Hello Andy,

I'm so glad you are "back". Greetings from Buddhayatana, Kangaroo Island.

There are a number of things I had wished to discuss with you, but now I
know why my emails got unanswered.

I will try, in this first exchange, to be short and to the point.

1. I am VERY interested in your Pali forms list. I think it's a very clever
way to address the issue for beginners - and in fact, it's the way I taught
myself Pali : I would quickly scan a Pali text, look for the most frequent
words, look in a dictionary for these, and thus build up progressively my
vocabulary - but I must say I had learned the basic grammar first, to have
an understanding of "forms".

2. I use an old Mac. For reasons I would like to discuss further with you,
many of of the non-ASCII characters in a Pali TrueType font used under
Windows OS give totally different characters on MacOS. I do not understand
the reason.

3. For the Mac users, would it be possible for you to create your Pali
forms list in a single document under the Velthuis scheme (aa for a long
etc.), and send it to me?

5. I am not altogether convinced by this Velthuis scheme, particularly in
relation with the aa, uu, ii, "m and "n forms. Aren't there better,
biunivocal alternatives? Aren't these syllables with a caret wholly
ASCII-compatible ? I.e., â, û and î.

6. I have been working for years on a basic design for a website that would
provide "wisdom texts" in Pali, Sanskrit, Greek etc., on a per subject
basis. I am in no hurry on the matter, and I would like to discuss
thouroughly the matter with an expert like you before setting up anything.

7. You would be most welcome at Buddhayatana, Kangaroo Island, and we could
make you discover this marvelous island.

Mettâ-cittena.

Gabriel Jîvasattha Bittar


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Jacqueline "Gotamî Jîvarakkhî" Bittar
Dr Gabriel "Ananda Jîvasattha" Bittar,
PhD University of Geneva
phone +61 8 8553 7442 , fax +61 8 8553 7444
mob. ph. +61 4 2743 5148

Institut Suisse de Bioinformatique
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics
http://www.isb-sib.ch/DEA/plan_etudes.html
email: bittar@...

Université Bouddhique Européenne
http://www.bouddhisme-universite.org/universite/programme/cours-et-stages/inter
venants.html

À Bientôt Seayu Lodge, http://www.seayu.com
email: bittar@...

Buddhâyatana, http://www.buddhayatana.org
email: buddhayatana@...

4/5 Warawee road / 34 Falie court
PO box 281, American River, Kangaroo Island
South Australia 5221

GMT +9h30 (allow for +1h when "summer time" in SA)

a'niccâ vata san'khârâ
( a'niccaa vata san'khaaraa )
"impermanent are structural processes"
"instables sont les flux structurels"
Siddhârtha (Siddhaartha) Gautama Buddha
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