Dear Jim and friends,

Thank you so much for your very informative post re: Saddaniiti. I've been wondering
whether to order it or not, and now will do so. I'm expecting the CSCD soon too, so
between them should be well-furnished with enough information for a long time to
come...

I've often heard and read that "Pali is an easy language"-- in Sri Lanka this was a
common refrain. I guess the natives there have an easier time of it because Sinhala
derives, as I understand, from Pali. I don't know about you list-members, but I find
Pali to be quite difficult, more difficult even than Greek. Maybe that's because I'm
not young anymore! But, Pali is certainly worth the effort...

Santi,

Rene



Jim Anderson wrote:

> Dear Rene,
>
> I was away when you sent the following message on Mar. 27. I'm just
> now catching up with it.
>
> > Dear Pali friends--
> >
> > I was recently looking at the most recent list of issues of the Pali
> > Text Society and am curious about a number of them. Does anyone own
> any
> > of the following, or have information about them?
> >
> > -- The Saddaniiti (5 vols.) The description says: "The greatest of
> the
> > extant Pali grammars, written by Aggavamsa of Arimaddana in Burma in
> > A.D. 1154." I am curious about this work, as I understand it looks
> > at Pali from the point of view of the roots, which is my preferred
> way
> > of studying the language.
>
> It is fortunate that this work has recently been reprinted. I acquired
> it with some difficulty in 1982-3 as the first two volumes were out of
> print at the time. I had to photocopy these in the library of the
> University of Toronto. I found one volume in a second-hand bookstore
> and ordered the remaining ones from Munksgaard. After making good use
> of these volumes for many years I can say that they are definitely
> well worth having. Here is some information to give you an idea as to
> what these volumes contain:
>
> The title of the work is: Saddaniiti -- La Grammaire Palie
> d'Aggava.msa. ed. by Helmer Smith.
>
> The Pali text itself takes up the first 3 volumes as follows:
>
> 1. Padamaalaa. This one starts with the first verbal root (dhaatu) --
> bhuu sattaaya.m, which is explained in great detail giving nearly all
> the words derived from it and providing complete conjugational and
> declensional paradigms. It also covers other kinds of words like
> pronouns and numerals.
> 2. Dhaatumaalaa. This covers roots no. 2 to 1687 in eight classes
> (ga.na-s)
> 3. Suttamaalaa. This contains 1347 suttas in seven chapters in an
> arrangement much like those found in the grammars of Kaccaayana and
> Moggallaana. The 8th chapter treats word classes, and has some useful
> material on prefixes (upasagga-s) and indeclinables (nipaata-s). The
> 9th chapter deals with textual matters eg. it starts off by
> classifying texts into paa.li, a.t.thakathaa, .tiikaa, and
> pakara.na.m.
>
> The next two volumes are appendices containing tables and indices.
>
> 4. Tables (first part). Contains all sorts of listings such as an
> alphabetical list of roots with page references and with
> correspondences to the roots of Panini's Dhaatupaa.tha (class and root
> nos. only). There is also a listing of affixes and augments and a
> summary of the grammatical system which is written in French with
> translations of the Pali grammatical terms.
>
> 5. Tables (second part -- actually this takes up 2 volumes). Contains
> an alphabetical index of words found in the Saddaniiti. Altogether,
> the five volumes take up 1795 pp.
>
> A different version of the Padamaala and the Dhaatumaala are available
> online at tipitaka.org and on the CSCD which apparently do not have
> the Suttamaalaa. There is a very good article on the Saddaniiti in
> JPTS XVII, pp. 1-212 'Exploring the Saddaniiti', by E.G. Kahrs. It's a
> critical study and translation of the kaaraka suttas (§547-573) in the
> Suttamaalaa.
>
> If one can't find all the information one seeks concerning the Pali
> language in modern European-style grammars and primers, I think it
> then becomes necessary to turn to the long-standing tradition of
> grammatical texts written in Pali and going back many centuries. But
> these grammars can also be incomplete in some respects and one may
> then have to turn to native Sanskrit grammars to supplement one's Pali
> studies. It may even become desirable to study Panini (as I do) in
> order to understand the often cryptic grammatical suttas and to find
> more detailed explanations about affixes, etc. and how words are
> formed.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Jim
>
>
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