Shall I call you DB or Bedell?

Thanks for the interesting feedback, and I would like to know more. Any
citations?

I can see phantom question marks over some of my more intelligent pupils
looking
at me with suspicion if I said that a certain gdbedell on Pali Yahoo said
such and
such. Not that I don't value what you have said; indeed, for the very
contrary.

Citations please.

Agape,

Piya

On Jan 25, 2008 10:26 PM, gdbedell <gdbedell@...> wrote:

> With all due respect to Piya Tan and others of like mind, a 'dead'
> language is usually
> defined as one with no native speakers. These are people who learn it as
> their first
> language and for whom it remains the primary mode of communication. By
> this definition,
> Pali is a dead language in spite of the many Buddhists who read and chant
> it regularly, and
> situations like that described by Piya for the Thai abbot in Sri Lanka.
> Being dead does not
> prevent it from preserving the Buddha's teachings.
>
>
> --- In Pali@yahoogroups.com <Pali%40yahoogroups.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
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > The Minding Centre
> > Blk 644 Bukit Batok Central #01-68 (2nd flr)
> > Singapore 650644
> > Website: dharmafarer.googlepages.com
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
>
>
>



--
The Minding Centre
Blk 644 Bukit Batok Central #01-68 (2nd flr)
Singapore 650644
Website: dharmafarer.googlepages.com


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]