From: gdbedell
Message: 12011
Date: 2008-01-25
--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Piya Tan" <dharmafarer@...> wrote:
>
> When I was a monk in Thailand some 40 years back, I remember my abbot (the
> current Somdet Phutthacharn of Wat Srakes) saying when he went to Sri Lanka,
> he knew no Sinhala, and the Sinhalese knew no Thai. So they communicated in
> Pali.
>
> Furthermore, Pali is not a "dead" language (like hieroglyphics, which nobody
> uses).
> Pali is commonly use by living cultures. Sometimes it is called a
> Kunstsprache,
> which I think literally translates as "speech for art" a sort of artificial
> language
> specially devised to preserve the Buddha's Teachings.
>
> Metta,
>
> Piya
>
>
>
> On Jan 25, 2008 2:59 PM, Jon Fernquest <bayinnaung@...> wrote:
>
> > In a previous thread (History of the word "Aryan") Piya Tan suggests:
> >
> > "I think we should stop speaking English here, and start using Pali. After
> >
> > all this is a Pali website."
> >
> > I would like to do this, but has a spoken Pali primer ever been written?
> >
> > I once asked a former monk friend of mine how to say some simple
> > phrases and even though he can read Pali very well, he wasn't able to
> > produce spoken Pali. Does anyone speak Pali anymore? When did they in
> > the past?
> >
> > This reminds me of a **Pali phrase book** used to help beginners
> > communicate in Pali, that I found at a bookseller in Yangon, Burma
> > several years ago, that was published in Sri Lanka.
> >
> > Has anyone ever seen such a thing or know where it can be obtained?
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Jon
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
> --
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>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>