Dear Nina,

>Is it not possible to do one once a week?

Twist my rubber arm... I'll try my best, but maybe it will have to
wait until next month at least. I'm translating Thai right now as
well, and trying to keep the Patimokkha ready in mind for this
upcoming uposatha.

> I think also others on this list would like to know more about Pali
> in a
> traditional Thai way. Would you let us know how you are progressing?
> Does it
> follow the Indian grammars? Is it useful to memorize?

I never studied the Indian grammars, but I think it is very
traditional here. I am happy to share, and then you can tell me how
close it is to the Indian grammars.

First, we start with naama. There are three kinds of naama:

1) naamanaama - speech that is the name of a person, animal, place, or
thing. (manusso, dighaavu, etc.)
- there are two kinds of naamanaama:
i) saadhaara.nanaama - naama that is general to people, animals, etc.
(manusso - human)
ii) asaadhaara.nanaama - naama that is not general (diighaavu - name
of the boy Dighavu)

2) gu.nanaama - speech for describing the characteristics of a
naamanaama (pa~n~navo, paapataro, kiisatamo, etc)
- there are three levels of gu.nanaama
i) pakati - without any special comparison being made (pa~n~navo -
having wisdom)
ii) visesa - expressing a comparison of "more" or "less" (paapataro -
more evil) - add "tara" or "iya" paccaya to the end of a
pakatigu.nanaama, or "ati" upasaga to the front.
iii) ativisesa - expressing a comparison of "most" or "least"
(kiisatamo - most thin) - add "tama" or "i.t.tha" paccaya to the end
of a pakatigu.nanaama, or "ativiya" upasaga+nipaata to the front.

3) sabbanaama - speech used instead of a naamanaama to avoid
repetition. (so, tva.m, aha.m, etc)

These three types of words must take on 1) li"nga, 2) vacana, 3)
vibhatti before they may be used the various modes of speech.

That's how far I've gotten. Now we go into li"nga, vacana, and
vibhatti.

It's useful for me, living in Thailand to learn more Thai, to
understand and be able to conform to Thai Buddhism, to obtain a
standard Thai Buddhist education, and of course to learn Pali from the
bottom up which I never really have properly done. The memorisation I
think is useful. It is an easy way to learn, and it gives me a break
from Western scholasticism with its focus on thinking :) A level 9
Pali scholar here said to me when I mentioned learning Pali in
Thailand: "You have to forget smart first. Forget smart, and start
memorising."

So, I am humbled: "puriso - an waa purut, purisaa - an waa purut tang
laai, purisa.m - suung purut, purise - sung purut tang laai... " :)

Suma"ngalaani,

Yuttadhammo