The Romanized Pālī Alphabet (Pālī Phonology)
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| Wat Pasantidhamma |
The Romanized Pālī Alphabet is divided into eight vowels and thirty-two consonants:
1. Vowels
- a
- ā
- i
- ī
- u
- ū
- e
- 0
2. Grouped Consonants
| Gutturals | k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| Palatals | c | ch | j | jh | ñ |
| Linguals | ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| Dentals | t | th | d | dh | n |
| Labials | p | ph | b | bh | m |
3. Ungrouped Consonants
| Fricative | y | r | l | ḷ | v | ||
| Sibilant | s | ||||||
| Aspirate | h | ||||||
| Nasal / Anusvara | ṃ | ||||||
4. Pālī Pronunciation
The principals of pronunciation employed in this book are in accordance with the Pālī chanting in the Thai of the Mahānikāya tradition in Thailand.
In general. letters or words are pronounced the same as in English, but some may be different. The following are illustrations:
Vowels
Short Vowels - pronounced short sounda - as o in ton or u in sun eg. tassa (tas-sa)
i - as i in sit eg. iti (i-ti)
u - as u in put or oo in look eg. Upāli (U-paa-li)
Long Vowels - pronounced long sound
ā - as aa in father eg. kāyena (kaa-ye na)
ī - as ee in tree eg. veramanī (ve-ra-ma-nee)
ū - as oo in moon eg. lokavitū (lo-ka-vi-too)
Compound Vowels - pronounced long sound
e - as e in beg or a in cave eg. etena (e-te-na)
o - as o in no eg. anariyo (a-na-ri-yo)
r (lingual) - as r in rain
l (dental) - as l in law
v (labial) - as v in voice
s (guttural, sibilant) - as see or skull
h (guttural aspirant) - as h in hot
ḷ (lingual) - as l in felt
ṃ (nasal) - as ng in sing
ū - as oo in moon eg. lokavitū (lo-ka-vi-too)
Compound Vowels - pronounced long sound
e - as e in beg or a in cave eg. etena (e-te-na)
o - as o in no eg. anariyo (a-na-ri-yo)
Additional Sounds
am - as -um eg. Tatiyam (ta-to-yam)
am - as -ung in lung eg. Buddhaṃ (bud-dhung)
an - as -ung in lung eg. Saṅgha (sung-gha)
Grouped Consonant Sounds
Gutturals (formed in the throat)
k - as k in kind
kh - as kh in blackhead
g - as g in game
gh - as gh in ghost
ṅ - as ng in lung
Palatals (tongue is against the palate)
c - as j in jar or ch in rich
ch - as ch-h in witch-hazel
j - as in j in jaw
jh - as dge-h in sledge-hammer
ñ - as gn in signore (It.), senior, señor (Sp.)
Linguals (tongue tip against dome of palate)
ṭ - as t in tap
ṭh - as t-h in ant-hill
ḍ - d as in dad
ḍh - as d-h in red-hot
ṇ - n in now
Dentals (tongue tip against teeth)
t - as th in thumb
th - as t-h in pot-holder
d - as th in then
dh - as dh in adherent
n - as n in not
Labials (formed with the lips)
p - as p in papa
ph - as ph in uphill
b - as b in ball
bh - as bh in abhor
m - as m in mom
Ungrouped Consonant Sounds
y (palatal) - as y in yesr (lingual) - as r in rain
l (dental) - as l in law
v (labial) - as v in voice
s (guttural, sibilant) - as see or skull
h (guttural aspirant) - as h in hot
ḷ (lingual) - as l in felt
ṃ (nasal) - as ng in sing
Pali (Pālī) Dictionary
Provided by the Internet Archive and Open Library here is an online Pālī-English Dictionary.
The Pali Text Society's Pali-English dictionary
by Pali Text Society (London, England)
Davids, T. W. Rhys (Thomas William Rhys)
1843-1922;
How to Type The Romanized Pālī Characters:
Using the following Unicode you can type the characters into your computer as you take notes:
HTML Entity (Hexadecimal) ṃ CTRL+shift+u then unicode and then ENTERVowels
u+0100 Ā A with macron u+0101 ā a with macron u+012A Ī I with macron u+012B ī i with macron u+016A Ū U with macron u+016B ū u with macronLinguals
u+1E6C Ṭ T with dot below u+1E6D ṭ t with dot below u+1E0C Ḍ D with dot below u+1E0D ḍ d with dot below u+1E44 Ṅ N with dot above u+1E45 ṅ n with dot above u+1E46 Ṇ N with dot below u+1E47 ṇ n with dot below u+00D1 Ñ N with tilde u+00F1 ñ n with tilde u+1E36 Ḷ L with dot below u+1E37 ḷ l with dot below u+1E42 Ṃ M with dot below u+1E43 ṃ m with dot below