Sanskrit

From Free net encyclopedia

{{Infobox Language |name=Sanskrit |nativename=संस्कृतम् Template:IAST |region=India and some other areas of South and Southeast Asia; many Buddhist scholars in the countries of East Asia such as China, Japan, Thailand and Vietnam are also able to communicate in Sanskrit. |extinct=6,106 fluent speakers (1981 census)
194,433 second-language speakers (1961 census) |familycolor=Indo-European |fam2=Indo-Iranian |fam3=Indo-Aryan |nation=India (one of the scheduled languages) |iso1=sa|iso2=san|iso3=san |notice=Indic}}

Sanskrit (Template:IAST संस्कृतम् ; pronunciation : Template:IPA) is an Indo-European classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It has a position in India and Southeast Asia similar to that of Latin and Greek in Europe, and is a central part of Hindu tradition. It is one of the oldest Indo-European languages in the world and boasts a rich tradition of poetry, literature; as well as scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts. Sanskrit is one of the 22 official languages of India. It is being revived as a vernacular in the village of Mattur near Shimoga in Karnataka.

Today Sanskrit is mostly used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. Its pre-Classical form of Vedic Sanskrit, the liturgical language of the Vedic religion, is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family, its most ancient text being the Rigveda. It is also the language of Yoga.

The scope of this article is that of Classical Sanskrit as laid out in the grammar of Panini, roughly around 500 BC. Most Sanskrit texts available today were transmitted orally for several centuries before they were written down in ancient/medieval India.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Vedic Sanskrit 1.2 Classical Sanskrit 1.3 European Scholarship 2 Phonology and writing system 2.1 Vowels 2.2 Consonants 2.3 Phonology 2.4 Pitch 2.5 Script 2.5.1 Romanization 3 Grammar 3.1 Grammatical tradition 3.2 Verbs 3.2.1 Classification of verbs 3.2.2 Tense systems 3.2.2.1 Present system 3.2.2.2 Perfect system 3.2.2.3 Aorist system 3.2.2.4 Future system 3.3 Verbs: Conjugation 3.3.1 Basic conjugational endings 3.3.2 Present system conjugation 3.3.2.1 Athematic inflection 3.4 Nominal inflection 3.4.1 The basic declination suffix scheme for nouns and adjectives 3.4.2 a-stems 3.4.3 i- and u-stems 3.4.4 Long Vowel-stems 3.4.5 ṛ-stems 3.5 Personal Pronouns and Determiners 3.6 Compounds 3.7 Syntax 3.8 Numerals 4 Influence 4.1 Modern-day India 4.1.1 Attempts at revival 4.2 Interactions with Sino-Tibetan languages 4.3 Western vogue for Sanskrit 4.4 Computational linguistics 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

History

Image:Devimahatmya Sanskrit MS Nepal 11c.jpg

The adjective saṃskṛta- means "refined, consecrated, sanctified". The language referred to as saṃskṛtā vāk "the refined language" has by definition always been a 'high' language, used for religious and scientific discourse and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people. The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Pāṇini's Aṣtādhyāyī ("Eight-Chapter Grammar") dating to ca. the 5th century BC. It is essentially a prescriptive grammar, i.e., an authority that defines (rather than describes) correct Sanskrit, although it contains descriptive parts, mostly to account for Vedic forms that had already passed out of use in Panini's time.

When the term arose in India, "Sanskrit" was not thought of as a specific language set apart from other languages (the people of the time regarded languages more as dialects), but rather as a particularly refined or perfected manner of speaking. Knowledge of Sanskrit was a marker of social class and educational attainment and was taught mainly to Brahmins through close analysis of Sanskrit grammarians such as Pāṇini.

It is no wonder that Sanskrit shows stark similarities—to varying degrees—with Latin, Ancient Greek, Avestan and even Persian and German. Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Aryan sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. It is part of the Satem group of Indo-European languages, which also includes the Iranian branch and the Balto-Slavic branch. The categorization may be shown as:

Indo-European → Indo-Iranian → Indo-Aryan (i.e., Sanskrit and its descendents).

Technically, Sanskrit is the oldest of the Old Indo-Aryan languages. Its "daughter languages" include the Prakrits of ancient India, Hindi, Bengali, Kashmiri, Urdu, Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese, Nepali, Punjabi and Romany (spoken by the European Roma people).Telugu though being a dravidian language was much influenced by Sanskrit.

Vedic Sanskrit

Template:Main Sanskrit, as defined by Pāṇini, had evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form, and scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Paninian" Sanskrit as separate dialects. However, they are extremely similar in many ways and differ mostly in a few points of phonology, vocabulary, and grammar. Classical Sanskrit can therefore be considered a seamless evolution of the earlier Vedic language. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations, and religio-philosophical discussions which form the earliest religious texts in India and the basis for much of the Hindu religion. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, composed by many authors over centuries of oral tradition. The end of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the Upanishads, which form the concluding part of the Vedic corpus in the traditional compilations. The current hypothesis is that the Vedic form of Sanskrit survived until the middle of the first millennium BC. It is around this time that Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period.

Orthodox Hinduism believes that the language of the Vedas is eternal and revealed in its wording and word order. Evidence for this belief is found in the Vedas itself, where in the Upanishads they are described as the very "breath of God" (nihsvasitam brahma). The Vedas are therefore considered "the language of reality", so to speak, and are unauthored, even by God, the rishis or seers ascribed to them being merely individuals gifted with a special insight into reality with the power of perceiving these eternal sounds. At the beginning of every cycle of creation, God himself "remembers" the order of the Vedic words and propagates them through the rishis. Orthodox Hindus, while accepting the linguistic development of Sanskrit as such, do not admit any historical stratification within the Vedic corpus itself.

This belief is of significant consequence in Indian religious history, as the very sacredness and eternality of the language encouraged exact memorization and transmission and discouraged textual learning via written propagation. Each word is believed to have innate and eternal meaning and, when properly pronounced, mystic expressive power. Erroneous learning of repetition of the Veda was considered a grave sin with potentially immediate negative consequences. Consequently, Vedic learning by rote was encouraged and prized, particularly among Brahmins, where learning of one's own Vedic texts was a mandated duty.

Vedic Sanskrit differs from Classical Sanskrit in to an extent comparable to the difference between Homeric Greek and Classical Greek. Some differences are:

• Phonology
  • Vedic Sanskrit had a voiceless bilabial fricative (Template:IPA, called upamādhamīya) and a voiceless velar fricative (Template:IPA, called jihvāmūlīya)—which used to occur when the breath visarga appeared before voiceless labial and velar consonants respectively. Both of them were lost in Classical Sanskrit.
  • Vedic Sanskrit had a retroflex lateral approximant (Template:IPA), which was lost in Classical Sanskrit.
  • Vedic Sanskrit had a pitch accent which could fall freely within the word, but Classical Sanskrit as described by Pāṇini had only a stress accent where the placement of the accent was restricted to the last three syllables. Today, the pitch accent can be heard only in the traditional Vedic chantings.
• Grammar
  • The subjunctive mood of Vedic Sanskrit was also lost in Classical Sanskrit.
  • There were more than 12 ways of forming infinitives in Vedic Sanskrit, of which Classical Sanskrit retained only one single form.
• Nominal declinations and verbal conjugation also changed pronunciation, although the spelling was retained in Classical Sanskrit.
• Vocabulary
  • Many lexemes attested in the Vedic texts became lost, while others contained a considerable amount of polysemy.

Classical Sanskrit

There is a strong relationship between the various forms of Sanskrit and the Middle Indo-Aryan "Prakrits", or vernacular languages (in which, among other things, most early Jain and Buddhist texts are written), and the modern Indo-Aryan languages. The Prakrits are probably descended from Vedic, and there is mutual interchange between later forms of Sanskrit and various Prakrits. There has also been reciprocal influence between Sanskrit and the Dravidian languages.

Some people believe that the Hindu Epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, are pre-Paninian. However, the generally accepted dating would put them after Panini. The deviations from Panini in the epics are generally due to interference from Prakirts [see Brockington, "The Sanskrit Epics"]. Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha or "of the rishis", the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts there are also more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than Classical Sanskrit proper. Finally, there is also a language dubbed "Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit" by scholars, which is actually a prakrit ornamented with Sanskritized elements, perhaps for purposes of ostentation (see also termination of spoken Sanskrit).

European Scholarship

European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth and Johann Ernst Hanxleden, led to the proposal of the Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones, and thus played an important role in the development of Western linguistics. Indeed, linguistics (along with phonology, etc.) first arose among Indian grammarians who were attempting to catalog and codify Sanskrit's rules. Modern linguistics owes a great deal to these grammarians, and to this day, for example, key terms for compound analysis such as bahuvrihi are taken from Sanskrit.

Phonology and writing system

Template:IPA notice Classical Sanskrit distinguishes 48 sounds. Some of these, are, however, allophones. The number of phonemes is smaller, at about 35, see below.

The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels, diphthongs, anusvara and visarga, stops and nasals (starting in the back of the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids and fricatives, written in IAST as follows (see the tables below for details):

a ā i ī u ū ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ ; e ai o au

ṃ ḥ

k kh g gh ṅ; c ch j jh ñ; ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ; t th d dh n; p ph b bh m

y r l v; ś ṣ s h

An alternate traditional ordering is that of the Shiva Sutra.

Vowels

Devanagari script is the one most popularly associated with Sanskrit, although most other Indic scripts have been and continue to be used to write it. Modern Hindi also uses the Devanagari script (its alphabets are truly speaking, alpha-syllables). Devanagari, being an abugida script, non-word-initial vowels are expressed by diacritics; see Devanagari for details. The vowels of Sanskrit with their word-initial devanagari symbol, diacritical mark with the consonant प् (/p/), pronunciation (of the vowel alone and of /p/+vowel) in IPA, equivalent in IAST and ITRANS and (approximate) equivalents in Standard English are listed below:

Alphabet	Diacritical mark with “प्”	Pronunciation	Pronunciation with /p/	IAST equiv.	ITRANS equiv.	English eqivalent
अ	प	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	a	a	short Schwa: as the a in above or ago
आ	पा	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ā	A	long Open back unrounded vowel: as the a in father
इ	पि	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	i	i	short close front unrounded vowel: as i in bit
ई	पी	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ī	I	long close front unrounded vowel: as i in machine
उ	पु	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	u	u	short close back rounded vowel: as u in put
ऊ	पू	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ū	U	long close back rounded vowel: as oo in school
ए	पे	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	e	e	long close-mid front unrounded vowel: as a in game (not a diphthong), or é in café
ऐ	पै	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ai	ai	a long diphthong: approx. as ei in height
ओ	पो	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	o	o	long close-mid back rounded vowel: as o in tone (not a diphthong)
औ	पौ	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	au	au	a long diphthong: approx. as ou in house
ऋ	पृ	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ṛ	R	short syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant: approx. as American Eng. bird or meter
ॠ	पॄ	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ṝ	RR	long syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant: a longer version of Template:IPA
ऌ	पॢ	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ḷ	LR	short syllabic vowel-like retroflex-lateral approximant: approx. as handle
ॡ	पॣ	Template:IPA	Template:IPA	ḹ	LRR	long syllabic vowel-like retroflex-lateral approximant: longer version of Template:IPA

The long vowels are held about twice as long as their short counterparts. Also, there exists a third, extra-long length for most vowels, called pluti, which is used in various cases, but particularly in the vocative. The pluti is not accepted by all grammarians.

The vowels e and o continue as allophonic variants of Proto-Indo-Iranian Template:IPA, Template:IPA, and they are phonologically (conceptually) /ai/ and /au/ still in Sanskrit, and are categorized as diphthongs by Sanskrit grammarians even though they are realized phonetically as simple long vowels.

Additional points:

• There are some additional vowels traditionally listed in the Sanskrit/Hindi alphabet. They are :
  • अं (called anusvāra), pronounced as Template:IPA (IAST: ṃ). Its diacritic (the dot above) is used both for nasalizing the vowel in the syllable and for the sound of a vowel-like /n/ or /m/. (पं).
  • अः (called visarga), pronounced as /əh/ (IAST: ḥ).
  • The diacritic ँ}} (called chandrabindu), not listed in the alphabet, is used interchangeably with the anusvāra to indicate nasalization of the vowel (पँ).
• If a lone consonant needs to be written without any following vowel, it is given a halanta/virāma diacritic below (प्).
• The vowel Template:IPA in Sanskrit is more central and less back than in English.
• All vowels in Hindi, short or long, can be nasalized. All vowels can have acute grave or circumflex pitch accent.
• Note that the ancient Sanskrit grammarians have classified the vowel system as velars, retroflexes, palatals and plosives rather than as back, central and mid vowels. Hence ए and ओ are classified respectively as palato-velar (a+i) labio-velar (a+u) vowels respectively. But the grammarians have classified them as diphthongs and in prosody, each is given two mātrās. This does not necessarily mean that they are proper diphthongs, but neither excludes the possibility that they could have been proper diphthongs at a very ancient stage. These vowels are pronounced as long /e/ and /o/ respectively by learned Sanskrit Brahmins and priests of today. Other than the "four" diphthongs, Sanskrit usually disallows any other diphthongs—vowels in succession, if occur, are converted to semivowels according to predetermined rules.
• In the devanagari script used for Sanskrit, whenever a consonant in a word-ending position is without any virāma (ie, freely standing in the orthography: प as opposed to प्), the neutral vowel schwa (Template:IPA) is automatically associated with it—this is of course true for the consonant to be in any position in the word. Word-ending schwa is always short. But the IAST a appended to the end of masculine noun words rather confuses the foreigners to pronounce it as Template:IPA—this makes the masculine Sanskrit/Hindi words sound like feminine! e.g., shiva must be pronounced as Template:IPA and not as Template:IPA.

Consonants

Devanagari and IAST notation is given, with approximate IPA values in square brackets.

		Labial		Labiodental	Dental		Retroflex		Palatal		Velar		Glottal
Stop	Unaspirated	p प Template:IPA	b ब Template:IPA		t त Template:IPA	d द Template:IPA	ṭ ट Template:IPA	ḍ ड Template:IPA	c च Template:IPA	j ज Template:IPA	k क Template:IPA	g ग Template:IPA
	Aspirated	ph फ Template:IPA	bh भ Template:IPA		th थ Template:IPA	dh ध Template:IPA	ṭh ठ Template:IPA	ḍh ढ Template:IPA	ch छ Template:IPA	jh झ Template:IPA	kh ख Template:IPA	gh घ Template:IPA
Nasal		m म Template:IPA			n न Template:IPA		ṇ ण Template:IPA		ñ ञ Template:IPA		ṅ ङ Template:IPA
Semivowel				v व Template:IPA					y य Template:IPA
Liquid					l ल Template:IPA		r र Template:IPA
Fricative					s स Template:IPA		ṣ ष Template:IPA		ś श Template:IPA				ḥ ः Template:IPA	h ह Template:IPA

The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit consonants with the (nearest) equivalents in English/Spanish. Each consonant shown below is deemed to be followed by the neutral vowel schwa (Template:IPA), and is named in the table as such.

Plosives
	Unaspirated Voiceless	Aspirated Voiceless	Unaspirated Voiced	Aspirated Voiced	Nasal
Velar	क Template:IPA; English: skip	ख Template:IPA; English: cat	ग Template:IPA; English: game	घ Template:IPA; Aspirated /g/	ङ Template:IPA; English: ring
Palatal	च Template:IPA; ≈English: chat	छ Template:IPA; Aspirated /c/	ज Template:IPA; ≈English: jam	झ Template:IPA; Aspirated Template:IPA	ञ Template:IPA; English: finch
Retroflex	ट Template:IPA; American Eng: hurting	ठ Template:IPA; Aspirated Template:IPA	ड Template:IPA; American Eng: murder	ढ Template:IPA; Aspirated Template:IPA	ण Template:IPA; American Eng: hunter
Apico-Dental	त Template:IPA; Spanish: tomate	थ Template:IPA; Aspirated Template:IPA	द Template:IPA; Spanish: donde	ध Template:IPA; Aspirated Template:IPA	न {{IPA; English: name
Labial	प Template:IPA; English: spin	फ Template:IPA; English: pit	ब Template:IPA; English: bone	भ Template:IPA; Aspirated /b/	म Template:IPA; English: mine

Non-Plosives/Sonorants
	Palatal	Retroflex	Dental/ Alveolar	Labial/ Glottal
Approximant	य Template:IPA; English: you	र Template:IPA; American Eng: tearing	ल Template:IPA; English: love	व (labio-dental) {{IPA; English: vase
Sibilant/ Fricative	श Template:IPA; English: ship	ष Template:IPA; Retroflex form of Template:IPA	स Template:IPA; English: same	ह (glottal) Template:IPA; ≈English home

Phonology

The Sanskrit vowels are as discussed in the section above. The long syllabic l (ḹ) is not attested, and is only discussed by grammarians for systematic reasons. Its short counterpart ḷ occurs in a single root only, kḷp "to order, array". Long syllabic r (ṝ) is also quite marginal, occurring in the genitive plural of r-stems (e.g. mātṛ "mother" and pitṛ "father" have gen.pl. mātṝṇām and pitṝṇām). i, u, ṛ, ḷ are vocalic allophones of consonantal y, v, r, l. There are thus only 5 invariably vocalic phonemes,

a, ā, ī, ū, ṝ.

Visarga ḥ ः is an allophone of r and s, and anusvara ṃ, Devanagari ं of any nasal, both in pausa (ie, the nasalized vowel). The exact pronunciation of the three sibilants may vary, but they are distinct phonemes. An aspirated voiced sibilant Template:IPA was inherited by Indo-Aryan from Proto-Indo-Iranian but lost shortly before the time of the Rigveda (note that aspirated sibilant are exceedingly rare in any language). The retroflex consonants are somewhat marginal phonemes, often being conditioned by their phonetic environment; they do not continue a PIE series and are often ascribed by some linguists to the substratal influence of Dravidian. The nasal ñ is a conditioned allophone of n (n and ṇ are distinct phonemes - one has to distinguish aṇu "minute, atomic" (nom. sg. neutr. of an adjective) from anu "after, along"; phonologically independent ṅ occurs only marginally, e.g. in prāṅ "directed forwards/towards" (nom. sg. masc. of an adjective) and can thus be omitted). There are thus 31 consonantal or semi-vocalic phonemes, consisting of four/five kinds of stops realized both with or without aspiration and both voiced and voiceless, two nasals, four semi-vowels or liquids, and four fricatives, written in IAST transliteration as follows:

p, ph, b, bh; t, th, d, dh; ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh; c, ch, j, jh; k, kh, g, gh; m, n, ṇ; v, y, l, r; s, ṣ, ś, h

or a total of 36 unique Sanskrit phonemes altogether.

The phonological rules to be applied when combining morphemes to a word, and when combining words to a sentence are collectively called sandhi "composition". Texts are written phonetically, with sandhi applied (except for the so-called padapāṭha).

Some additional features of the Sanskrit phonological system are given here, as well as some useful tips for those whose native language is English but are interested in learning Sanskrit language.

• No other nasal consonant except /m/ and /n/ can start a word in Sanskrit.
• The distinction between the aspirated and the unaspirated consonants is really very strong, not only in Sanskrit, but also in Hindi and all other Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages of India.
• The distinction between the dental plosives and the retroflex plosives is also very stark in all Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages.
• The number of allowable consonant clusters of Sanskrit is limited, but still very large as compared to other IE languages.
• The "r" of Sanskrit may be as in Standard American English. Certain regional traditions pronounce the vowel "ṛ" as /ri/, while others as /ru/. Still others pronounce it simply as /r/. The oldest Śikṣās (general phonetic texts) and Prātiśākhyas (phonetic studies of particular branches of Vedas) vary significantly in descriptions of these sounds; this may be due to different dialects and/or traditions their authors belonged to.
• There is no retroflex flap in Sanskrit. In modern Hindi and other Indo-Aryan languages, they have sprung up as the allophonic flap variants of Sanskrit's simple voiced retroflex plosives. The Template:IPA (ṇ or ण) in Sanskrit is not a flap but a simple nasal stop, although it is pronounced by modern pundits while chanting as a nasal variant of the voiced retroflex flap.
• Aspiration is actually a puff of breath that may follow a plosive consonant. English speakers could try pronouncing the words "kite", "take", "chip" and "pat" with a greater-than-usual puff of breath after the first consonant. The corresponding unaspirated plosives must be pronounced with no significant puff of breath at all.
• For practicing the voiced aspirates, one could try: "drag him", "said him", "enrage him", "grab him". The voiced aspirated plosives (also called as murmur stops) are extremely important and frequent in Sanskrit. Sanskrit (and its daughters) is the only language that has faithfully preserved these original Proto-Indo-European stops.
• The dental consonants in Sanskrit are as in Spanish or French. They can be pronounced by pronouncing /t/ and /d/ (of English) by pressing the tip of the tongue against the back of the teeth rather than against the back of the alveolar ridge as done by English speakers. The normal "t" and "d" in IAST transliteration are the dental stops; and they occur much, much more frequently than the retroflex stops.
• The retroflex consonants are the most difficult to pronounce. They are pronounced by curling the tongue such that its tip touches the roof of the mouth, like how the Americans pronounce their "r". However, bringing the tip of the tongue a bit above the normal alveolar ridge would also work fine. The normal alveolar plosives of English /t/ and /d/ do not exist as such in Sanskrit.
• The palatal plosives of Sanskrit do not have a sharp frictional sound following them, as what happend in English chips and jam. These are more of pure plosives than affricates.
• Sanskrit has no /v/. Its nearest equivalent is Template:IPA, which is very close to /v/, but does not a friction or buzzing sound associated with it. But in consonant clusters, this may allophonically change to /w/.
• The palatal sibilant of Sanskrit (IAST: ś) is very close to like the English sh in ship (although the Sanskrit phoneme is the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative Template:IPA) while the English phoneme is the voiceless postalveolar fricative Template:IPA with lip rounding). Today, speakers of Sanskrit vary the palatal fricative from Template:IPA to Template:IPA.
• The retroflex sibilant Template:IPA is pronounced like Template:IPA, but with the tongue curled upwards towards the roof of the mouth. In Mādhyandini branch of Yajurveda, this phoneme is allowed to be pronounced at certain places as Template:IPA.
• The Sanskrit Template:IPA is a voiced allophone of the normal h.
• Although any consonant may come in the word-final position in an uninflected word-stem, the number of word-final consonants in any inflected word (or verb or particle) standing freely by itself is severly limited and determined by the rules of Sandhi. Only the following consonants may come in the word-final position: Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA, Template:IPA (rare), voiceless Template:IPA (i.e., visarga), and all nasals except Template:IPA. Any vowel may come at the word-final position.

Pitch

Vedic Sanskrit is a pitch accent language. Native grammarians define three tones (svara): udātta = 'raised', anudātta = 'not raised', and svarita = 'sounded'. The udātta syllable corresponds to the original Proto-Indo-European stress. The svarita is usually the next syllable after an udātta. Probably when the Rigveda was written down, the pitch of speech rose through the udātta and came back down through the following svarita. A svarita which is not preceded by an udātta is called an "independent svarita". In transliteration udātta is marked with acute accent (´) and independent svarita with a grave accent (`). Independent svarita occurs only where its udātta was lost because of vowel sandhi.

Classical Sanskrit is usually pronounced with a stress accent decided by the syllable length pattern of each word.

Script

Image:Kashmir Sharada MS.jpg

Sanskrit historically has had no single script associated with it. Since the late 19th century, the Devanagari (meaning "as used in the city of the gods") script has become the most widely used and associated with Sanskrit, yet this was by no means the case earlier. Each region adapted the script of the local vernacular, whether Indo-Aryan or Dravidian. In the north, there are inscriptions dating from the early centuries B.C. in the Brahmi script, also used by the king Ashoka in his famous Prakrit pillar inscriptions. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi, the Kharosthi script was used. Later (ca. 4th to 8th centuries AD) the Gupta script, derived from Brahmi, became prevalent. From ca. the 8th century, the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script, and was mostly displaced in its turn by Devanagari from ca. the 12th century, with intermediary stages such as the Siddham script. The Bengali and other scripts were also used in their respective regions.

The devanagari alphabets (alpha-syllables) for the vowels and the consonants have been discussed in the sections above. The next table gives the system of combining two consonants, ie., making a consonant cluster. To write a consonant cluster /XYa/ from /Xa/ and /Ya/ syllables, Sanskrit usually converts the alphabetic symbol of the initial consonant X into the corresponding half-consonant (sic)—mostly achieved by cutting the right-side portion of the alphabet. Similarly for a cluster /XYZa/, both X and Y would be "halved". There are many variants for this consonant cluster writing in devanagari script. The most common system is shown below for the traditional table. Here the second vowel is taken to be /n/, followed by the schwa.

ka-group	क्न Template:IPA	ख्न Template:IPA	ग्न Template:IPA	घ्न Template:IPA	ङ्न Template:IPA
cha-group	च्न Template:IPA	छ्न Template:IPA	ज्न Template:IPA	झ्न Template:IPA	ञ्न Template:IPA
ta-group	ट्न Template:IPA	ठ्न Template:IPA	ड्न Template:IPA	ढ्न Template:IPA	ण्न Template:IPA
ta-group	त्न Template:IPA	थ्न Template:IPA	द्न Template:IPA	ध्न Template:IPA	न्न Template:IPA
pa-group	प्न Template:IPA	फ्न Template:IPA	ब्न Template:IPA	भ्न Template:IPA	म्न Template:IPA
ya-group	य्न Template:IPA	र्न Template:IPA	ल्न Template:IPA	व्न Template:IPA
va-group	श्न Template:IPA	ष्न Template:IPA	स्न Template:IPA	ह्न Template:IPA

In the south where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used include Grantha in Tamil speaking regions, Telugu in Telugu and Tamil speaking regions, Kannada, and Malayalam. Grantha, which was the precursor to the Tamil script, was used exclusively for Sanskrit and is rarely seen today. A recent development has been to use Tamil characters with numeric subscripts indicating voicing and aspiration.

Verbal learning occupied the pride of place in ancient India and bears an influence which can still be felt in Indian schooling today. Very high value was placed on large-scale memorization of texts, often using sophisticated mnemonic techniques. As such, propagation and learning through writing was correspondingly deemphasized and it is hypothesized that writing was introduced relatively late to India. Rhys Davids suggests that writing may have been introduced from the Middle East by traders, with Sanskrit remaining a purely oral language until well into India's Classical age.

It is interesting to note the importance that Sanskrit orthography and Vedic philosophy of sound play in Hindu symbolism, as the varnamala, or sound-garland/alphabet, of 51 letters is also seen to be represented by the 51 skulls of Kali. In the Upanishads, the transcendent-immanent nature of Brahman is represented by the half-matra, or sphota of sound that is inherent to a beat of sound in the Sanskrit system.

Romanization

Template:Main Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has also been transliterated using the Latin alphabet. Most commonly used today is the IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration), which has been the academic standard since 1912, and which is used in this article. ASCII based transliteration schemes have evolved due to difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS, a lossless transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet, especially in Usenet and in email, for considerations of speed of entry as well as rendering issues. With the wide availability of Unicode aware web browsers, IAST has become common also for online articles.

For scholarly work, Devanagari in the 19th century was generally preferred for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts also by European scholars; however, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages are usually represented using Roman transliteration, and from the mid 20th century, textual editions edited by Western scholars have also been mostly in romanized transliteration.

Grammar

Grammatical tradition

Template:Main

1. redirect Template:Expandsect

Sanskrit grammatical tradition (vyākaraṇa, one of the six Vedanga disciplines) begins in late Vedic India, and culminates in the Aṣṭādhyāyī of Pāṇini (ca. 5th century BC). Patañjali, who lived several centuries after Panini, is the reputed author of the Mahābhāṣya, the "Great Commentary" on the Aṣṭādhyāyī.

Verbs

Classification of verbs

Sanskrit has ten classes of verbs divided into in two broad groups: athematic and thematic. The thematic verbs are so called because an a, called the theme vowel, is inserted between the stem and the ending. This serves to make the thematic verbs generally more regular. Exponents used in verb conjugation include prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and reduplication. Vowel gradation is also very common; every root has (not necessarily all distinct) zero, guṇa, and vṛddhi grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the guṇa-grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V, and the vṛddhi-grade vowel as ā + V.

Tense systems

The verbs tenses (a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerunds and infinitives, and such creatures as intensives/frequentatives, desideratives, causatives, and benedictives derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms (derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems:

• Present (Present, Imperfect, Imperative, Optative)
• Perfect
• Aorist
• Future (Future, Conditional)

Present system

The present system includes the present and imperfect tenses, the optative and imperative moods, as well as some of the remnant forms of the old subjunctive. The tense stem of the present system is formed in various ways. The numbers are the native grammarians' numbers for these classes.

For athematic verbs, the present tense stem may be formed through:

• 2) No modification at all, for example ad from ad 'eat'.
• 3) Reduplication prefixed to the root, for example juhu from hu 'sacrifice'.
• 7) Infixion of na or n before the final root consonant (with appropriate sandhi changes), for example rundh or ruṇadh from rudh 'obstruct'.
• 5) Suffixation of nu (guṇa form no), for example sunu from su 'press out'.
• 8) Suffixation of u (guṇa form o), for example tanu from tan 'stretch'. For modern linguistic purposes it is better treated as a subclass of the 5th. tanu derives from tnnu, which is zero-grade for *tannu, because in Indo-European [m] and [n] could be vowels, which in Sanskrit (and Greek) change to [a]. Most members of the 8th class arose this way; kar = "make", "do" was 5th class in Vedic (krnoti = "he makes"), but shifted to the 8th class in Classical Sanskrit (karoti = "he makes")
• 9) Suffixation of nā (zero-grade nī or n), for example krīṇa or krīṇī from krī 'buy'.

For thematic verbs, the present tense stem may be formed through:

• 1) Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with guṇa strengthening, for example, bháva from bhū 'be'.
• 6) Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with a shift of accent to this vowel, for example tudá from tud 'thrust'.
• 4) Suffixation of ya, for example dī́vya from div 'play'.

The tenth class described by native grammarians refers to a process which is derivational in nature, and thus not a true tense-stem formation.

Perfect system

The perfect system includes only the perfect tense. The stem is formed with reduplication as with the present system.

The perfect system also produces separate "strong" and "weak" forms of the verb — the strong form is used with the singular active, and the weak form with the rest.

Aorist system

The aorist system includes aorist proper (with past indicative meaning, e.g. abhūḥ "you were") and some of the forms of the ancient injunctive (used almost exclusively with mā in prohibitions, e.g. mā bhūḥ "don't be"). The principal distinction of the two is presence/absence of an augment - a- prefixed to the stem.

The aorist system stem actually has three different formations: the simple aorist, the reduplicating aorist (semantically related to the causative verb), and the sibilant aorist. The simple aorist is taken directly from the root stem (e.g. bhū-: a-bhū-t "he was"). The reduplicating aorist involves reduplication as well as vowel reduction of the stem. The sibilant aorist is formed with the suffixation of s to the stem.

Future system

The future system is formed with the suffixation of sya or iṣya and guṇa.

Verbs: Conjugation

Each verb has a grammatical voice, whether active, passive or middle. There is also an impersonal voice, which can be described as the passive voice of intransitive verbs. Sanskrit verbs have an indicative, an optative and an imperative mood. Older forms of the language had a subjunctive, though this had fallen out of use by the time of Classical Sanskrit.

Basic conjugational endings

Conjugational endings in Sanskrit convey person, number, and voice. Different forms of the endings are used depending on what tense stem and mood they are attached to. Verb stems or the endings themselves may be changed or obscured by sandhi.

		Active			Middle
		Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Primary	First Person	mi	vás	más	é	váhe	máhe
	Second Person	si	thás	thá	sé	ā́the	dhvé
	Third Person	ti	tás	ánti, áti	té	ā́te	ánte, áte
Secondary	First Person	am	vá	má	í, á	váhi	máhi
	Second Person	s	tám	tá	thā́s	ā́thām	dhvám
	Third Person	t	tā́m	án, ús	tá	ā́tām	ánta, áta, rán
Perfect	First Person	a	vá	má	é	váhe	máhe
	Second Person	tha	áthus	á	sé	ā́the	dhvé
	Third Person	a	átus	ús	é	ā́te	ré
Imperative	First Person	āni	āva	āma	āi	āvahāi	āmahāi
	Second Person	dhí, hí, —	tám	tá	svá	ā́thām	dhvám
	Third Person	tu	tā́m	ántu, átu	tā́m	ā́tām	ántām, átām

Primary endings are used with present indicative and future forms. Secondary endings are used with the imperfect, conditional, aorist, and optative. Perfect and imperative endings are used with the perfect and imperative respectively.

Present system conjugation

Conjugation of the present system deals with all forms of the verb utilizing the present tense stem (explained under Tense Stems above). This includes the present tense of all moods, as well as the imperfect indicative.

Athematic inflection

The present system differentiates strong and weak forms of the verb. The strong/weak opposition manifests itself differently depending on the class:

• The root and reduplicating classes (2 & 3) are not modified in the weak forms, and receive guṇa in the strong forms.
• The nasal class (7) is not modified in the weak form, extends the nasal to ná in the strong form.
• The nu-class (5) has nu in the weak form and nó in the strong form.
• The nā-class (9) has nī in the weak form and nā́ in the strong form. nī disappears before vocalic endings.

The present indicative takes primary endings, and the imperfect indicative takes secondary endings. Singular active forms have the accent on the stem and take strong forms, while the other forms have the accent on the endings and take weak forms.

		Indicative
		Active			Middle
		Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Present	First Person	dvéṣmi	dviṣvás	dviṣmás	dviṣé	dviṣváhe	dviṣmáhe
	Second Person	dvékṣi	dviṣṭhás	dviṣṭhá	dvikṣé	dviṣā́the	dviḍḍhvé
	Third Person	dvéṣṭi	dviṣṭás	dviṣánti	dviṣṭé	dviṣā́te	dviṣáte
Imperfect	First Person	ádveṣam	ádviṣva	ádviṣma	ádviṣi	ádviṣvahi	ádviṣmahi
	Second Person	ádveṭ	ádviṣṭam	ádvisṭa	ádviṣṭhās	ádviṣāthām	ádviḍḍhvam
	Third Person	ádveṭ	ádviṣṭām	ádviṣan	ádviṣṭa	ádviṣātām	ádviṣata

The optative takes secondary endings. yā is added to the stem in the active, and ī in the passive.

	Optative
	Active			Middle
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
First Person	dviṣyā́m	dviṣyā́va	dviṣyā́ma	dviṣīyá	dviṣīvahi	dviṣīmahi
Second Person	dviṣyā́s	dviṣyā́tam	dviṣyā́ta	dviṣīthās	dviṣīyāthām	dviṣīdhvam
Third Person	dviṣyā́t	dviṣyā́tām	dviṣyus	dviṣīta	dviṣīyātām	dviṣīran

The imperative takes imperative endings. Accent is variable and affects vowel quality. Forms which are end-accented trigger guṇa strengthening, and those with stem accent do not have the vowel affected.

	Imperative
	Active			Middle
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
First Person	dvéṣāṇi	dvéṣāva	dvéṣāma	dvéṣāi	dvéṣāvahāi	dvéṣāmahāi
Second Person	dviḍḍhí	dviṣṭám	dviṣṭá	dvikṣvá	dviṣāthām	dviḍḍhvám
Third Person	dvéṣṭu	dviṣṭā́m	dviṣántu	dviṣṭā́m	dviṣā́tām	dviṣátām

Nominal inflection

1. redirect Template:Expandsect

Sanskrit is a highly inflected language with three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and three numbers (singular, plural, dual). It has eight cases: nominative, vocative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, and locative.

The number of actual declensions is debatable. In this article they are divided into five declensions. Which declension a noun belongs to is determined largely by form.

The basic declination suffix scheme for nouns and adjectives

The basic scheme is given in the table below—valid for almost all nouns and adjectives. However, according to the gender and the ending consonant/vowel of the uninflected word-stem, there are predermined rules of compulsory sandhi which would then give the final inflected word. The parentheses give the case-terminations for the neuter gender, the rest are for masculine and feminine gender. Both devanagari script and IAST transliterations are given.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	-स् -s (-म् -m)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)
Accusative	-अम् -am (-म् -m)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)
Instrumental	-आ -ā	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भिस् -bhis
Dative	-ए -e	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भ्यस् -bhyas
Ablative	-अस् -as	-भ्याम् -bhyām	-भ्यस् -bhyas
Genitive	-अस् -as	-ओस् -os	-आम् -ām
Locative	-इ -i	-ओस् -os	-सु -su
Vocative	-स् -s (- -)	-औ -au (-ई -ī)	-अस् -as (-इ -i)

a-stems

A-stems (Template:IPA) comprise the largest class of nouns. As a rule, nouns belonging to this class, with the uninflected stem ending in short-a (Template:IPA), are either masculine or neuter. Nouns ending in long-A (Template:IPA) are almost always feminine. A-stem adjectives take the masculine and neuter in short-a (Template:IPA), and feminine in long-A (Template:IPA) in their stems.

	Masculine (kā́ma- 'love')			Neuter (āsya- 'mouth')			Feminine (kānta- 'beloved')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	kā́maḥ	kā́māu	kā́māḥ	āsyàm	āsyè	āsyā̀ni	kāntā	kānte	kāntāḥ
Accusative	kā́mam	kā́māu	kā́mān	āsyàm	āsyè	āsyā̀ni	kāntām	kānte	kāntāḥ
Instrumental	kā́mena	kā́mābhyām	kā́māiḥ	āsyèna	āsyā̀bhyām	āsyāìḥ	kāntayā	kāntābhyām	kāntābhiḥ
Dative	kā́māya	kā́mābhyām	kā́mebhyaḥ	āsyā̀ya	āsyā̀bhyām	āsyèbhyaḥ	kāntāyai	kāntābhyām	kāntābhyāḥ
Ablative	kā́māt	kā́mābhyām	kā́mebhyaḥ	āsyā̀t	āsyā̀bhyām	āsyèbhyaḥ	kāntāyāḥ	kāntābhyām	kāntābhyāḥ
Genitive	kā́masya	kā́mayoḥ	kā́mānām	āsyàsya	āsyàyoḥ	āsyā̀nām	kāntāyāḥ	kāntayoḥ	kāntānām
Locative	kā́me	kā́mayoḥ	kā́meṣu	āsyè	āsyàyoḥ	āsyèṣu	kāntāyām	kāntayoḥ	kāntāsu
Vocative	kā́ma	kā́mau	kā́māḥ	ā́sya	āsyè	āsyā̀ni	kānte	kānte	kāntāḥ

i- and u-stems

	i-stems
	Masc. and Fem. (gáti- 'gait')			Neuter (vā́ri- 'water')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	gátis	gátī	gátayas	vā́ri	vā́riṇī	vā́rīṇi
Accusative	gátim	gátī	gátīs	vā́ri	vā́riṇī	vā́rīṇi
Instrumental	gátyā	gátibhyām	gátibhis	vā́riṇā	vā́ribhyām	vā́ribhis
Dative	gátaye, gátyāi	gátibhyām	gátibhyas	vā́riṇe	vā́ribhyām	vā́ribhyas
Ablative	gátes, gátyās	gátibhyām	gátibhyas	vā́riṇas	vā́ribhyām	vā́ribhyas
Genitive	gátes, gátyās	gátyos	gátīnām	vā́riṇas	vā́riṇos	vā́riṇām
Locative	gátāu, gátyām	gátyos	gátiṣu	vā́riṇi	vā́riṇos	vā́riṣu
Vocative	gáte	gátī	gátayas	vā́ri, vā́re	vā́riṇī	vā́rīṇi

	u-stems
	Masc. and Fem. (śátru- 'enemy')			Neuter (mádhu- 'honey')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	śátrus	śátrū	śátravas	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni
Accusative	śátrum	śátrū	śátrūn	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni
Instrumental	śátruṇā	śátrubhyām	śátrubhis	mádhunā	mádhubhyām	mádhubhis
Dative	śátrave	śátrubhyām	śátrubhyas	mádhune	mádhubhyām	mádhubhyas
Ablative	śátros	śátrubhyām	śátrubhyas	mádhunas	mádhubhyām	mádhubhyas
Genitive	śátros	śátrvos	śátrūṇām	mádhunas	mádhunos	mádhūnām
Locative	śátrāu	śátrvos	śátruṣu	mádhuni	mádhunos	mádhuṣu
Vocative	śátro	śátrū	śátravas	mádhu	mádhunī	mádhūni

Long Vowel-stems

	ā-stems (jā- 'prodigy')			ī-stems (dhī- 'thought')			ū-stems (bhū- 'earth')
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	jā́s	jāú	jā́s	dhī́s	dhíyāu	dhíyas	bhū́s	bhúvāu	bhúvas
Accusative	jā́m	jāú	jā́s, jás	dhíyam	dhíyāu	dhíyas	bhúvam	bhúvāu	bhúvas
Instrumental	jā́	jā́bhyām	jā́bhis	dhiyā́	dhībhyā́m	dhībhís	bhuvā́	bhūbhyā́m	bhūbhís
Dative	jé	jā́bhyām	jā́bhyas	dhiyé, dhiyāí	dhībhyā́m	dhībhyás	bhuvé, bhuvāí	bhūbhyā́m	bhūbhyás
Ablative	jás	jā́bhyām	jā́bhyas	dhiyás, dhiyā́s	dhībhyā́m	dhībhyás	bhuvás, bhuvā́s	bhūbhyā́m	bhūbhyás
Genitive	jás	jós	jā́nām, jā́m	dhiyás, dhiyā́s	dhiyós	dhiyā́m, dhīnā́m	bhuvás, bhuvā́s	bhuvós	bhuvā́m, bhūnā́m
Locative	jí	jós	jā́su	dhiyí, dhiyā́m	dhiyós	dhīṣú	bhuví, bhuvā́m	bhuvós	bhūṣú
Vocative	jā́s	jāú	jā́s	dhī́s	dhiyāu	dhíyas	bhū́s	bhuvāu	bhúvas

ṛ-stems

ṛ-stems are predominantly agental derivatives like dātṛ 'giver', though also include kinship terms like pitṛ́ 'father', mātṛ́ 'mother', and svásṛ 'sister'.

	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	pitā́	pitárāu	pitáras
Accusative	pitáram	pitárāu	pitṝ́n
Instrumental	pitrā́	pitṛ́bhyām	pitṛ́bhis
Dative	pitré	pitṛ́bhyām	pitṛ́bhyas
Ablative	pitúr	pitṛ́bhyām	pitṛ́bhyas
Genitive	pitúr	pitrós	pitṝṇā́m
Locative	pitári	pitrós	pitṛ́ṣu
Vocative	pítar	pitárāu	pitáras

See also Devi inflection, Vrkis inflection.

Personal Pronouns and Determiners

The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike, having by analogy assimilated themselves with one another.

Note: Where two forms are given, the second is enclitic and an alternative form. Ablatives in singular and plural may be extended by the syllable -tas; thus mat or mattas, asmat or asmattas.

	First Person			Second Person
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	aham	āvām	vayam	tvam	yuvām	yūyam
Accusative	mām, mā	āvām, nau	asmān, nas	tvām, tvā	yuvām, vām	yuṣmān, vas
Instrumental	mayā	āvābhyām	asmābhis	tvayā	yuvābhyām	yuṣmābhis
Dative	mahyam, me	āvābhyām, nau	asmabhyam, nas	tubhyam, te	yuvābhyām, vām	yuṣmabhyam, vas
Ablative	mat	āvābhyām	asmat	tvat	yuvābhyām	yuṣmat
Genitive	mama, me	āvayos, nau	asmākam, nas	tava, te	yuvayos, vām	yuṣmākam, vas
Locative	mayi	āvayos	asmāsu	tvayi	yuvayos	yuṣmāsu

The demonstrative ta, declined below, also functions as the third person pronoun.

	Masculine			Neuter			Feminine
	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural	Singular	Dual	Plural
Nominative	sás	tāú	té	tát	té	tā́ni	sā́	té	tā́s
Accusative	tám	tāú	tā́n	tát	té	tā́ni	sāŕ	té	tā́s
Instrumental	téna	tā́bhyām	tāís	téna	tā́bhyām	tāís	táyā	tā́bhyām	tā́bhis
Dative	tásmāi	tā́bhyām	tébhyas	tásmāi	tā́bhyām	tébhyas	tásyāi	tā́bhyām	tā́bhyas
Ablative	tásmāt	tā́bhyām	tébhyam	tásmāt	tā́bhyām	tébhyam	tásyās	tā́bhyām	tā́bhyas
Genitive	tásya	táyos	téṣām	tásya	táyos	téṣām	tásyās	táyos	tā́sām
Locative	tásmin	táyos	téṣu	tásmin	táyos	téṣu	tásyām	táyos	tā́su

Compounds

One other notable feature of the nominal system is the very common use of nominal compounds, which may be huge (10+ words) as in some modern languages such as German. Nominal compounds occur with various structures, however morphologically speaking they are essentially the same. Each noun (or adjective) is in its (weak) stem form, with only the final element receiving case inflection. Some examples of nominal compounds include:

1. Dvandva (co-ordinative)

These consist of two or more noun stems, connected in sense with 'and', e.g. matara-pitara 'Mother and Father'. Due to these compounds having more than one noun in them, they must be in the dual or plural.

2. Bahuvrīhi (possessive)

Bahuvrīhi, or "much-rice", denotes a rich person—one who has much rice. Bahuvrīhi compounds refer (by example) to a compound noun with no head -- a compound noun that refers to a thing which is itself not part of the compound. For example, "low-life" and "block-head" are bahuvrihi compounds, since a low-life is not a kind of life, and a block-head is not a kind of head. (And a much-rice is not a kind of rice.) Compare with more common, headed, compound nouns like "fly-ball" (a kind of ball) or "alley cat" (a kind of cat). Bahurvrīhis can often be translated by "possessing..." or "-ed"; for example, "possessing much rice", or "much riced".

3. Tatpuruṣa (determinative)

There are many tatpuruṣas (one for each of the nominal cases, and a few others besides); in a tatpuruṣa, the first component is in a case relationship with another. For example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house for a dog. It would be called a "caturtitatpuruṣa" (caturti refers to the fourth case—that is, the dative). Incidentally, "tatpuruṣa" is a tatpuruṣa ("this man"—meaning someone's agent), while "caturtitatpuruṣa" is a karmadhārya, being both dative, and a tatpuruṣa. An easy way to understand it is to look at English examples of tatpuruṣas: "battlefield", where there is a genitive relationship between "field" and "battle", "a field of battle"; other examples include instrumental relationships ("thunderstruck") and locative relationships ("towndwelling").

4. Karmadhāraya (descriptive)

The relation of the first member to the last is appositional, attributive or adverbial, e. g. uluka-yatu (owl+demon) is a demon in the shape of an owl.

5. Amreḍita (iterative)

Repetition of a word expresses repetitiveness, e. g. dive-dive 'day by day', 'daily'.

Syntax

1. redirect Template:Expandsect

Because of Sanskrit's complex declination system the word order is free ( with tendency toward SOV ).

Numerals

The numbers from one to ten are:

1	éka
2	dví
3	trí
4	catúr
5	pañca
6	ṣáṣ
7	saptá, sápta
8	aṣṭá, áṣṭa
9	náva
10	dáśa

The numbers one through four are declined. Éka is declined like a pronominal adjective, though the dual form does not occur. Dvá appears only in the dual. Trí and catúr are declined irregularly:

	Three			Four
	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine	Masculine	Neuter	Feminine
Nominative	tráyas	trī́ṇi	tisrás	catvā́ras	catvā́ri	cátasras
Accusative	trīn	trī́ṇi	tisrás	catúras	catvā́ri	cátasras
Instrumental	tribhís		tisṛ́bhis	catúrbhis		catasṛ́bhis
Dative	tribhyás		tisṛ́bhyas	catúrbhyas		catasṛ́bhyas
Ablative	tribhyás		tisṛ́bhyas	catúrbhyas		catasṛ́bhyas
Genitive	triyāṇā́m		tisṛṇā́m	caturṇā́m		catasṛṇā́m
Locative	triṣú		tisṛ́ṣu	catúrṣu		catasṛ́ṣu

Influence

Modern-day India

Sanskrit's greatest influence, presumably, is that which it exerted on languages that grew from its vocabulary and grammatical base. Especially among elite circles in India, Sanskrit is prized as a storehouse of scripture and the language of prayers in Hinduism. Like Latin's influence on European languages, Sanskrit has influenced most Indian languages. While vernacular prayer is common, Sanskrit mantras are recited by millions of Hindus and most temple functions are conducted entirely in Sanskrit, often Vedic in form. Most higher forms of Indian vernacular languages like Bengali, Gujarati, Marathi, Telugu and Hindi, often called 'shuddha' (pure, higher) are much more heavily Sanskritized. Of modern day Indian languages, while Hindi tends to be, in spoken form, more heavily weighted with Arabic and Persian influence, Bengali and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit vocabulary base. The national anthem, Jana Gana Mana is higher form of Bengali, so Sanskritized as to be archaic in modern usages. The national song of India Vande Mataram which is originally a poem - composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and taken from his book called 'Aanandmath', is in pure Sanskrit. Malayalam, which is spoken in the Kerala state of India, also combines a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary with Tamil (Dravidian) grammatical structure. Kannada, another South Indian language, also contains Sanskrit vocabulary. But as a medium of spiritual instruction for Hindus in India, Sanskrit is still prized and widespread.

Sanskrit words are found in many other present-day non-Indian languages. For instance, the Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit. For example, in Thai, the Rāvana - the emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thoskonth' which is clearly a derivation of his Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' (of ten necks). And ranged as far as the Philippines, e.g., Tagalog 'gurò' from 'Guru', or 'teacher', with the Hindu seafarers who traded there.

Attempts at revival

Of late, there have been attempts to revive the speaking of this ancient tongue among people, so that vast literature available in Sanskrit can be made easily available to everyone. The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) in India has made Sanskrit a third language in the schools it governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5 to 8. An option between Sanskrit and Hindi (or many other local languages) as a second language exists for grades 9 and 10. Many organizations like the Samskrta Bharati are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. About four million people are claimed to have acquired the ability to speak Sanskrit fluently.

Sanskrit is claimed to be spoken natively by the population in Mattur, a village in central Karnataka. Inhabitants of all castes learn Sanskrit starting in childhood and converse in the language. Even the local Muslims speak and converse in Sanskrit. Historically, the village was given by king Krishnadevaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire to Vedic scholars and their families. People in his kingdom spoke Kannada and Tuluva.

Several organizations across India are putting in tireless efforts to revivie the language and to save Veda's. Shri Vedabharathi(http://www.shrivedabharathi.org) is one such organization based out of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh that has been digitizing the Vedas through voice recording the Veda recitations of Vedic Pandits. They have already recorded 1000 Hours of Vedic recitation and plan to record upto 8000 of the Vedas and make them available to public at large.

Interactions with Sino-Tibetan languages

Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan-speaking neighbors to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation. Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries mostly through translations of Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit texts, and many terms were transliterated directly and added to the Chinese vocabulary. (Although Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is not Sanskrit, properly speaking, its vocabulary is substantially the same, both because of genetic relationship, and because of conscious imitation on the part of composers. Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical schools like the Madhyamaka.)

Western vogue for Sanskrit

Template:Main

At the end of the introduction to The World as Will and Representation, Arthur Schopenhauer claimed that the rediscovery of the ancient Indian tradition would be one of the great events in the history of the West. Goethe borrowed from Kalidasa for the Vorspiel auf dem Theater in Faust.

Goethe and Schopenhauer were riding a crest of scholarly discovery, most notably the work done by Sir William Jones. (Goethe likely read Kalidasa's The Recognition of Sakuntala in Jones' translation.) However, the discovery of the world of Sanskrit literature moved beyond German and British scholars and intellectuals — Henry David Thoreau was a sympathetic reader of the Bhagavad Gita — and even beyond the humanities. In the early days of the Periodic Table, scientists referred to as yet undiscovered elements with the use of Sanskrit prefixes (see Mendeleev's predicted elements).

The nineteenth century was a golden age of Western Sanskrit scholarship, and many of the giants of the field (Whitney, Macdonnell, Monier-Williams, Grassmann) knew each other personally. Perhaps the most commonly known example of Sanskrit in the West was also the last gasp of its vogue. T.S. Eliot, a student of Indian Philosophy and Lanham's, ended The Waste Land with Sanskrit: "Shantih Shantih Shantih".

Computational linguistics

There have been suggestions to use Sanskrit as a metalanguage for knowledge representation in e.g. machine translation, and other areas of natural language processing because of its highly regular structure (The AI Magazine, Spring, 1985 #39). This is due to Classical Sanskrit being a regularized, prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more irregular and richer Vedic Sanskrit. This levelling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit occurred during the Brahmana phase, after the language had fallen out of popular use, arguably qualifying Classical Sanskrit as an early engineered language.

See also

• Akshara
• Devanagari
• Sanskrit literature
• Vrddhi
• Languages of India
• List of national languages of India
• List of Indian languages by total speakers

References

• The Sanskrit Language - T. Burrow - ISBN 8120817672
• Sanskrit Grammar - William D. Whitney - ISBN 8185557594
• Sanskrit Pronunciation - Bruce Cameron - ISBN 1557000212
• "Teach Yourself Sanskrit" - Prof. M. Coulson - ISBN 0340859903
• "A Sanskrit Grammar for Students" - A.A. Macdonell - ISBN 8124600945

External links

Template:Interwiki Template:Wikibookspar

• Sanskrit Translation Free translation help for Sanskrit
• Discover Sanskrit A concise study of the Sanskrit language
• Sanskrit Self Study An excellent introduction to Sanskrit Language in 54 self study lessons by Chitrapur Math
• Lexicon of Names, Essential terms and Sanskrit Words to the S'rîmad Bhâgavatam and the Bhagavad Gîtâ
• Sanskrit-English dictionary list of 13.000 basic-terms
• Sanskrit, Tamil and Pahlavi Dictionaries Monier-Williams dictionary online
• Harivenu Dâsa - An Introductory Course based on S'rîla Jîva Gosvâmî's Grammar a vaishnava version of Pânini's grammar: (pdf-file)
• Online Sanskrit Dictionary
• An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar By Lennart Warnemyr. Phonology, morphology and syntax, written in a semiformal style with full paradigms.
• Spiritual Sanskrit-English Dictionary
• Sanskrit Discussion Forum
• Sanskrit Documents Documents in ITX format of Upanishads, Stotras etc. and a metasite with links to translations, dictionaries, tutorials, tools and other Sanskrit resources.
• Free Sanskrit Word Processor: Madhyam developed by Balendu Sharma Dadhich
• Sanskritweb Freely downloadable Sanskrit fonts and Sanskrit texts
• GiirvaaNi - Sanskrit Classical Literature with translation
• The earliest dated illustrated Sanskrit manuscript in the world
• A list of Chinese words originated from Sanskrit
• Monier-Williams Dictionary - Searchable
• Monier-Williams' Sanskrit-English Dictionary: DICT & HTML Downloadable Versions
• Indica-et-Buddhica.org Lexica (searchable Monier-Williams included)
• Monier-Williams Dictionary - Searchable Digital Facsimile Edition Freeware CD
• Monier-Williams Dictionary - Printable
• Samskrita Bharati
• Sanskrit Studies, Links and Information
• pAnini’s Grammar and Computer Science
• Ethnologue's Sanskrit report
• American Sanskrit Institute
• A brief Sanskrit Glossary Lists commonly used words in spiritual writings
• Sanskrit Quotes Sanskrit Quotes for Inspiration & Motivation
• Tranliterator Transliterates from romanized to Unicode Sanskrit transliterator.
• Sanskrit Translations
• A Sanskrit Tutor
• [1] Sanskrit web site, called ATMA (French)
• Times of India article on the revival of spoken Sanskrit.
• Bonji Siddham Character&Pronunciation
• Sanskrit Audio Lessons from NCERT
• Sanskrit & Sánscrito The Sun of Sanskrit knowledge.
• Sanskrit-English Dictionary from Webster's DictionaryTemplate:Link FA

Template:Link FA Template:Link FA

af:Sanskrit ar:لغة سنسكريتية ast:Sánscritu br:Sañskriteg bg:Санскрит ca:Sànscrit cs:Sanskrt cy:Sansgrit da:Sanskrit de:Sanskrit et:Sanskriti keel el:Σανσκριτική γλώσσα es:Sánscrito eo:Sanskrito fa:سانسکریت fr:Sanskrit gl:Sánscrito ko:산스크리트어 hi:संस्कृत भाषा hr:Sanskrt io:Sanskrita linguo id:Bahasa Sansekerta ia:Sanscrito it:Lingua sanscrita he:סנסקריט jv:Basa Sansekreta kn:ಸ೦ಸ್ಕೃತ kw:Sanskrytek la:Lingua Sanscrita lt:Sanskritas li:Sanskriet hu:Szanszkrit nyelv ms:Bahasa Sanskrit nl:Sanskriet ja:サンスクリット no:Sanskrit nn:Sanskrit nds:Sanskrit pl:Sanskryt pt:Sânscrito ro:Limba sanscrită ru:Санскрит sa:संस्कृत simple:Sanskrit sl:Sanskrt sr:Санскрит sh:Sanskrt fi:Sanskrit sv:Sanskrit ta:சமஸ்கிருதம் th:ภาษาสันสกฤต vi:Tiếng Phạn tr:Sanskritçe uk:Санскрит zh:梵语