Lesson 1 - Alphabet

• Pāḷi means the dhamma taught by the Buddha and the language used for teaching (māgadhī) - language spoken in the Kingdom of Magadha (even though most modern philologers disagree with the tradition)
• Vowels: sara
• Number of vowels: 8 (according to grammarian Kaccāyana. Grammarian Moggallāna thinks there are 10 vowels with the short diphthongs e o)
  • a, ā, i, ī, u, ū, e, o
• Consonants: vyañjana

• Number of consonants: 33

  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
  y r l v s h ḷ ṁ (niggahīta)

• Total number of letters: 41 (Kaccāyana), 43 (Moggallāna)
• Diphthong: combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. (“no”). Also called gliding vowel.
• 6 groups of consonants according to where the sound is produced
  • Gutturals
  • Palatals
  • Linguals
  • Dentals
  • Labials
  • Non-group
• Aspirations/aspirated consonants: Mahāpāṇa

Lesson 2 - Agent & Action

• Agent/subject that performs the action: kattu (kattā)
• An act done by the agent, action, verb: kiriyā
• Singular: ekavacana
• Plural: bahuvacana

Lesson 3 - Noun stems and case-endings

• Noun stem (morpheme without a case ending): liṅga
  • Morpheme (not pāḷi grammar): a meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided (e.g. in, come, -ing, forming incoming). A morphological element considered in respect of its functional relations in a linguistic system.
• 7 Case-endings/nominal endings (nāma vibhatti) (suffixes added to a stem)
  • Paṭhamā vibhatti (nominative case)
  • Dutiyā vibhatti (accusative case)
  • Tatiyā vibhatti (instrumental case)
  • Catutthā vibhatti (dative case)
  • Pañcamā vibhatti (ablative case)
  • Chaṭṭhī vibhatti (genitive case)
  • Sattamī vibhatti (locative case)
• Mentioned agent (mentioned by the verb): utta kattu
• Utta: something that has been said

Lesson 4 - Object

• That which is made or done by the action as well as the goal of motion is called (object): kamma (Buddho dhammaṁ deseti - dhammaṁ is the kamma of the verb deseti). Kamma (object) is written in the accusative case.

Lesson 5 - Instrument

• That which assists the agent in executing a certain act is called the instrument: karaṇa
• Instrumental case (Tatiyā vibhatti) declension of purisa―purisena / purisehi, purisebhi