Dear Bryan,
At a very general level, Tibetan and Burmese are similar in that much of their grammar is conveyed by particles which are attached to words or phrases. As we all know, Pali uses a completely different grammatical system (inflection); however, nissaya-style Burmese makes such frequent use of particles that it almost starts to feel like an inflected language.
There are many scanned nissaya texts to be found here (no English, sorry):
http://buddhasetaman.net/index.php?option=com_imlibrary&view=category&id=2
If you want to study a particular text, let me know and I can see if I can download a corresponding nissaya for you.
Regards,
Chris
-----Original Message-----
From: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Wed, 13 Apr 2016 19:07:49 +0000 (UTC)
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Re: some Pali resources
Dear Sayalay Cālā,
Thanks for this information. Is there a web site where I can find some of these Nissayas? preferably with English titles at least?
Thanks for your help,
Bryan
From: "sicala2010@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: "palistudy@yahoogroups.com" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 12, 2016 10:39 PM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Re: some Pali resources
Dear Bryan,
I notice the grammar in Burmese is very similar to Pali, not much different. In fact, it is easy to translate from Pali to Burmese, than Pali to English.
There are many sub-commentaries called Nissaya written by ancient Pali scholars in Burmese language. They have word-by-word translation, Pali and then Burmese. These Nissaya is very helpful for Pali scholars.
So I encourage you all to learn Burmese.
Regarding your question, the Tibetan and Burmese belong to a Sino-Tibetan [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Tibetan_languages] or Tibeto-Burman classification. (according to Wikipedia).
Tibeto-Burman languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibeto-Burman_languages]
Tibeto-Burman languages - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibeto-Burman_languages]
From Wikipedia:
The Tibeto-Burman languages are the non-Sinitic [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinitic_languages] members of the Sino-Tibetan language family [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sino-Tibetan_languages], over 400 of which are spoken throughout the highlands of Southeast Asia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southeast_Asia] as well as certain parts of East Asia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asia] and South Asia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_Asia]. The name derives from the most widely spoken of these languages, namelyBurmese [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burmese_language] (over 32 million speakers) and the Tibetic languages [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetic_languages] (over 8 million). Most of the other languages are spoken by much smaller communities, and many of them have not been described in detail.
Best regards,
Sayalay Cālā
On Wednesday, April 13, 2016 8:11 AM, "Bryan Levman bryan.levman@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Dear Sayalay Cālā and Chris,
Thanks very much for the suggestions. I will pick up some of this material and work on it. I do know Tibetan and I note that in some linguistics texts, Burmese and Tibetan are grouped together as a language family. Does anyone know how similar the two languages are?
Best wishes,
Bryan
From: "sicala2010@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: "palistudy@yahoogroups.com" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, April 11, 2016 9:54 PM
Subject: Re: [palistudy] Re: some Pali resources
Yes, Bryan,
There are two types of Burmese: Spoken one, and literary.
I cannot access this website:http://buddhasetaman.net/ [http://buddhasetaman.net/] . However I do not think there is good English dictionary/translation for it.
There is a good online Burmese dictionary: http://ayar.co/q.php?q
http://ayar.co/q.php?q=%E1%80%99%E1%80%99&ref=all&page=1 [http://ayar.co/q.php?q=%E1%80%99%E1%80%99&ref=all&page=1]
This seems to be good one.
In Android handphone, you can install Shwebook, UHS-Pali MM dictionary.
Actually, I took me four years to be able to translate books from Burmese to English/Chinese. And it was lots of hard work.
Because I had to pick up new vocabulary and grammar. Luckily Burmese grammar is easy to learn. Vocabulary is more difficult because it is to do with Burmese culture and life-style. I learned Burmese language when I was in Malaysia, so lots of vocabulary were absolutely meaningless to me, because I did not know the culture and did not know what the things meant.
To learn Burmese in order to understand Pāḷi translation, there are few ways:
1. 1. Learn normal spoken Burmese
This basic Burmese book is recommended. To learn Burmese by yourself, you can follow the lessons in this Burmese By Ear [https://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/](BBE). So far, it is the best and the easiest way to learn because it has a pdf book and voice recordings.
https://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/ [https://www.soas.ac.uk/bbe/]
2. 2. Learn Burmese grammar
https://www.soas.ac.uk/sea/burmese/studymaterials/grammars/ [https://www.soas.ac.uk/sea/burmese/studymaterials/grammars/]
The best simple grammar I used is the Lonely Planet’s Burmese Phrasebook.
It shows the grammar and words.
http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/myanmar-burma/burmese-phrasebook-5/ [http://shop.lonelyplanet.com/myanmar-burma/burmese-phrasebook-5/]
3. 3.Learn Burmese and Pāḷi together.
To do step three, the best way is to pick up a Nissaya book (sub-commentary in Burmese) that has word-by-word translation, Pāḷi and Burmese. By studying the Pāḷi, you understand the Burmese and vice-versa.
There are many Nissaya book written by teachers, some years ago.
If you are interested, I can send to you a Nissaya book.
There is also Myanmar Tipitaka in Google playstore.
Hope it helps you.
On Tuesday, April 12, 2016 2:20 AM, "Bryan Levman bryan.levman@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Dear Sayalay Cālā,
is there an English version of this dictionary? I assume it is the dictionary found at this web site?:
http://buddhasetaman.net/index.php?option=com_imlibrary&view=category&id=4 [http://buddhasetaman.net/index.php?option=com_imlibrary&view=category&id=4]
Since this appears to be the most comprehensive Pali dictionary in existence, it looks like one has to learn Burmese in order to access it. I understand from one of my students that there are two forms of Burmese, one in the vernacular which is spoken today and then a literary Burmese, in which I presume this dictionary is written. Is that correct?
I have learned a bit about the Burmese script from Prof. Christoph Emmrich who works in Burmese studies (amongst other discipline) at U of T. Can you recommend a book to learn enough Burmese so that one can access this dictionary?
Thanks for your help,
Best wishes,
Bryan
From: "sicala2010@... [palistudy]" <palistudy@yahoogroups.com>
To: palistudy@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, April 10, 2016 8:35 PM
Subject: [palistudy] Re: some Pali resources
Thanks Jim for introducing my website. My website is Aggācāra, an education cum charity centre. So I put information regarding Dhamma articles and Pāḷi resources.
The study of Pāli roots is translation of the Introduction part of Pāḷi-Burmese Dictionary “Dhatvattha Pangon” (Flower garlands of written Pāḷi roots) by Ashin Kumāra in Burmese. This book is very big, about 1000 pages. This is one of the must book for Pali scholars, but it is in Burmese language.
The purpose is to give readers more knowledge on nature of Pāḷi roots, roots' meaning, suffixes etc.
The Comparison between Pāḷi and Sanskrit is the notes taken during my Masters first year and second year, as taught by my Pali teacher.
By learning Sanskrit, and comparing with word formation with Pāḷi, we will understand the philology changes.
The analytical study of some Pāḷi words are done to show the roots, prefix and word formation.
Pāḷi Pictorial for young and old is a small simple Pāḷi grammar book with vocabulary and pictures. I do this for the purpose of teaching children so that the children will be interested in Pāḷi grammar if they see that there are pictures in the book.
Thank you.