The Pali Alphabet & Pronunciation Guide | Learn Pāli Basics

A tutorial on how to pronounce the Pali alphabet [in Roman script], its phonetics, and why the niggahīta turns into a nasal - featuring how Pali characters are pronounced - with animations of where in the mouth the sounds are made!

Pali Vowels sounds 03:08
Pali Consonant sounds 06:49

Relevant Links:
Tutorial on Pali alphabet, niggathīta & PED dictionary:

Pāli Scripts:

IPA charts with audio:

Seeing Speech Lab:

This is part of the foundation for a series of introductory Pali Language tutorials for anyone wishing to learn the Pali language of the Theravada Buddhist canon. They are aimed at the absolute beginner and are in English.

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For more information check out my Pali Language channel:

View the playlists:

Or go to the Pali Studies blog for more in-depth Pali language grammar & study resources:

Please help transcribe and/or translate this video so more students
can benefit here:

Metta!

[LearnPali]

Please see the Pali alphabet playlist for a wider selection:

[justsumkid]

Thank you so much for your description of the functionality of the niggahīta 🙏 I was so lost and so many textbooks and other videos online either didn't explain it well enough or completely avoided it. I've been gathering resources to learn Pāli for the past week or so because I plan on both studying the Tipitaka as well as pursuing ordination as a monk and I know that learning the original language of the Pāli Canon will help me immensely. Your videos are allowing me to pursue my future dreams so I thank you.

[DrfrchTom]

Thank you very much for the video! It helps me to understand what Thai-people makes for crazy things with roman-letters.

[Win]

0:59 this is Thai. The phonology has changed a lot now.

ก-ka ขคฆ-kha ง-nga
จ-ja ฉชฌ-cha ญ-ya
ฏ-ta ฐฑฒ-tha ณ-na
ต-ta(again) ถทธ-tha(again) น-na(again)
ป-pa ผพภ-pha ม-ma
ย-ya ร-ra ล-la ว-wa ส-sa ห-ha

There are two ways to write Pāli in Thai. The one that obeys Thai orthography and the one that obeys Pāli orthography. For example โหนตุ reads “hōntu” in Thai, but “hōnatu” in Pāli. So in Pāli we need ฺ under the ending consonant. โหนฺตุ now reads “hōntu” in Pāli.

พุทธัง reads “buddhang”(actually putthang in modern phonology) in Thai, but in Pāli we need to write พุทฺธํ
The ฺ under the ท is, of course, to not make an “a” sound after it. And the ํ above the ธ? That’s the niggahita(นิคหิต) it makes the -ng sound. นํ says nang, นิํ says Ning. ิ makes the “i” sound in Thai.

-Thai dood

[Dhamma-cu]

Thank you very much for your teaching and sharing of Pali langauge.

[dassavilokantara]

A most excellent presentation of Pali pronunciation! Wish I didn’t have the pet-peeve of shuttering when I hear Western monks ordained in the Thai sangha pronounce “v” as a hard “w.” Somehow it doesn’t bother me when Thais do it. Lol.

[popiseth]

Thank you very much for your teaching Pāli.

[SirChogyal]

That's nice. Thanks for showing me the pronunciation.

[bodhisatta]

Guy. I just stopped this at your apology for pronunciation. If you wanna see how unprofessional i usually am when tired you can check my history im sure but the history is only a reflection of the content. Pali is lost with time to an extent. There is nothing to apologize for. It is great that you are sharing this and im trying to study myself here for the pali canon as the english - while suiting for years - feels lacking after some time. It is literally impossible to find anyone local so it is a solo practice except for those willing to take the time to share. I dont really care your motivation. Much better than cat or gaming videos. I hope youre continuingthis. Good day

[SergeKaleyeu]

Thank You. Please tell me saṃsāra from pali - what is more correct - to write and say samsara or sansara in English, slavic and other languages? Is it closer to saMsara or saNsara?

[joagalo]

Amazing video. So rigurous and clear at the same time.

[maddman]

Burmese accent on the alphabets

c and ch use "s" sound (as in "say")
j and jh use "z" sound (as in "zero")
v is pronounced as "w" sound
s is pronounced as "soft t" sound (as in thing)
o is pronounced as "aw" as in "law"

There are some rules on pronouncing the words that look strange in Burmese characters.

Examples with approximate pronunciations
Manussaloka (Ma- note* - ta - law- ka)
Buddha (boat- da)
Metta (mit- ta)
Jhāna (zaa- na)
Aññamañña (in- nya- min- nya)
Maṅgala (min- ga- la)
Tāvatiṃsa (Taa- wa- tame*- ta)
Cakkhu (Sak- khu)

Extra fact: Pāli words (usually "burma-nized") are recognised as a type of nouns in Burmese grammar.

[johtorules]

Mostly correct, though unfortunately the "jh" is mispronounced. It should be pronounced as d͡ʒʰ, like an English "j" (or like dg in the word "edge"), only aspirated. The Glasgow tutorial you posted pronounces it as ʒ like the Russian Ж or Farsi ژ or like the "s" in the English word "pleasure." I'm not sure why. Regarding the "v, " ideally it should be pronounced as labiodental approximant ʋ (which is a unique sound not found in English), but honestly it's easiest just to pronounce it as English v when between two vowels and as English w when in a conjunct consonant.

[rupesshbbhadakwad]

@Learn Pali
Could you please help how to write Namo Buddhay in pali language

[TrungNguyen-ybwj]

Hi admin,
could you please introduce me a tool/website/app (ios app) that could pronounce a pali word when we type it or press it in a sentence?
Thank you so much!

[evereststevens]

Only difference between the ipa and table of elements is that the ipa is by far more useful

[brossmos]

Can u show me why sankri pallava pali spell the same like this .or maybe all from brahmi.

[volgota]

What about the stress placement? Cannot find definite information in Pali primers.

[gaoyangli]

Hi, my native is chinese language. I don't understand well about dental and retroflex. you said english has no counterpart with dental, and english t and d are very close to retroflex. If retroflex is close to t, why they put a dot underneath?

[remsiamasiama]

Coud you please suggest any pali grammar book for beginner