Introduction to Buddhist languages

Teacher(s)

Kulikov Leonid;

Language

French
> English-friendly

Prerequisites

LGLOR1670 Sanskrit I et LGLOR1680 Sanskrit II

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

Main themes

Introduction to Buddhist languages and Buddhist philology, focusing on the ancient languages of South and Central Asia. The course covers the study of the grammar and lexicon of one or more of the Buddhist languages of South and Central Asia, starting with Pali, the Middle Indian language of the texts of the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as well as of other Indo-Aryan (Buddhist Sanskrit, Gāndhārī) and non-Indo-Aryan languages: Middle Iranian (Khotanese, Sogdian), Tocharian, Old Uyghur, Tibetan or Classical Mongolian; as well as reading and commenting on selected texts.
Systematic presentation of the phonetics, morphology and syntax of this state of Indo-Aryan languages, illustrated by extracts from representative texts.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :
1	translate, using appropriate tools, Pāli texts of simple and medium level as well as texts in some other Buddhist languages;
2	understand the linguistic features of this state of Indo-Aryan languages compared to Old Indo-Aryan (Sanskrit);
3	understand the basic concepts and context of Buddhist texts, placing them within the framework of the Buddhist religion.

Content

Buddhism was born in India and its earliest scriptures were probably written in Pāli and Sanskrit.  They were soon supplemented by texts in other languages of South and Central Asia, including, in particular, Prākrits, Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, Sogdian and Khotanese (Iranian), Tocharian, Old Uyghur (Turkic), Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) and Mongolian.
The course deals with the basic linguistic features of some of these languages (starting with Pali) as well as with fundamentals of Buddhist philology. These features are studied on the basis of texts including the earliest scriptures (many of which are preserved in several language versions) such as Dhammapada as well as other texts of the Buddhist tradition.

Teaching methods

The lectures rely on a detailed study of Buddhist texts in several languages, a comparison of parallel versions (in different languages) and on reference grammars.
The exercises for the students consist in grammatical and philological analysis and translation of the relevant Buddhist texts by using the appropriate working tools (grammars and dictionaries).

Evaluation methods

Oral exam consisting in the reading, translation and grammatical analysis of example sentences or extracts from the studied Buddhist texts.

Other information

Course taught in French but offering facilities in English, Dutch, German and Russian.

Online resources

The online working tools related to the course are provided to the students directly or via Moodle.

Bibliography

• Pinault, G.-J. Chrestomathie tokharienne. Textes et grammaire, Leuven-Paris, 2008.
  
• Brough, J. The Gandhari Dharmapada, London, 1962.
  
• Oguibénine, B. Initiation pratique à l'étude du sanskrit bouddhique, Paris, 1996.
  

Teaching materials

• Oberlies, Th. Pali : a Grammar of the Language of the Theravada Tipitaka. Berlin, 2001.

Faculty or entity

EHAC