study the language of pali

1. Presented by
Ven.Dhammarama,
100 level,
Sri Lanka international Buddhist Academy
PĀLI
ALPHABET

2. CONTENT
 What is Tipitaka
 Who was the Ālavaka
 Discourse of Ālavaka
 The Buddha & Ālavaka
 Conclusion
 References

3. PALI SCRIPT
Most interestingly,
Pali is language which is not known to have a special
script of its own.
 In India the Nagari »» अ इ उ
 In Sri Lanka the Sinhalese »» w b W
 The Pali Text Society, London Roman »» A I U

4. PALI ALPHABET

5. VOWELS
•The vowels are divided into short and
long
•The short vowels »» a I u
•The long vowels »» ā ī ū
(e, o are of middle length vowels)

6. CONSENENTS
• The consonants are divided into:
• 25 mutes
• 5 semi-vowels
• one sibilant
• one aspirate
• The 25 muter are divided, according to the place of their
formation and utterance, into 5 groups of 5 letters each.
Gutturals: k, kh, g, gh, ɲ
Palatals: c, ch, j, jh, ñ
Cerebrals: ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh, ṇ
Dentals: t, th, d, dh, n
Labials: p, ph, b, bh, m
Miscellaneous: y, r, l, v, s, h, ḷ, ŋ

7. THE PRONUNCIATION
 a is pronounced like u in cut
 ā is pronounced like ā in father
 i is pronounced like i in mill
 ī is pronounced like ee in bee
 u is pronounced like u in put
 ū is pronounced like oo in cool
 k is pronounced like k in kite
 g is pronounced like g in good
 ɲ is pronounced like ng in singer
 c is pronounced like ch in church
 j is pronounced like j in jam
 ñ is pronounced like gn in signor
 ṭ is pronounced like t in hat
 ḍ is pronounced like d in good
 ṇ is pronounced like n in now

8. LEARN PALI
Why we should learn pali?.
Because if we wont to learn real Buddhism we must
learn pali.
As well as pali language is a very interesting language
for as much as it is Buddha's language.