Introduction to Pali

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About the Book The purpose of this book is to introduce the student, by the most direct path, to the language of the Pali Canon. Existing primers and readers for the study of Pali teach the later language of the Commentaries and other medieval writings, and indeed of the present day for this very copious and flexible language is still in use.

Our grammatical analysis is based the admirable science of the on medieval monks. Their terminology is given, to aid reference, but may of course be ignored by the beginner. The intention here is to cover Pali grammar and syntax in a comprehensive manner.

This grammar differs from earlier grammars in being a description of the Canonical language as a relatively homogeneous and consistent form of speech, ignoring later usages (which would confuse the description and sometimes confound the interpretation). It is also "descriptive" in being an analysis of Canonical usage as far as possible without historical "squinting" at other languages.

The sentences and passages for reading are taken, with only the un avoidable minimum of editing in the first exercises, from prose texts in the Digha Nikaya of the Canon. Prose sentences provide the student with straightforward examples of the language, uncons trained by metrical considerations.

The texts from which extracts are given expound the philosophy of Buddhism fairly systematically, but in narrative and dialogue style against a historical background of the Buddha's wanderings and meetings with a variety of characters.

The arrangement of the book is based on the experience that extensive reading is the easiest way to learn a language. The vocabulary and grammar are made familiar and meanings are made explicit by sufficient numbers of encounters The study of early Buddhism will always be the objective of the majority of those who take up Pali, though in addition to the interest of the language itself we must stress the importance of the texts for the study of the history of Indian literature, especially secular literature (literature as literature, "fine" literature, Pāli kāveyyam Sanskrit kavya-the latter embracing the prose novel and the drama as well as poetry).

Preface The purpose of this book is to introduce the student, by the most direct path, to the language of the Pali Canon. Existing primers and readers for the study of Pali teach the later language of the Commentaries and other medieval writings. and indeed of the present day-for this very copious and flexible language is still in use. In Ceylon and other countries where Pali is taught at school the method is to begin with the later language in fact the language as the Buddhist monks still use it-and the ancient canonical language is taught only to advanced pupils. To the beginner who knows no Indo-Aryan language (except, perhaps, Sanskrit), however, the ancient Pali is somewhat easier than the medieval. It is also far more interesting. Our interpretation admittedly rests largely on the exegesis of the Commentaries and the scholarly works of medieval monks, but the beginner need not at first study the exegetical literature himself-he can be given the results of its study, without the distractions and confusions of later usages, through the medium of a language he knows already. Studying only the ancient texts he will soon become familiar with the idioms and with the precise meanings of expressions in those texts, instead of with broader and vaguer meanings based on texts ranging over more than two millennia of usages changing against a changing social background. Our grammatical analysis is based on the admirable science of the medieval monks. Their terminology is given, to aid reference, but may of course be ignored by the beginner. The intention here is to cover Pali grammar and syntax in a comprehensive manner : in other words to provide a grammar of Pali in its ancient phase within the framework of graded lessons and exercises.

Introduction Pali (pali) is written in a number of scripts derived from the ancient Indian Brahmi character, and in the Romanized script used in this book (sometimes with slight variations). The Indian script was a phonetic one based on an approximately phonemic analysis of the language, one letter (akkhara) being assigned to each significantly distinct sound (vanna). The derivative scripts preserve this characteristic, and the roman alphabet likewise has been adapted and enlarged so that one roman letter is assigned to each Indian letter (counting the aspirates kh. etc., written as digraphs, as single letters). The ancient Indian grammarians classified the letters, or rather the sounds they represent, as shown in the table (p. 2).

Pronunciation: roughly as in English except:

the aspirate consonants are accompanied by a strong breath-pulse from the chest, as when uttering English consonants very emphatically the non-aspirate consonants are accompanied by a much weaker breath-pulse than any English consonants, c is like chi in "choose" (so is chi, but with strong breath pulse), except that the middle of the tongue (jivhamajjha) only, not the tip, touches the palate (position as in English g).

the cerebrals are pronounced with the tip of the tongue rather further behind the teeth than in the English t and d, giving a somewhat hollow sound.

**Contents and Sample Pages**