CONTENTS
Pronunciation
01 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a
Nominative case, singular and plural
Present, third, singular and plural verbs
02 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Accusative case, singular and plural
03 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Instrumental case, singular and plural
04 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Ablative case, singular and plural
05 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Dative case, singular and plural
06 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Genitive case, singular and plural
07 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Locative case, singular and plural
08 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -a, continued
Vocative case, singular and plural
Declension of neuter nouns ending in -a
09 The Gerund / Absolutive
10 The Infinitive
11 The present participle, masculine and neuter genders
12 Conjugation of Verbs – Present Tense, Active
13 Conjugation of Verbs – Present Tense, Active Voice, continued
14 The Further Tense
15 The Optative / Potential Mood
16 The Imperative Mood
17 The Past Tense
18 Declension of feminine nouns ending in -ā
19 The Past Participle
20 Declension of feminine nouns ending in -i and ī
21 The Present Participle, feminine gender
22 The Future Passive Participle
23 The Causative
24 Declension of feminine nouns ending in -u
25 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -i
26 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -ī
27 Declension of masculine nouns ending in -u and -ū
28 Declension of agent nouns and nouns indicating relationships
29 Declension of neuter nouns ending in -i and -u
30 Declension of adjectives ending in -vantu and -mantu
31 Declension of personal pronouns
32 Declension of personal pronouns, relative, demonstrative and interrogative
33 List of Pāli Verbs
Pāli Vocabulary (other than verbs)
Glossary
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PĀLI PRIMER
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammāsambuddhassa.
Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, The Fully Self-enlightened One.
PRONUNCIATION
1) The Alphabet:
Pāli is not known to have a special script of its own. In countries where Pāli is studied, the scripts used in those countries are used to write Pāli: in India the Nāgarī, in Sri Lanka the Sinhalese, in Burma the Burmese and in Thailand the Kamboja script. The Pali Text Society, London, uses the Roman script and now it has gained international currency.
The Pāli alphabet consists of 41 letters – 8 vowels and 33 consonants.
Vowels: a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, e, o
Consonants:
Gutturals: k, kh, g, gh, ṅ
Palatals: c, ch, j, jh, ñ
Cerebrals: ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh, ṇ
Dentals: t, th, d, dh, n
Labials: p, ph, b, bh, m
Miscellaneous: y, r, l, v, s, h, ḷ, ṃ
The vowels a, i, u are short; ā, ī, ū are long; e, o are of middle length.
They are pronounced short before double consonants, e.g. mettā, khetta, koṭṭha, sotthi; and
Long before single consonants, e.g. deva, senā, loka, odana.
2) Pronunciation
a is pronounced like u in cut
ā is pronounced like a in father
i is pronounced like i in mill
ī is pronounced like ee in bee
u is pronounced like u in put
ū is pronounced like oo in cool
k is pronounced like k in kite
g is pronounced like g in good
ṅ is pronounced like ng in singer
c is pronounced like ch in church
j is pronounced like j in jam
ñ is pronounced like gn in signor
ṭ is pronounced like t in hat
ḍ is pronounced like d in good
ṇ is pronounced like n in now
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