Editing Pali (section)

==Lexicon==
Nearly every word in Pāḷi has [[cognate]]s in the other Middle Indo-Aryan languages, the [[Prakrit]]s. The relationship to [[Vedic Sanskrit]] is less direct and more complicated; the Prakrits were descended from [[Indo-Aryan languages#Old Indo-Aryan|Old Indo-Aryan vernaculars]]. Historically, influence between Pali and Sanskrit has been felt in both directions. The Pali language's resemblance to Sanskrit is often exaggerated by comparing it to later Sanskrit compositions—which were written centuries after Sanskrit ceased to be a living language, and are influenced by developments in [[Middle Indic]], including the direct borrowing of a portion of the Middle Indic lexicon; whereas, a good deal of later Pali technical terminology has been borrowed from the vocabulary of equivalent disciplines in Sanskrit, either directly or with certain phonological adaptations.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Post-canonical Pali also possesses a few loan-words from local languages where Pali was used (e.g. Sri Lankans adding Sinhala words to Pali). These usages differentiate the Pali found in the [[Sutta Pitaka|{{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Suttapiṭaka}}]] from later compositions such as the Pali commentaries on the canon and folklore (e.g., commentaries on the [[Jataka tales]]), and comparative study (and dating) of texts on the basis of such loan-words is now a specialized field unto itself.{{citation needed|date=July 2015}}

Pali was not exclusively used to convey the teachings of the Buddha, as can be deduced from the existence of a number of secular texts, such as books of medical science/instruction, in Pali. However, scholarly interest in the language has been focused upon religious and philosophical literature, because of the unique window it opens on one phase in the development of [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Levman |first=Bryan G. |date=2020-03-01 |title=Sanskritization in Pāli |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/jsall-2021-2030/html |journal=Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics |language=en |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=105–149 |doi=10.1515/jsall-2021-2030 |issn=2196-078X}}</ref>