Re: to Sukin: book suggestions

--- In palistudy@..., Ong Teng Kee <ongtkee@...> wrote:
> hi,
> I don't think any thai,burmese and srilankan need to
> read any more pali grammar book in English because
> they really have enough text tran or modern teachers
> book to learn pali.


Dear TK,

I have always been scared of Pali and now that I have found a teacher
who is as knowledgeable, thorough as well as interesting and generous
as Jim, which makes this ancient language so much less daunting and
more approachable and even somewhat fun to learn, I hope you are not
trying to discourage me from studying!!!  I am even more grateful to
be studying the romanized script since I will have to use it on the
website which I am webmaster of.  I have also run into some mistakes
early on in a Thai translation of a passage, which was not the same as
in the English translation, and when we checked with the Pali it was
the English Pali that was more grammatically correct, according to our
expert at the time, a bhikkhu of great learning.  So any knowledge is
always good, since translators are mortals too, especially these days,
or have you never made any mistakes yourself?  Scribes and copyists
can drop an 'a' and turn 'akusala' into 'kusala' ever so easily, don't
you find?  And some translators use such poor English that it is very
hard to understand the already difficult texts, so I would prefer to
study with a good teacher than to rely entirely on other's work.  One
should compare all translations possible, of course, as there maybe
aspects others have overlooked that could give a more complete picture
of the comprehensive dhamma.

I am still waiting for your address to send you the Puggala Pannatti
translation by Ajaan Somporn that I got from the foundation, as I
emailed you already on Saturday.  Did you get my message?

Amara


I can get rare tika of sinhala tran
> plus text for pali grammar book like buddhiipasadani
> with some cheap photocopying cost in colombo which
> will never be possible in Eng.There are even more
> grammar text for Myanmar pali student.
> For thai student ,I think Mahamakut series of at least
> 4o books will be more  helpful than books by Warder
> etc.
> Ideally we should start with eng tran of kaccayana by
> a myanmar scholar in English 100 years but out of
> print now
>
> -- Sukinderpal Narula <sukin@...> wrote:
> > Thankyou Jim.
> > Sukin
> >
> > Jim Anderson wrote:
> >
> > > Dear Sukin,
> > >
> > > I think the PTS dictionary and Warder's
> > Introduction to Pali may be all you
> > > need at the present time if you're only just
> > beginning to study Pali. A
> > > number of us here also have these two very
> > valuable books so you could just
> > > ask us about anything in them for clarification
> > and feedback. A lot depends
> > > on what information you're interested in. If you
> > find Warder or the
> > > dictionary doesn't offer all what you're looking
> > for then you might consider
> > > obtaining more books for further study. For these
> > books I'd  recommend
> > > Geiger's A Pali Grammar as a useful one for
> > finding rare Pali words. It
> > > also has many declensional and conjugational
> > tables but nothing on syntax.
> > > Another book you might want to consider is
> > Perniola's Pali Grammar. I
> > > haven't seen the book yet but it is one I intend
> > to get for myself. Both of
> > > these books are available from the PTS. The book
> > that I consult as my main
> > > authority on the Pali language is the Saddaniti
> > (928pp) which has not been
> > > translated into English so you'd have to know some
> > Pali in order to make any
> > > sense of it. Teng Kee recently mentioned to me
> > that there is a Thai
> > > translation of it. Even the Saddaniti doesn't
> > explain everything and one
> > > might then have to study Panini's famous Sanskrit
> > grammar to fill in the
> > > gaps. I started with just Warder and it wasn't
> > until about seven years later
> > > that I got started on the Saddaniti.
> > >
> > > Wishing you success in your Pali studies,
> > > Jim
> > >
> > > >Dear Jim and all,
> > > >Thanks a lot for the welcome.
> > > >Judging from my accumulations I do not fit so
> > well in here, since I
> > > >have never been a studious person.
> > > >But life is short, and at any time death might
> > make a visit.
> > > >Buddhadhamma is important, Pali is important too.
> > > >I have the 'Introduction to Pali' by Warder, ant
> > the PTS pali/english
> > > >dict. And so if anyone can please suggest me any
> > other books that
> > > >would help me with the study I'd appreciate
> > greatly.
> > > >Thanks in advance,
> > > >Sukin.