Pali and Sinhala?

[shjohnk]

Is Pali related to or close in any way to modern Sinhala (as spoken in Sri Lanka)? I heard some talks by K. Sri Dhammanda and when he pronounced the Pali term, I just got a feeling of 'Now THAT'S how they're pronounced!'

[Pannapetar]

Both Pali and Sinhala are Indo-Aryan languages, but so are Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and others. I suppose that you can find words with a common etymology (like you can find some Greek words in the German language), but I have no idea how far this goes. Only someone who masters both languages can tell for certain. Anyone here?

Cheers, Thomas

[piotr]

Hi,

I remember one dhamma-talk by Sayadaw U Jotika given to Sri Lankans, where his audience noticed that some Sinhala words sound almost identical to Pali, but their meaning is rather different. I can't remember any examples now.

[mikenz66]

I'm no expert, but as piotr says there are some similar words. Not sure if they have been absorbed (like the Pali and Sanskrit loanwords in Thai) or would be there anyway.

My first teacher was from Bangladesh, so his native language was therefore Bengali. He said that learning Pali, and then Sinhalese when we went to Sri Lanka, was quite easy due to the similarities. Then he moved to Thailand and Thai was a lot harder... I gather for him reading Pali was probably easier than reading English.

Metta
Mike

[rowyourboat]

sinhalese pali
dukha dukkha
vedanawa vedana
tanhawa tanha
karma kamma
sukha sukha
samadhi samadhi
satiya sati
pragna panna
kusal kusala
maitri metta
upeksha upekkha
sil sila
bhavanawa bavana
veerya viriya
karunawa karuna
margaya magga
phalaya phala
vimukti vimukti
nivan/nirvanaya nibbana
buddha buddha
dharma dhamma
sangha sangha
panchaskanda pancakkhanda

we have sankskirt influences too. Remember it is 'buddhist' country so these terms are in common usage. there has been an emphasis on preserving the pali, almost a bit too much, as it was threatened over the centuries. The pali was written down for the first time (I think) in sri lanka on ola leaves during times of famine and war, for it's preservation.

[halaha]

As mentioned in an earlier post although Sinhala and Pali words may sound alike they can have different meanings. Let me give one example. Vedana in Pali is feeling whereas in Sinhala it is pain.