Re: Paali

The use of the Anglicised form Pali for the Pāḷibhāsā dates back to the
early nineteenth century and so considerably predates Rhys Davids and
the Pali Text Society. It is the correct form to use when writing in
English, just as Sanskrit or Prakrit are the correct forms, rather than
Saṃskṛta or Prākṛta.

It's use as a name for the language properly known as Māgadhabhāsā
certainly dates back to the seventeenth century. Kate Crosby has argued
that it is already used in texts from around the twelfth and thirteenth
century. She may be right about this, but I am not completely convinced
by her examples and need to go through them carefully when I have time.

We should not confuse the Māgadha language now known as Pali with the
Māgadhī dialect. The latter is a spoken dialect of  a core locality in
the eventual enlarged kingdom of Māgadha, a dialect which eventually
became a written language described by the Prakrit grammarians. The
language we call Pali was referred to as the language of Māgadha because
that was the only written language in general use across most of North
India in the Maurya and Suṅga periods at a time when the King of Māgadha
ruled large parts of that area.

Lance Cousins