Pāli Alphabet Analysis
Pāli Alphabet Analysis¶
In order to understand some of the lessons that follow, you need to understand the Pāli Alphabet in a bit more detail. So each week there will be given a little more information.
Please learn the alphabetical-order, it will help you enormously with many of the lessons that follow. You can only understand some of the lessons that follow if you know the layout of the alphabet very well.
Just to refresh your memory, there are 41 letters
8 Vowels (sara)
| a | ā | i | ī | u | ū | e | o |
25 Consonants (vyañjana)
| k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| c | ch | j | jh | ñ |
| ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| t | th | d | dh | n |
| p | ph | b | bh | m |
8 Semi-Vowels (antaṭṭha)
| y | r | l | v | s | h | ḷ | ṃ |
Let’s look at the consonants in more detail. Unlike the English alphabet, you will notice that the consonants are grouped according to the place where they are pronounced.
| Guttural (kaṇṭhaja) |
kavagga | k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| Palatal (tāluja) |
cavagga | c | ch | j | jh | ñ |
| Cerebral or Retroflex (muddhaja) |
ṭavagga | ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| Dental (dantaja) |
tavagga | t | th | d | dh | n |
| Labial (oṭṭhaja) |
pavagga | p | ph | b | bh | m |
Please make sure your tongue is in the correct place when you pronounce each letter.
They are also grouped according to whether each letter is
1. voiced or unvoiced
2. aspirated or unaspirated.
| Unvoiced (aghosa) |
Voiced (ghosavant) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unaspirates (sithila) |
Aspirates (dhanita) |
Unaspirates (sithila) |
Aspirates (dhanita) |
Nasals3 (nāsika) |
| k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| c | ch | j | jh | ñ |
| ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| t | th | d | dh | n |
| p | ph | b | bh | m |
Please note the nasals of each group, you will need this information later on.
In the end, we can combine the consonants into a complex table like this, which you should learn and understand.
| Unvoiced (aghosa) |
Voiced (ghosavant) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Unaspirates (sithila) |
Aspirates (dhanita) |
Unaspirates (sithila) |
Aspirates (dhanita) |
Nasals (nāsika) |
|
| Guttural (kaṇṭhaja) |
k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| Palatal (tāluja) |
c | ch | j | jh | ñ |
| Cerebral / Retroflex (muddhaja) |
ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| Dental (dantaja) |
t | th | d | dh | n |
| Labial (oṭṭhaja) |
p | ph | b | bh | m |
You should know things like:
1. what is the un-aspirate of the letter kh?
2. what is the nasal of the cavagga (Palatals)?