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
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
subject
objects (direct, indirect, of preposition)
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
present
perfect
periphrastic future
future
imperative
imperfect
optative
aorist
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
past
future
present
time unexpressed (imperative and optative)
3 persons
first (he/she/it/they)
second (you)
third (I/we)
3 factors of action
agent/subject
object
state
2 numbers
Singular
Plural
None of the 3 genders (participles do have gender, because they have, and decline, as adjectives)
RESOURCES
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