Yong Peng,

On a light side, I'm not sure if there is such a thing as "pure English," as it is such a mix of other languages and dialects, from ancient Greek, to Tamil and Malay. (BTW Malay itself is said to have only a couple of truly Malay words.)

Perhaps German or French might be more technically accurate vehicle for translation, but with the accident (?) history we are speaking more English than any other language.

Of course, we could start a Pali conversation site or a Pali pen-pal column. (Just a gag.)

Anyway I remember my abbot (Wat Srakes) telling us that when he was in Sri Lanka, since he knew no Sinhalese and the Sinhalese monks no Thai, they conversed in Pali.

Sukhi

Piya

-- Ong Yong Peng <yongpeng.ong@...> wrote:

> Dear Liz and friends,
>
> for people from a purely English background, the cases can pose a
> challenge. Even for myself who is proficient in English and Chinese,
>
> two languages entirely alien to each other, cases are new to me.
>
> In English, most of the cases are gone, with few exceptions:
> http://www.bartleby.com/116/201.html
>
> Beginners can be further confused when, occasionally, a case differs
>
> from its implied usage/function. To gain a little insight to what I
>
> mean, please refer to the following page:
> http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/pali.php?course=lesson25
>
>
> metta,
> Yong Peng.
>
>
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, codecottage wrote:
>
> Thank you, Yong Peng, for that explanation. The suggestion to look
> at
> context is helpful too as I look forward to reading reading real
> Pali
> sources.
>
>
>
>
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