Hi Yong Peng, Zeb and others

I know Oberlies is expensive (even more so with the abysmal exchange rate we
have here at the moment � NZ$1 = US$0.39!!!!!!). It is highly likely that
there will be a cheaper edition out, but it might not be for a couple of
years, if they do the same as they did with von Hinuber�s Handbook of Pali
Literature.

However, it is worth it as a specialist reference, but not as a beginner�s
book.

The structure of the book is:
Pp 1-16 Introduction (on the history of the language etc)
Pp 17-69 Phonology of Vowles
Pp 70-105 Phonology of Consonants
Pp 116-129 Sandhi
Pp 130-180 Morphology of Nouns
Pp 180-191: Pronouns
Pp 192-198: Numerals
Pp 199-270: Verb
Indices include concordances with Geiger, von Hinuber and Pischel and this
is extremely useful.

What has he to say about the linguistic classification of Pali?
He doesn�t really go much into the proto-history of the language, so you
need to go to somewhere else (Cardona and Jain possibly) for this area, but
then that is a long way out of the scope of this book. However, he does
mention the lineage from Indo-European, through proto-Indo-Iranian,
proto-Indo-Aryan, Old Indo-Aryan and then into Middle Indo-Aryan. This is
important because of the odd coincidence of aspects of Pali with Avestan,
for example, which he mentions more or less in passing.

The answer to your question (if I can fairly summarise a lot of detail
without making a hash of it) is roughly that Maagadhi is by tradition the
language of the Buddha though there is some debate about this too.
Certainly it would have been an eastern language of around 5th century BCE.
However Pali is largely a western language as the Asokan edicts show (but
not the pillars which are largely eastern) though it has sporadic eastern
features (which may be relics of the oral transmission of the texts �
roughly like the language Luders called Alt-Ardhamagadhi).

So Pali is a kind of lingua franca from a variety of dialects which was
later committed to writing in Sri Lanka. A modern equivalent which springs
to mind might be Swahili (are there any Africanists out there who can
correct me if I am wrong about that?).

Pali isn�t exactly an ossified relic either � the Mahavihara texts have
elements which are rather peculiar and this may have been due to
Sanskritisation in what is now Burma, especially in the 12th century CE.
Oberlies suggests these features are the result of systematisation by the
grammarians who were strongly influenced by Sanskrit traditions (again � a
modern example is what happened to English grammar at the hands of
classicists).

It seems Pali had a different dialect base in MIA than Sanskrit and didn�t
stem from the Rgvedic Sanskrit stream. This is an area that I would love to
have seen more thoroughly covered, but then there is a limit to what you can
cover in a relatively short book and I guess that is to come in a later
work. The key reason I guess he left this is that the subtitle of the work
says we are dealing with the language of the Theravada texts and this is an
area which is more to do with comparative Prakrit/MIA studies.

I hope I haven�t misrepresented the work. It is very good and packed with
examples � and a LOT easier to sit down and read than Pischel, which I admit
I use as a reference rather than bedtime reading!

Is it worth it? No university library should be without it. You might be
able to twist your local librarian's arm into buying one. Personally I got
it because I had had it on order for well over a year with Amazon.de so I
was getting a bit stubborn about getting it. If I had more patience I might
have waited for a cheaper edition. However, I am glad I have it.

If it comes to a choice between this and, say, the new PTS dictionary � I
guess the dictionary would win � but only just. But then I haven't got the
dictionary yet (volume 1 just published) so I am making do with the ones I
do have.

Not sure if there are cheaper sources, but you could try Harrassowitz as a
possibility http://www.harrassowitz.de/


Metta
Robert

>From: "Ong Yong Peng" <ypong001@...>
>Reply-To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Pali] Re: History
>Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 11:59:34 -0000
>
>Hi Robert, I am interested in Thomas Oberlies' book, but it costs
>US$142.25! So, I hope you can tell me more about it before I place an
>order for it. It'd be better if you know where to get it at a better
>price. :-)
>
>Thank you.
>
>metta,
>Yong Peng.
>
>--- Robert Didham wrote:
> > Thomas Oberlies: Paali. A Grammar of the Language of the Theravaada
> > Tipi.tika. Berlin, de Gruyter 2001.
>

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