Learn Pali Language

Easily look up PTS references in the Sutta Piṭaka. [New expanded coverage tables. Includes alternate numbering. Search accepts space, comma or period separated numbers, case insensitive, diacritic insensitive.] Quick Jump Table   PTS Vol Dīgha Nikāya (DN) D i , D ii , D iii Majjhima Nikāya (MN)   M i , M ii , M iii Saṁyutta Nikāya (SN) S i , S ii , S iii , S iv , S v Aṅguttara Nikāya (AN)   A i , A ii , A iii , A iv , A v Go to Khuddaka Nikaya (KN) ( New! KN ref converter ) Use the quick jump table above; Note: For Vol. i of SN, there are two sets of PTS page numbers for each sutta. This is because the L. Feer editions differs from Somaratne 1999. Or type a Sutta number or name into the search boxes below to search that column of the table!

Convert to Unicode Type these Velthuis codes to convert into Pali unicode. aa → ā .m → ṃ ii → ī .t → ṭ uu → ū .d → ḍ "n → ṅ .n → ṇ ...

What is noun declension? How are noun cases used?  Well, the inflection of nouns is called declension . Inflection is where a word changes form (spelling) to indicate its grammatical role. The individual declensions are grouped into cases, and together they form a case system. If you are at a loss, then this series of posts is for you. Lets start with some terminology. Sentence Structure -  subject  and predicate First to understand Pali we must understand how sentences are constructed. A sentence can be broken down into structural parts called phrases and each phrase plays a different role in the meaning of the sentence. A phrase is just one or more linked words that play a specific role.

Diacritics , or diacritical marks, are those curious glyphs added to a letter. The term derives from Ancient Greek. ā ī ū ṅ  ñ ṇ ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ ḷ ṃ ṁ ŋ Pali is a phonetic language and has no written alphabet of its own. Ever since the 1st century, scholars have relied on their own native alphabets to write Pali ! European scholars have thus transliterated Pali into the Roman alphabet and this required its augmentation with additional characters represented by letter-pairs and diacritics. This was fine whilst Pali literature was mainly printed, but with the introduction of computers, the problem arose of how to represent these characters within a standard ASCII font. Many differing methods have been adopted over the years meaning unfortunately that there is no standard way of representing Pali's diacritic characters via the then  limited character sets available on PCs. As a result the student will encounter a variety of legacy approaches some of which include:

The Pali canon or Tipiṭaka, meaning “Three Baskets”, is made up from: Vinaya Piṭaka (Basket of Monastic Law) Sutta Piṭaka (Basket of Discourses) Abhidhamma Piṭaka (Basket of Systematic Treatises) Of these, the Sutta Piṭaka or "Basket of Discourses" is further split into the nikāyas or "discourses": Dīgha Nikāya (Long Discourses) Majjhima Nikāya (Middle Discourses) Saṁyutta Nikāya (Linked Discourses) Aṅguttara Nikāya (Numbered Discourses) Khuddaka Nikāya (Minor Discourses) Usually navigating around the Sutta Pitaka is no great issue. For those wishing an overview of the Pali Canon there is: Russel Webb's 'Analysis of the Pali Canon' and  Professor Lo Kay 'Guide to Tipitaka' Cittadhammo Bhikkhu's interactive infographic structure of the Pali suttas . (Click on the small circles to link to SuttaCentral) This post is a comparison of the various reference or numbering systems that you might encounter and a guide to findin...

Hot News. The Digital Pali Reader is now available online as a webpage. Digital Pali Reader (alpha) ---  The remainder of this article is now out of date --- Are you struggling to install the Digital Pali Reader - especially now the DPR requires a version of Mozilla Firefox that supports  legacy extensions  to operate? Well this is installation guide will walk you through the following stages: Have the right Browser installed, Download the DPR Extensions, Load the Extensions into the Browser, Finding the Extension in the Browser The Digital Pali Reader is a most useful tool for the amateur translator. It provides a database of the Tipiṭaka in romanised script with a search facility and the inbuilt dictionaries allow for instant lookup of any word. Although, it does not provide full text translations - which is where SuttaCentral is useful - i t is well worth taking the time to install.

Once people have answered the question: "Why learn Pali?" The next query is: "How do I learn Pali?" Here’s the way I suggest you begin with your study of Pali. Build foundations for language learning Start at the right level Stick with it Build vocabulary Make use of the Pali language tools 1 Build foundations for language learning One thing that you really should have before beginning to learn Pali is a basic understanding of general grammatical terms and concepts. Many of the Pali language grammar guides seem to assume you have studied Sanskrit or Latin before. If you haven’t, and you really don’t know the difference between a subject and an object, or the meanings of such terms as nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, prepositions, or declension and conjugation - then perhaps you should spend some time studying English grammar. I found that even though I'm a native English sp...