Re: Book queries --Baptist Pali Grammars

I would be extremely interested in photocopies --especially of the latter of
the two (James Gray's 1883 "Elements of Pali Grammar"), which I am told is
fairly short (and should not be very onerous to reproduce or ship). 
However, if the first of the two (Rasmus Rask's) is enormous, or presents
other difficulties, please advise.  As I say, I have never seen the book,
and I do not mean to impose; however, Rask is one source that all modern
authors seem to agree was an absolute genius (and, specifically, that he was
the most brilliant linguist of his age) --and yet, few to none of those
opinions are based on his work on South-Asian and South-East-Asian languages
(his earlier work explained the origins of Nordic and Hungarian, as I
recall).  So I am indeed very interested to see what he has to say about
Pali.

Regarding Tilbe (formerly mis-spelled Tilde --sorry about that.  Even worse
if you mix up Ubon and Udon in this part of the world --you'll end up on the
wrong train) it seems to me that makes four 19th-century Baptists who wrote
Pali grammars in what is now modern Burma ("Myanmar"):
  - F. Mason
  - C. Duroiselle
  - J. Gray
  - Tilbe

It also seems to me noteworthy that none of these missionaries attempted the
translation of the Christian Bible into Pali --the one attempt to do so was
by Wesleyan missionaries in Sri Lanka.  Their interest in Pali may have been
purely as an aid to assisting them in translating into Burmese --F. Mason
comments at length that literary Burmese is a closed book so long as one
does not know Pali.

E.M.


> Hi Navako, and welcome to the group. I forwarded your query to a
> friend who can probably rustle up these books. Are you in need of
> photocopies?
>
> best regards,
>
> /Rett
>
>>>A general query about two books that seem to me highly useful, but that I
>>>have not yet been able to lay my hands upon:
>>>
>>>(1) Rasmus Rask's 1821 _Singalesisk Skriftlære_,
>>>
>>>(2) James Gray's 1883 "Elements of Pali Grammar" --originally printed by the
>>>Baptist Missionary Press in Rangoon, but apparently reprinted in Calcutta in
>>the first decade of the 20th century.
>>
> 
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