Scanning

The meters of Pāli poetry consists of various patterns of full-length syllables alternating with half-length syllables.

Full-length syllables:

contain a long vowel (ā, e, ī, o, ū, ay); or

end with ṃ; or

end with a consonant followed by a syllable beginning with a consonant (e.g., Bud-dho, Dham-mo, Saṅ-gho).

In this last case, the consonant clusters mentioned above — bh, dh, ḍh, gh, jh, kh, ph, th, ṭh — count as single consonants, while other combinations containing h — such as lh & mh — count as double.)

Half-length syllables end in a short vowel.

Thus, a typical line of verse would scan as follows:

Van -

dā -

ma -

haṃ

ta -

ma -

ra -

ṇaṃ

si -

ra -

sā

ji -

nen -

daṃ

1

1

1/2

1

1/2

1/2

1/2

1

1/2

1/2

1

1/2

1

1

In this book, wherever possible, many of the long compound words have been broken down with hyphens into their component words to make them easier to read and — for anyone studying Pāli — to understand. This creates only one problem in scanning: When the hyphen is preceded by a consonant (usually m or d) and followed by a vowel, the consonant forms a syllable together with the vowel following the hyphen and not with the vowel preceding it. Thus, for instance, dhammam-etaṃ would scan as dham-ma-me-taṃ; and tam-araṇaṃ as ta-ma-ra-ṇaṃ.

If all these rules seem daunting, the best course is simply to listen carefully to the group and to chant along, following as closely as possible their tempo, rhythm, and pitch. All voices, ideally, should blend together as one.