.
SIL: International provides Charis SIL, Doulos SIL, Gentium, Gentium Basic, Gentium Book
Basic fonts. Of them, Charis SIL, Gentium Basic and Gentium Book Basic have all 4 styles
(regular, italic, bold, bold-italic); so can provide publication quality typesetting.
Libertine Openfont Project provides the Linux Libertine font (4 styles and many Opentype
features) at the Sourceforge.
Junicode (short for Junius-Unicode) is a Unicode font for medievalists, but it provides all
diacritics for typing Pali. It has 4 styles and some Opentype features such as Old Style for
numerals.
GUST (Polish TeX User Group) provides Latin Modern and TeX Gyre fonts. Each font has 4
styles, with the former finding most acceptance among the LaTeX users while the latter is a
relatively new family. Of the latter, each typeface in the following families has nearly 1250
glyphs and is available in PostScript, TeX and OpenType formats.
The TeX Gyre Adventor family of sans serif fonts is based on the URW Gothic L family. The
original font, ITC Avant Garde Gothic was designed by Herb Lubalin and Tom Carnase in 1970.
The TeX Gyre Bonum family of serif fonts is based on the URW Bookman L family. The
original font was designed by Alexander Phemister in 1860 and named Bookman (or Bookman
Old Style).
The TeX Gyre Chorus is a font based on the URW Chancery L Medium Italic font. The original,
ITC Zapf Chancery, was designed in 1979 by Hermann Zapf.
The TeX Gyre Cursor family of monospace serif fonts is based on the URW Nimbus Mono L
family. The original font, Courier, was designed by Howard G. (Bud) Kettler in 1955.
The TeX Gyre Heros family of sans serif fonts is based on the URW Nimbus Sans L family. The
original font, Helvetica, was designed in 1957 by Max Miedinger.
The TeX Gyre Pagella family of serif fonts is based on the URW Palladio L family. The original
font, Palatino, was designed by Hermann Zapf in the 1940's.
The TeX Gyre Schola family of serif fonts is based on the URW Century Schoolbook L family.
The original was designed by Morris Fuller Benton in 1919.
The TeX Gyre Termes family of serif fonts is based on the Nimbus Roman No9 L family. The
original font, Times, was designed by Stanley Morison together with Starling Burgess and Victor
Lardent.
John Smith provides IndUni Opentype fonts, based upon URW++ fonts. Of them:
IndUni-C is Courier-lookalike;
IndUni-H is Helvetica-lookalike;
IndUni-N is New Century Schoolbook-lookalike;
IndUni-P is Palatino-lookalike;
IndUni-T is Times-lookalike;
IndUni-CMono is Courier-lookalike but monospaced;
An English Buddhist monk titled Bhikkhu Pesala provides some Pali fonts he has designed
himself, and some Pali keyboards for Windows XP.
The font section of Alanwood's Unicode Resources have links to several general purpose fonts
that can be used for Pali typing if they cover the character ranges above.
[edit] Pali 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
Pali diacritical marks has been used in some websites and discussion lists. However, as the Web
itself and email software slowly evolve towards the Unicode encoding standard, this system has
become almost not necessary and obsolete.
The following table compares various conventional renderings and shortcut key assignments:
characte
ASCII rendering character name Unicode number key combination HTML code
r
ā aa a macron U+0101 Alt+A ā
ī ii i macron U+012B Alt+I ī
ū uu u macron U+016B Alt+U ū
ṃ .m m dot-under U+1E43 ṁ
ṇ .n n dot-under U+1E47 Alt+N ṇ
ñ ~n n tilde U+00F1 Alt+Ctrl+N ñ
ṭ .t t dot-under U+1E6D Alt+T ṭ
ḍ .d d dot-under U+1E0D Alt+D ḍ
ṅ "n n dot-over U+1E45 Ctrl+N ṅ
ḷ .l l dot-under U+1E37 Alt+L ḷ
[edit] See also
Pali literature
Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
ISO 15919
ALA-LC Romanization
[edit] References
^ Hazra, Kanai Lal. Pali Language and Literature; a systematic survey and historical study. D.K.
Printworld Lrd., New Delhi, 1994, page 19.
^ Students' Brittanica India, [1].
^ Oberlies, Thomas Pali: A Grammar of the Language of the Theravāda Tipiṭaka, Walter de
Gruyter, 2001.
^ K.R. Norman, Pali Literature. Otto Harrassowitz, 1983, pages 1-7.
^ Hazra, Kanai Lal. Pali Language and Literature; a systematic survey and historical study. D.K.
Printworld Lrd., New Delhi, 1994, page 11.
^ Hazra, Kanai Lal. Pali Language and Literature; a systematic survey and historical study. D.K.
Printworld Lrd., New Delhi, 1994, pages 1-44.
^ Hazra, Kanai Lal. Pali Language and Literature; a systematic survey and historical study. D.K.
Printworld Lrd., New Delhi, 1994, page 29.
^ Bhikkhu Bodhi, In the Buddha's Words. Wisdom Publications, 2005, page 10.
^ Hazra, Kanai Lal. Pali Language and Literature; a systematic survey and historical study. D.K.
Printworld Lrd., New Delhi, 1994, page 20.
^ David Kalupahana, Nagarjuna: The Philosophy of the Middle Way. SUNY Press, 1986, page
19. The author refers specifically to the thought of early Buddhism here.
^ Dispeller of Delusion, Pali Text Society, volume II, pages 127f
^ Robert Caesar Childers, A Dictionary of the Pali Language. Published by Trübner, 1875, pages
xii-xiv. Republished by Asian Educational Services, 1993.
^ Inscriptions of Asoka by Alexander Cunningham, Eugen Hultzsch. Calcutta: Office of the
Superintendent of Government Printing. Calcutta: 1877
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 ed.). Pali Text Society. ISBN
0860131971.
de Silva, Lily (1994). Pali Primer (first edition ed.). Vipassana Research Institute Publications.
ISBN 817414014X.
Müller, Edward (1884,1995). Simplified Grammar of the Pali Language. Asian Educational
Services. ISBN 8120611039.
[edit] 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.
Russell Webb (ed.) An Analysis of the Pali Canon, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy; 1975,
1991 (see http://www.bps.lk/reference.asp)
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.
Collins, Steven (2006). A Pali Grammar for Students. Silkworm Press.
[edit] External links

Pali edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pali Text Society, London. The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary. Chipstead, 1921-
1925.
Buddhist India by T.W. Rhys Davids, chapter IX, Language and Literature
Pali at Ethnologue
Pali Text Society
[2] 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 Pali Proper Names, HTML version of the book by G.P. Malalasekera,
1937-8
Pali 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).
[3] Pali Conjugation and Declension Tables for Students
[4]Comprehensive Reference Table of Pali Literature
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