Pali

Pali is an ancient Indic language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is the language of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism. Pali is closely related to the Sanskrit family of languages. Pali's grammar is simplified as compared with Sanskit, and the vocabulary is similar, in many cases varying only by a set of common phonological transformations, such as:

Sanskrit	Pali	definition
arhat	arahant	"deserving": one who sees the true nature of existence and has conquered their own negative tendencies so that they no longer take karmic actions (those with negative consequences for themselves or anyone else); similar to 'saint' in Christianity
Dharma	Dhamma	"upholding": refers, among other things, to the teachings of the Buddha about how the universe works and how a person can minimize or avoid suffering for themselves and others
karma	kamma	"action": a thought, speech or deed which results in immediate or future (negative) consequences; or, the part of one's fate which is a consequence of past karmic actions by oneself and/or others
nirvāna	nibbāna or nibbāṇa	"quenching (as of fire)": a state of peacefulness; a complete lack of suffering
śānti	santi	"peace"
sūtra	sutta	"discourse" in Buddhist literature
sangha	saṅgha or saṃgha	either monastic order or the totality of those with certain spiritual attainments

Name

Three spellings of the name are found in Pali:

• pāli: this is the preferred spelling of most Western scholars
• pāḷi: this spelling appears on the title pages of the Burmese, Khmer and Sinhalese editions of the Canon
• pāḷī: this is the spelling used in Aggavaṃsa's Pali grammar, the Saddanīti

Its fundamental meaning is "row (sequence)", but it is used more specifically in the sense of "text". It does not actually appear in the text of the Canon, strictly speaking (it appears in a summary verse). Thus pāḷibhäsä means "the language of the texts".