Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
124 lines (92 loc) · 3.09 KB

pali-language-and-computers.md

File metadata and controls

124 lines (92 loc) · 3.09 KB

Pāli language and computers

Pāli is the language of the scriptures of Theravada Buddhism, (the Pāli Canon or the Tipitaka in Pāli), which were written in Sri Lanka during the 1st century BC. Pāli has been written in a variety of scripts. In this article I'm focusing only on romanized version of Pāli language.

EXAMPLE

There is no Pāli writing. Just different pāli scripts from different countries.

Pāli romanized alphabet:

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

1.1 vowels (sara) and consonants (vyañjana)

a ā i ī u ū e o aṃ iṃ uṃ
A Ā I Ī U Ū E O AṂ IṂ UṂ

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 v s
h ḷ

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 V S
H Ḷ

manner of articulation guttural palatal cerebral dental labial
voiceless unaspirated k c ṭ t p
voiceless aspirated kh ch ṭh th ph
voiced unaspirated g j ḍ d b
voiced aspirated gh jh ḍh dh bh
nasal ṅ ñ ṇ n m
semivowel y r, ḷ l v*
spirant / sibilant h s

1.3 Change (vyaya), inflection

subject to inflection:

  • nāma: noun, adjective, pronoun, numeral
  • ākhyaāta: verb

not subject to inflection:

  • upasagga: preposition, verbal prefix
  • nipāta: particle, conjunction, adverb

nouns and pronouns have 3 cases

  1. subject
  2. objects (direct, indirect, of preposition)
  3. possessive

8 cases in Pali

Pali case English case
nominative subject
acusative direct object
instrumental object of a prep.
dative object of a prep.
ablative object of a prep.
genetive possessive
locative object of a prep.
vocative subject

9 tenses and moods

  1. present
  2. perfect
  3. periphrastic future
  4. future
  5. imperative
  6. imperfect
  7. optative
  8. aorist
  9. conditional

Characteristics of conjugated verbal forms

term translation Commments
dhātu root can denote an activity or a condition
paccaya ending used to refer to both verbal and nominal endings
vikaraṇa suffix, infix can be placed after or in the root before an ending
akārāgama augment applies to some aorists and the conditional
abbhāsa reduplication applies to some verbs and some derivative forms

They can have...

  • 3 times
    1. past
    2. future
    3. present
  • time unexpressed (imperative and optative)
  • 3 persons
    1. first (he/she/it/they)
    2. second (you)
    3. third (I/we)
  • 3 factors of action
    1. agent/subject
    2. object
    3. state
  • 2 numbers
    1. Singular
    2. Plural
  • None of the 3 genders (participles do have gender, because they have, and decline, as adjectives)

RESOURCES