> Thank you noah,
> That does put things in perspective. The phrases that are used in
> Thailand were also very helpfull. That is kind of what I was wondering
> about. I have read that monks and nuns have used Pa.li as a universal
> language to communicate across language barriers. Because Thai is so
> influenced by Pa.li I figured that there would be some reminent of
> conversational utterences inbedded in the Thai language. I look
> forward to any feedback from your friend who is editing the
> conversational Pa.li textbooks.

Dear John,

Now that I'm looking for them, more are popping up in my translations of
the DhpA. Here's one:

''bhante, bhaddaka.m vo kata.m idhaagacchantehii''ti

which I can only assume to be a very polite way of saying "welcome,
bhante". The PED says "bhadda.m vo" is used as a greeting as well, but
I can't verify this.

Best wishes,

Yuttadhammo (Phra Noah)