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A: Symbols and Glossary of Pali technical terms

symbolmeaningexplanation
🚹pulliṅgamajor (masculine) gender
🚻napuṁsakaliṅgaspecial (neuter) gender
🚺itthiliṅgaminor (feminine) gender
ekavacanasingular
bahuvacanaplural
🟢parassapada, kattuactive voice
🔵attanopada, bhāvamiddle voice - impersonal
🔴kammapassive voice
🟠kāritacausative
🤟paṭhama purisafirst person, equivalent to ‘third person’ in English
🤘majjima purisamiddle person, equivalent to ‘second person’ in English
👆uttama purisaprimary person, equivalent to ‘first person’ in English
ālapanavocative
paṭhamāfirst case (nominative)
dutiyāsecond case (accusative)
tatiyāthird case (instrumental)
catutthīfourth case (dative)
pañcamīfifth case (ablative)
chaṭṭhīsixth case (genitive)
sattamīseventh case (locative)
⏏️nipātaparticle
🔼upasaggaprefix
🆎samāsacompound noun
🔽taddhitaaffix
*️⃣sabbanāmapronoun
▶️vattamānapresent
piñcamīimperative
sattamīpotential
🔄parokkhāperfect
↩️hiyyattanīimperfect
ajjatanīaorist
bhavissantifuture
🔀kālātipatticonditional

dīgha : long

rassa : short

garuka : metrically long

lahuka : metrically short

sambaddha : connected utterance

vavatthita : disjoint utterance

sithila : non-aspirated stops

dhanita : aspirated stops

niggahīta : nasal

vimutta : oral

SymbolEnglishAṭṭhakathā
nominativepaccatta
accusativeupayoga
instrumentalkaraṇa
dativesampadāna
ablativenissakka
genitivesāmi
locativebhumma
vocativeālapana
  • Technical Terms and Technique of the Pali and the Sanskrit Grammars, Mahesh A Deokar, Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (2008)