Dear Kevin

Thai is a Tai-Kadai language which is an entirely different language group
from Indo-European languages so the grammar works very differently. Thai
has a huge set of borrowings from Sinitic languages(mostly from Cantonese
via trade and also contact before the Thai moved south), Mon-Khmer languages
(from contact again) and also from Pali (directly and via Khmer and Burmese)
and Sanskrit (mostly via Burmese). Generally you find that Thai pronounce
Pali differently from the Khmer and differently from the Sinhalese.
Probably learning Sinhalese pronunciation would be helpful, though there are
other views on this.

Pali is closely related to Sanskrit, as with other Prakrits, both in grammar
and vocabulary, so one can help with the other with care.

So the short answer to your question - if you want to learn Thai a knowledge
of Pali will help with the religious texts and you will soon be able to pick
up the basics by listening for the phonological changes that the Thai system
used. If you want to learn Sanskrit, then a knowledge of Pali will help but
there are many things you would need to "unlearn" because meanings change
over time and the sandhi, syntax and grammar do have differences.

Where it can help heaps to know some Pali if you are learning Thai is when
you come to read because spelling often reflects the Pali original (which is
as often or not borrowed from Khmer and transliterated) rather than how it
is pronounced - the script is easy enough, but you can sometimes be puzzled
by spelling if you don't know Pali.

>From: "Caebhin Howell" <caebhin@...>
>Reply-To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>To: Pali@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Pali] Pali-Sanskrit-Thai
>Date: Mon, 09 Sep 2002 22:10:32 -0500
>
>Hello All,
>
>I have a question about Pali-Sanskrit-Thai. Many Modern English words have
>Latin roots; but it doesn���t mean you know Latin. I know Thai has a lot
>of
>Pali words, mostly because Buddhism is such a large part of the culture.
>But I don���t know if it is ���recognizable��� as Pali. I do know if I
>can���t find a Buddhist term to change the spelling a little for a Sanskrit
>word. But other than that, I have no experience with Sanskrit. Leading me
>to wonder how much Pali is built in to Sanskrit?
>
>Can anyone tell me which pronunciation is closer to pure Pali, Thai or
>Sanskrit? And how much does knowing Pali actually help in learning Thai or
>Sanskrit?
>
>Thanks
>
>
>
>
>
> _
> _ooOoo_
> o8888888o
> 88" . "88
> (| -_- |)
> O\ = /O
> ____/`---'\____
> .' \\| |// `.
> / \\||| : |||// \
> / _||||| -:- |||||_ \
> | | \\\ - /'| | |
> | \_| `\`---'// |_/ |
> \ .-\__ `-. -'__/-. /
> ___`. .' /--.--\ `. .'___
> ."" '< `.___\_<|>_/___.' _> \"".
> | | : `- \`. ;`. _/; .'/ / .' ; |
> \ \ `-. \_\_`. _.'_/_/ -' _.' /
> ===========`-.`___`-.__\ \___ /__.-'_.'_.-'================
> Yours in the Dhamma `=--=-'
> Kevin
>
>
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