Pali alphabet

Presented by

Ven.Dhammarama,

100 level,

Sri Lanka international Buddhist Academy

PĀLI

ALPHABET

CONTENT

What is Tipitaka Who was the Ālavaka Discourse of Ālavaka The Buddha & Ālavaka Conclusion References

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

PALI ALPHABET

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)

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

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

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.