Homage to the Blessed One, the Worthy One, The Fully Self-enlightened One.

P¾LI PRIMER

The Alphabet:

P±li is not known to have a special script of its own. In countries where P±li is studied, the scripts used in those countries are used to write P±li: in India the N±gar², 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 P±li alphabet consists of 41 letters - 8 vowels and 33 consonants.

Vowels

a, ±, i, ², u, ³, e, o

Consonants

 

Gutturals	k	kh	g	gh	ª
Palatals	c	ch	j	jh	ñ
Cerebrals	µ	µh	¹	¹h	º
Dentals	t	th	d	dh	n
Labials	p	ph	b	bh	m
Miscellaneous	y, r, l, v, s, h, ¼, ½

The vowels a, i, u are short; ±, ², ³ are long; e, o are of middle length.

They are pronounced short before double consonants, e.g. mett±, khetta, koµµha, sotthi; and

Long before single consonants, e.g. deva, sen±, loka, odana.

Pronunciation

a is pronounced like u in cut

± is pronounced like a in father

i is pronounced like i in mill

² is pronounced like ee in bee

u is pronounced like u in put

³ is pronounced like oo in cool

k is pronounced like k in kite

g is pronounced like g in good

ª 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

µ is pronounced like t in hat

¹ is pronounced like d in good

º is pronounced like n in now

VERBS | VOCABULARY | GLOSSARY

INDEX