Editing Pali (section)

===Geographic origin===
There is persistent confusion as to the relation of {{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Pāḷi}} to the vernacular spoken in the ancient kingdom of [[Magadha (Mahajanapada)|Magadha]], which was located in modern-day [[Bihar]]. Beginning in the Theravada commentaries, Pali was identified with 'Magadhi', the language of the kingdom of Magadha, and this was taken to also be the language that the Buddha used during his life.<ref name=Norman/> In the 19th century, the British [[Oriental studies|Orientalist]] [[Robert Caesar Childers]] argued that the true or geographical name of the Pali language was [[Magadhi Prakrit]], and that because ''pāḷi'' means "line, row, series", the early Buddhists extended the meaning of the term to mean "a series of books", so ''pāḷibhāsā'' means "language of the texts".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Childers |first1=Robert Cæsar |title=A Dictionary of the Pali Language |year=1875 |publisher=Trübner |location=London |oclc=7007711}}</ref>

However, modern scholarship has regarded Pali as a mix of several [[Prakrit]] languages from around the 3rd century BCE, combined and partially Sanskritized.<ref name="Bhikkhu Bodhi 2005, page 10">{{cite book |last=Bodhi |first=Bhikkhu |title=In the Buddha's Words: an anthology of discourses from the Pāli canon |year=2005 |location=Boston |publisher=Wisdom Publications |isbn=978-0-86171-491-9 |page=10}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Eiland |first=Murray |date=Winter 2020–2021 |others=Interview with Richard Gombrich |title=What the Buddha Thought |url=https://www.academia.edu/89897129 |journal=Antiqvvs |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=41}}</ref> There is no attested dialect of Middle Indo-Aryan with all the features of Pali.<ref name=Norman/>{{rp|5}} In the modern era, it has been possible to compare Pali with inscriptions known to be in Magadhi Prakrit, as well as other texts and grammars of that language.<ref name=Norman/> While none of the existing sources specifically document pre-Ashokan Magadhi, the available sources suggest that Pali is not equatable with that language.<ref name=Norman/>

Modern scholars generally regard Pali to have originated from a western dialect, rather than an eastern one.<ref name=Collins>{{cite book |last1=Collins |first1=Steven |chapter=What Is Literature in Pali? |pages=649–688 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1ppqxk.19 |title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia |date=2003 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-22821-4}}</ref> Pali has some commonalities with both the western [[Ashoka's Major Rock Edicts|Ashokan Edicts]] at [[Girnar]] in [[Saurashtra (region)|Saurashtra]], and the Central-Western Prakrit found in the eastern [[Hathigumpha inscription]].<ref name=Norman/>{{rp|5}} These similarities lead scholars to associate Pali with this region of western India.<ref name="Hirakawa, Akira 2007. p. 119">{{cite book |last1=Hirakawa |first1=Akira |last2=Groner |first2=Paul |title=A History of Indian Buddhism: From Śākyamuni to Early Mahāyāna |year=1990 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |isbn=978-0-8248-1203-4 |page=119}}</ref> Nonetheless, Pali does retain some eastern features that have been referred to as ''Māgadhisms''.<ref name="Gethin2008">{{cite book |author=Rupert Gethin |title=Sayings of the Buddha: New Translations from the Pali Nikayas |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AvogpRk9-5wC |year=2008 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-283925-1 |pages=xxiv}}</ref>

Pāḷi, as a [[Middle Indo-Aryan languages|Middle Indo-Aryan language]], is different from [[Sanskrit|Classical Sanskrit]] more with regard to its dialectal base than the time of its origin. A number of its [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphological]] and lexical features show that it is not a direct continuation of [[Rigveda|{{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Ṛgvedic}}]] Sanskrit. Instead it descends from one or more dialects that were, despite many similarities, different from {{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Ṛgvedic}}.<ref>Oberlies, Thomas (2001). ''Pāli: A Grammar of the Language of the {{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Theravāda Tipiṭaka}}''. Indian Philology and South Asian Studies, v. 3. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. p. 6. {{ISBN|3-11-016763-8}}. "Pāli as a MIA language is different from Sanskrit not so much with regard to the time of its origin than as to its dialectal base, since a number of its morphonological and lexical features betray the fact that it is not a direct continuation of {{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Ṛgvedic}} Sanskrit; rather it descends from a dialect (or a number of dialects) which was (/were), despite many similarities, different from {{Transliteration|sinh|ISO|Ṛgvedic}}."</ref>