Pali

Pali ( पाऴि, Pali ) is actually called " text " or " the line". Pali is a medium- Indian language that has emerged from the Vedic and thus a close relative of classical Sanskrit. Whether Pali was ever a spoken language, is regarded as controversial. Today, it is more often considered as a literary language. Pali is one of the Prakrit languages.

• 6.1 The Chronicles of Sri Lanka

Pali and Buddhism

Pali is closely related with Buddhism. During the first phase of Buddhism (500 BC to 1st century BC), the core of the Buddhist scriptures of Theravada began to emerge. During this time, the sacred texts were transmitted orally. The Buddha has probably taught in Ardhamagadhi; of the historic words of the Buddha, however, received nothing. From what was the old canon, there are only translations into other languages, including Sanskrit and Pali. Fully there is only the Pali canon, which was recorded in writing in the 1st century BC.

Pali is today a sacred language still in Southeast Asia and is similar in meaning to the Latin Church in Western Europe or the Church Slavonic Russia. Even today Post monks formed religious texts in Pali to make the international community of monks (especially in Burma, Thailand and Sri Lanka) accessible.

Sanskrit and Pali

Sanskrit and Pali have the vocabulary to many similarities. It is also noteworthy that similar basic structure in the grammar ( three genders, function of the case, tenses, modes, etc.).

In Pali all eight cases the Indo-European proto-language are preserved (as in Sanskrit ): nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental case, dative, ablative, genitive, and locative. The dual of Sanskrit there is not.

Sanskrit and Pali are phonetically similar. However, the two sch sounds of Sanskrit ( S, S) do not occur in Pali, nor vocalic r and l or the diphthongs ai and au. In addition, used Pali short e and o as counterparts to the long ē and ō of Sanskrit. At the point of consonant clusters in Sanskrit are in Pali single or double consonants (eg, Sanskrit nirvana, Pali Nibbana ).

History of Research

TW Rhys Davids suspected that it was in the Pali language of the kingdom of Kosala, in whose area the kingdom Shakya was the home of the future Buddha Gotama Siddhātta. Westergaard and Kuhn saw in the Pali dialect of Ujjaini, today's Ujjain ( Madhya Pradesh ), because the Pali language of the Ashoka inscriptions of Girnar (Gujarat) stand at the next and because Mahinda ( 273-236 BC, son of Ashoka 've had ), the BC Buddhism in Sri Lanka proclaimed by 250, as a native language the dialect of Ujjaini.

Pali and Magadhi

In Sri Lanka and the other countries of Theravada Buddhism, it was believed that Pali was the same as Magadhi, the language of the region where Buddhism originated, ie the area of present-day Patna. It could be shown, however, that there are two different dialects (see Prakrit ). In addition, in the Pali in Sri Lanka later invaded a number of Sinhala words, just as in the other countries of Theravada Buddhism words of the local languages ​​; this effect divides Pali with the most sacred languages ​​of the world.

Font

Pali does not have a signature, but is written according to the country with a variety of local publications. In Sri Lanka, Pali was mainly recorded in Sinhala, in Burma with Burmese script; Both fonts are descended from the Brahmi script. Also Pali texts have survived in Siddham font. In the west and in the academic world in general today has become common (using the Romanization of the National Library of Kolkata ) the Latin alphabet.

The pronunciation of the Pali is basically characterized by the application of the usual rules of pronunciation of the font used or by the sound inventory of the native language of the / those who / the Pali by heart recited or read.

Thailand

In Thailand, sacred texts were written a long time in the Khom script ( Khmer script ). Prince Vajirananavarorasa, a son of King Mongkut (Rama IV ), developed a system, correct Pali to write with the Thai script. The consonants and vowels hardly differ from the usual Thai font, but other rules of interpretation apply. The interpretation is based again on the origin of the Thai script, the Indian Brahmi script. With a small modification of this system is still used in the sacral area and especially in the Pali studies today. In the books for the recitation in the Temple of the Pali text of the Thai laity is usually written in the usual for her manner, ie without the use of special characters and with contests of short A, which automatically inherently after Brahmi reading a consonant if he is not turned off by a special character or by another vowel diacritic ( vowel signs ) will be replaced.

Although the Thai script on the Indian Brahmi script based and has preserved from the Indian all consonants, the different Phonembestand of the Thai and the sound changes have led to Pali sounds of Thai mouth differently than indicated pronunciation rules for Indian languages.

Literary evidence

The Chronicles of Sri Lanka

Mahavamsa ( " Great Chronicle " ) and Dipavamsa ( " Chronicle of the island " ) are written in the Pali chronicles of the Sinhalese. The Mahavamsa is a thousand years handed down orally and eventually be signed by the Buddhist monk Mahānāma Chronicle. The Dipavamsa was probably written in the 4th century BC. Mahānāma wrote the Mahavamsa in the time of King Mahasena ( 274-301 ). The first continuation of the Mahavamsa was written by a poet named Dhammakitti, who lived in the time of King Parakramabahu I ( 1153-1186 ). A second sequel goes back to the time of Parakramabahu IV (1302-1326), and the final part deals with the history of the island until the time of King Kirti Sri Rajasimha ( 1747-1781 ). The Mahavamsa can not be considered as a safe source historically as these, inter alia, states that the parents of the founding father of the Sinhalese, Vijayan, children would be of a lion and a Palifrau. The Indologist Wilhelm Geiger in 1908 laid before the definitive, critical edition of the Mahavamsa and 1912, a translation into English.