[Buddha-l] liturgical languages (was: Will new the pope verify Buddhist doctrine?)

[curt]

Richard P. Hayes wrote:

>>I abominate the affected
>>practice of chanting in languages that the congregation does not
>>understand. (Mind you, I chant in Sanskrit and Pali, but then I teach
>>those languages for a living. I would never recommend that anyone else
>>chant in those languages unless they knew the grammar and vocabulary.)
>>    
>>
I am curious about what people on this list know about the use of 
"liturgical languages"
in traditional Asian Buddhism. I have the impression that in most 
Buddhist traditions
people do not actually chant in "their own" language. Even when Chinese 
people
chant in "Chinese", or Tibetans chant in "Tibetan" - they are actually 
chanting in a
version of said language that is quite different from the modern spoken 
versions of
those languages. In other words, and to put it bluntly, isn't the idea 
of chanting in one's
own language largely a Western affectation?

A specific example of the Buddhist use of liturgical languages (and one 
that I am very
interested in) is the chanting done by Japanese and Korean Buddhists. I 
read in Buswell's
"Zen Monastic Experience" that so-called "Korean" Buddhist chants are 
actually in
Chinese - and a form of Chinese that is unique to Korean Buddhism, no 
less. Is the same
true of "Japanese" Buddhist chants - are these actually in a 
"Nipponized" liturgical version
of Chinese? Also - do Theravadin Buddhists chant in Pali, or in "their 
own" language?

- Curt