From: Dc Wijeratna
Message: 3976
Date: 2014-11-27
Dear Jim
Thank you very much. I certainly agree with you. I have already spent over 10 years trying to study elementary Pali and failed. Let me explain.
I joined a local university to learn the Dhamma of the Lord Buddha, after my retirement. I came from engineering. My education was maths, science and later computer science which developed into an interest in programming, programming language and database engineering. These were the skills I brought with me. I was an atheist, my gods were Newton, Einstein, Russell, Whitehead etc.
The first course was entitled Early Buddhism. It took me only two weeks to realize that the lecturers (or anybody else) didn't know what they were talking about. However, I continued.
For the MA, it was necessary to take an elementary course on Pali (The text was Part 1 of Buddhadatta). It was not a problem for me: I could guess the meaning of almost all the Pali words; they were similar in meanings to Sinhala, my native tongue. However, the grammar was a disaster. I always compared the grammar with computer language grammars. These were precise and standardized. I couldn't find a single Pali grammatical rule that didn't have exceptions.
In 2007, I took an advanced course on Pali. There I made a presentation to the class on the origin of Pali. I had no conclusion about the origin of Pali. However, I realized that Pali was a creation of Rhys Davids.
I said all the above so you will understand my motivation and drive, energy and zeal for this topic and my passion for definitions , most importantly.
When I mentioned a month for the production of a draft I meant the word pāḷi not the Pali language.
About
your comments I shall respond point by point in separate messages.
Best wishes
D.C.
Dear D.C.,
Sorry for the delay. Unexpected things happen and sometimes I have to attend
to more pressing matters.
<< Thank you. I have already done a fair amount of work on the subject, It
will take me about one month to produce a draft of the justification. The
skeleton I have, I need to add >>
Very good. I expect that a lot of research and careful consideration will be
necesaary in order to do a proper investigation of the term. It could take
months or years. I'm particularly interested in linguistic terms as used in
the Pali texts such as nirutti, vohāra, paññatti, attha, pāḷi, etc.
<< We could sart with the Dictionary at Oxford Dictionaries website.
Definition in the OD are given in the following format: Definition of Pali
in English; pronunciation; ˈpɑːliː; noun, mass noun; [the definition];
origin. >>
<< Where the real work begins is developing the "definition". >>
The overall definition in English dictionaries seems to be that Pali is a
language. It is used both as a noun and as an adjective.
<< The OD definition gives the origin thus: from Pali pāli(-bhāsā)
'canonical texts'.
I would translate bhāsā as speech rather than texts. >>
I think "speech" is the most literal translation of "bhāsā". Other
possibilities that come to mind are: language, dialect, vernacular, tongue.
'canonical texts' is the translation of 'pāli' and I take it that (-bhāsā)
was left untranslated by the writer of the article. I would translate
pāḷibhāsā as the language of the canonical texts rather than the Pali
language (a language called Pali). I'm follwoing Childers here.
<< PS: I have no access to OED. However, OD (Website) gives the current
usage of the word, At the end of the day the definition along with its
justification must appear in a peer-reviewed journal, Then the work will be
not in vain. >>
I have no access either to the online OED but Bryan does. He was kind enough
to retrieve the full text version and send me a copy. I will post it if you
would like to read it. It differs substantially from the one you've been
looking at. I'm planning to make a typescript copy of the original 1909 NED
article that the current OED one is based on.
Best wishes,
Jim
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Posted by: "Jim Anderson" <jimanderson.on@...>
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