Hello Aslam

Your question is not an easy one, and the scholars do not agree. I
am no expert, but as i understand the matter lies like this. Some
say Pali originated in Kosala; others that it derives from the south-
east coast areas of Inda.

Many, however, think that Pali originated in Avanti, to the south
west of the Buddha's central region in the Ganges valley. The
Theravada school evidently had their headquarters there before
moving to Sri Lanka, so it seems that this is where they
standardized the language of the canon into the local Avanti
dialect.

The Pali texts, however, retain traces of so-called 'eastern' forms,
or 'Magadhisms', the most famous being the word the Buddha uses to
address the monks - 'bhikkhave'. The 'correct' Pali form should
be 'bhikkhavo', and this form is found in the narrative background
settings to the suttas, but not the suttas themselves. This could be
taken as a sign that the Buddha himself spoke something
like 'Magadhi', and that the suttas preserve a remnant of his actual
dialect that escaped standardizing into standard Pali. Whether or
not this is the case, many scholars believe that the occasional
Magadhisms in the Pali are evidence of an earlier dialect that the
suttas were originally preserved in.

As for places where Pali is spoken today, as far as i know it has
not been a spoken language for a long time, except occasionally in
the monasteries. It would be interesting to know if there was
anywhere in India that still spoke a descendant dialect.

As i said, i am no expert, and am not up-to date on the scholarly
research on the point, so it would be good to hear from others on
this.

with metta

Bhante Sujato

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Aslam Rasoolpuri"
<aslamrasoolpuri@...> wrote:

>
>
> I am from Pakistan and interested old language of Indus valley .I
> want to know about origin and effects of Pali on other south

Asian

> languages
>
> My next request is that what was first area of Pali language

where

> it was being spoken in the period of Buddha and nowadys where it

is

> being spoken
>
> I hope any friend will reply my question.Thanks
>
> http://www.aslamrasoolpuri.20fr.com