2 Buddhist View On Language

1. The Buddha’s liberal attitude towards language.
The Buddha advised the bhikkhus not to affect the dialect of the countryside and not to deviate
from recognized parlance. As Buddha says in Middle Discourses 139: “ Don’t insist on local
terminology and don’t override normal usage.”
2. 佛陀不允许佛语被翻译成梵文
（Vinaya II.139）
‘‘na, bhikkhave, buddhavacanaṃ chandaso āropetabbaṃ. Yo āropeyya, āpatti dukkaṭassa.
Anujānāmi, bhikkhave, sakāya niruttiyā buddhavacanaṃ pariyāpuṇitu’’nti.
Monks, the speech of the Awakened One should not be given in metrical form. Whoever should
(so) give it, there is an offence of wrong-doing. I allow you, monks, to learn the speech of the
Awakened One according to his own dialect （sakāya niruttiyā）
(a)Bryan Levman: As for the relevance of this fragment for the other discussion… Well, it doesn’t
mention Sanskrit, which is unsurprising because there was no Sanskrit, it doesn’t even mention
the Vedic language or Veda, it merely mentions the metrical form, i.e. a cultural practice.
(b) Translation Horner 1963, 193-194, with sakāya niruttiyā instead of “in [using] his own dialect”
and “according to his own dialect,” and chandasas instead of “in metrical form.”
(For alternative translations of this passage, see, e.g., Lamotte 1976, 610, and Lin 1949,
217-218. On the names of the two monks, see Brough 1980, 37-38. )
季羡林《佛教十五題》：原始佛教采取了放任的语言政策，一方面不允许利用婆罗门教的
语言梵文；另一方面，也不把佛所利用的语言摩竭陀语神圣化，而允许比丘们用自己的方
言俗语来学习、宣传佛教教义。
3. The Language the Buddha used to preach

did the Buddha speak Pāli？佛陀说什么方言？
季羡林《佛教十五題》：
佛一生游行传教多半是在当时的摩竭陀国（Magadha），因而他利用的语言，很
可能就是摩竭陀语。在他死后，佛徒们根据口头流传下来的一些零碎经典而编纂佛典
的时候，编定时所用的语言也就会使摩竭陀语。但又不会是纯粹的摩竭陀语，因为时
间渐久，佛教传布的区域渐广，想保持一种纯粹的语言是不能够想像的。所以德国学
者 H. Lüders 就把这原始佛典所用的语言称为古代半摩竭陀语。
据锡兰佛教徒的传说，现存的巴利文《大藏经》就是阿育王的弟弟（一说儿子）
摩哂陀（Mahinda）带到锡兰去的，而巴利文也就是摩竭陀语（Māgadhā nirutti）。但
从语言特征上来看，巴利文不是摩竭陀语。巴利文是一个西部方言，形态变化与阿育
王石刻的吉尔那尔（Girnār）石刻相似，如“于”格的语尾是-amhi、-e。“业”格复
数的语尾是-ne 等等。而摩竭陀语是一个东部方言，r 变成 l，s 变成 ś，以-a 作尾声的
字“体”格的语尾是-e 等等。两者的区别是非常大的。
4. Buddhist views on Language

Is there sacred or profane language according to Buddhism?
Pre-Mahāyāna Buddhist literature tends to subsume all forms of discourse into the category of
discursive thought. At this early stage there is already a tendency to identify language with
"discursive or conceptual thought," and to identify the latter with erroneous knowledge. The
Nikāyas and Ᾱgamas suggest the ineffable character of the Buddhist religious goal. The Buddha is
beyond the "paths of speech" (Suttanipāta 1076), he cannot be conceived in visual or auditory
images (Theragāthā 469)
Buddhist scholastics, on the other hand, downplay the nonconceptual. For them, liberating
wisdom (prajñā ) has discursive, as well as nondiscursive, dimensions. The dharma theory of the
Abhidharma can be interpreted as an attempt to establish a technical language of liberation—a
set of concepts that will replace the misconceptions inherent in the ways of speaking about the
world. These reflections find expression in the Abhidharmic concept of prajñapti, as developed in
particular in the Sautrāntika school. Prajñapti, or "conventional designation," is the term used to
explain the role and function of conventional language in contrast to the language of truth
(paramārtha ), which describes accurately the nature of reality as seen by the en-lightened.
Prajñapti is also the key link between Abhidharmic thought and the philosophy of the
Mādhyamika school. In the latter school human experience of reality is seen as being of two
kinds: conventional views and the perception of ultimate reality. Language is an important aspect
of the former, and as such it is perceived as a tool for the construction of a mock reality. Yet
language also serves to express, or point at, the nonlinguistic sphere, that is, at the nature of
things. … words do not correspond or refer to objects, for their meaning is the exclusion of
whatever is not the object of reference.

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1. The Buddha’s liberal attitude towards language.

3. The Language the Buddha used to preach

4. Buddhist views on Language

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