--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, "Jon Fernquest" <bayinnaung@...> wrote:

>
> I wonder how commentary writers used formal Pali grammar rules in
> interpreting ambiguous passages? Or how committees of monks editing
> definitive editions of the Tipitaka or how translators used it when
> faced with difficult points of grammar?

I wonder too; also how the grammars were (and are) used as Paali teaching materials. My point is that
the grammars were not compiled with any of these applications in mind.

> BTW has anyone ever seen "Kachchayano's Pali grammar with Chrestomathy
> and Vocabulary" by Francis Mason, D.D., Toungoo, Burma, 1868? Does
> this work actually reflect Kaccayana's Pali grammar?

There is a 1984 reprint of Mason (Delhi: Sri Satguru Publications). It should be available from ABE or
similar sources. It is a translation of Kaccaayana in roughly the same sense as Collins is a translation
of Saddaniiti.

Two other early European works on Pali are:

Benjamin Clough, A Compendious Pali Grammar, Colombo:Wesleyan Mission Press, 1824.
James D'Alwis, An Introduction to Kachchàna's Pali Grammar, Colombo, 1863.

Both can be downloaded in .pdf format from Google Book Search.

George Bedell