Pali

Pali , language belonging to the Indic group of the Indo-Iranian subfamily of the Indo-European family of languages. Some scholars classify it as a Prakrit , or vernacular dialect of classical Sanskrit . Pali, a tongue of the Middle Indic period (see Indo-Iranian languages) in which the Buddhist scriptures or canon ( Tipitaka ) were composed, became the main literary language of the Buddhists. As the number of Buddhists in India declined, Pali ceased to be employed in that country. The Buddhists of Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and Thailand, however, still use Pali as a liturgical language.

Bibliography: See W. Geiger, Pali Literature and Language (tr., rev. ed. 1968).

pali- (palin-) combining form denoting repetition or recurrence.

Pali an Indic language, closely related to Sanskrit, in which the sacred texts of southern Buddhism are written. Pali developed in northern India in the 5th–2nd centuries bc. As the language of the Buddhist sacred texts, it was brought to Sri Lanka and Burma (Myanmar), and, though not spoken there, became the vehicle of a large literature of commentaries and chronicles.