Re: worth learning thai reading? How About Burmese?

---
Dear Nina and Suan,
Thanks for your replies. My rcoketmail account is giving prolems and
will be closed soon so I now use this address.
I have joined  aschool and am taking lessons in thai reading- I
decided to go ahead as I found out the budsir have a cheap disc that
has all the texts including commentaries in  pali plus Thai
translations.
Thanks for all the info about burmese Suan. It will be my next step
if I can get proficient with thai enough to use the dictionaries and
check a few words in the commentaries(any further may be too much
work). I can speak a rough version of conversation thai so it is
worth contiuning I figure. I was also pleased that I could follow the
talk by Sujin in Thai about the stages of insight - simply because it
used so many pali words from the Visuddhimagga
I
Once I finish my phd - about march hopefully - I am going to spend my
time with pali . That is the plan anyway.
robert
In palistudy@..., "abhidhammika" <suanluzaw@...> wrote:
>
>
>
> Dear Robert
>
> If you plan to learn another Buddhist language to reinforce your
> knowledge of Pali, then Burmese seems to be a very good candidate.
>
> Reasons for this suggestion are as follows.
>
> 1. You will be able to consult the mulit-vulume Tipitaka Pali-
Myanmar
> Dictionary, the largest so far in the world with each volume about
> the size of PTS Pali-English dictionary. Each entry comes with its
> grammatical analysis in addition to full discussion of any
> grammatical terms of Pali as entries in their own right.
>
> 2. All the major Tipitaka Pali-texts and their Atthakathaas and
> (Tikaas as well?) are available in Pali-Myanmar Nissaya texts.
>
> A Pali-Myanmar Nissaya text is a textual sentential dictionary.
> Unlike a normal alphabetical dictionary, the meanings of each Pali
> word in a sentence are provided in Burmese side by side within that
> sentence.
>
> Pali-Myanmar Nissaya texts are not normal translations of original
> texts as we know it. They are more of study aids and intended for
the
> convenience of students and teachers of Pali. Grammatical
> discussions, not found even in the grammar texts, are also
> interspersed wherever necessary. Their regular real-life
situational
> advice on how to connect parts in convoluted paragraphs in advanced
> Pali texts are priceless and cannot be found in grammar texts.
>
> One of the immediate benefits of having Pali-Myanmar Nissaya texts
is
> that they can remove the chore of having to consult a dictionary
for
> new words. If you read a Pali text with the aid of its Nissaya
text,
> all you need do is syncronize corresponding lines in both texts.
>
> 3. Burmese language has only 3 tones. So it has fewer tones than
Thai
> or Chinese.
>
> 4. Burmese alphabets closely correspond to the Burmese sounds. Once
> you have mastered them and Burmese writing system of combining
those
> letters, you have already learnt the language by half.
>
> As soon as you can pronounce the written Burmese, we can understand
> you. When you get used to spoken Burmese, you can adjust later.
>
> 5. Burmese grammar is fairly flexible.
>
> 6. Unlike English, each Burmese sound has meaning, so you can
create
> your own words by conbining them to convey your meanings. Even if
the
> words you thus created are never heard before, we can understand
your
> message.
>
> There you have it.
>
> Suan
>
>
> --- In palistudy@..., "robertkirkpatrick.rm"
> <robertkirkpatrick@...> wrote:
>
>
> Dear Jim, Nina , Teng Kee and all,
> I am in Thailand for the next few months and was thinking of taking
> up
> Thai reading classes. Will this be useful for pali? For example
does
> Budsir give the thai translations as well as the Pali?
> I need extra incentive to study as living in japan i will forget
the
> thai
> unless I can bring it into my pali studies.
> Robert