Pali

The ancient language of Theravāda Buddhist canon, liturgy and scriptures. The Buddha encouraged his followers to use vernacular dialects native to the regions where they were taught rather than Sanskrit which was considered a scholarly language. By the 1st century BCE when the Buddha’s oral teachings were written down in Sri Lanka in Pāli, it had become the international language of Theravāda canon known as the Tipiṭaka which spread to Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam. Pali died as a living language in the 18th century.