Dear Nina,

thank you. Allow me to first list the three texts I have completed, in
chronological order,

1. Pali Primer, by Lily de Silva
[ http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/synthesis/primer.00a.cdv ]
2. An Elementary Pali Course, by Ven. Narada
[ http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/pali.php?course=index ]
3. The New Pali Course 1, by Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta
[ http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/synthesis/pali1.00a.cdv ]

All the three are available online. It is highly recommended for
self-study beginners to complete one, and preferably two, of these
introductory texts before attempting Warder's.

I consider Warder's to have a difficulty level between upper
intermediate and advance. From experience, going straight into it
without a "human" guide will be too strenuous for most people.

I have another elementary text (which Piya mentioned once on this
list), which is less common. I like to go through this text in the
future, but will shelf it until Warder's is completed.

There are two texts I classify as intermediate:

1. The New Pali Course 2, by Ven. A.P. Buddhadatta
2. A New Course in Reading Pali, by Gair and Karunatillake

I hope to finish both as/before I complete Warder's. John (Kelly) has
already posted his solutions for Gair and Karunatillake, to the group
a few years ago, which is available online:
http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/palidd/

On the completion of this group reading exercise, I will start
Buddhadatta's Part 2. I will be co-posting the solutions with Florent
(Robert), who posted the entire set of solutions for Part 1.

As much as I understand, the Ven. Buddhadatta, an accomplished Pali
scholar monk, first wrote texts in Sinhalese. The English version was
written, also by him, at a later date, and was not a direct
translation of the Sinhalese. His grammar comes in three parts. Part 1
builds the foundation, while Part 2 advances further upon the
knowledge of Part 1. He spent almost 200 pages discussing in details
sandhi, compounds, taddhitas and kitakas, the seven conjugations and
the tenses. The exercises are set out similarly to Part 1, except that
most of the Pali-to-English exercises are abstract from the Tipitaka,
just like Warder's!

I consider Part 3 as an advance level book. From memory, there is no
exercises. It serves more like a general grammar reference. I do not
have my copy of Part 3 now, so I cannot write much about it.

Parts 1 and 2 are usually printed as one book, and is easily available
in Asia. You may obtain it from a temple, bookshop, or in Sri Lanka,
BPS or BCC.

Part 2 was published in 1938. I have plans to introduce it to the
public domain, and type a few pages to post to the group each week for
study. I hope that helps.

metta,
Yong Peng.

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, Nina van Gorkom wrote:

I find it interesting the way you work through different grammars.
Since I had Warder I did not pay attention to other grammars. What
does Buddhadatta's Part 2 have that is lacking in other grammars? Is
it online, or will you give the link so that we can follow you along?
Could you perhaps say something about the other grammars?

> I had Warder's for about 10 years now, so I thought it is good to
> get started, before moving on to Buddhadatta's Part 2. I hope that
> by going through the first 16 lessons reinforces what I have
> covered in Pali Primer, Narada's and Buddhadatta's Part 1. At the
> same time, I hope it prepares me for Buddhadatta's Part 2, by
> covering the theory which the other three lack. After finishing
> Buddhadatta's Part 2, I will come back to Warder's to work through
> the advance lessons.