Sanskrit : Sanskrit language

Sanskrit is a living second language and is one of the official languages of India. For India, Sanskrit occupies a role similar to that of Latin in Western Europe. It was (and still is) a language of religious ritual and scholarship, and it had locally varied spoken forms (Prakrits) such as Pali and Ardhamagadhi[?]. There are several times more documents preserved in Sanskrit than in Latin and Greek combined.

The language underwent several stages of consolidation and modification. In its older Vedic form, it is a close descendant of Proto-Indo-European, the root of all later Indo-European languages. Vedic Sanskrit is also practically identical to Avestan, the language of Zoroastrianism. After the consolidation of its grammar and lexicon (see History below) it turned into a classical language of strict esthetic rules and gave rise to considerable literature of drama in poetry and prose.

The oldest Vedic version is associated with the Aryan hordes to arrive in the Indus Valley region circa 1500 BCE. There seems to be no clear evidence that these hordes destroyed the existing Indus Valley culture. (See Aryan invaders). But it is clear that the language of the Vedas is distinct from that of the Indus Valley. To date the script on the seals of the Indus Valley civilisation have not been deciphered.

Its common origin with modern European and the more familiar classical languages of Greek and Latin can be seen, for instance, in the Sanskrit words for mother, matr, and father, pitr. The similarities between Latin, Greek, and Sanskrit led to the discovery of this language family by Sir William Jones, and thus played an important role in the development of linguistics. Indeed, linguistics (along with phonology, etc.) was first developed by Indian grammarians who were attempting to catalog and codify Sanskrit's rules. Modern linguistics, which arose much later in the rest of the world, owes a great deal to the grammarians, including key terms for compound analysis.

It is generally written in the syllabic Devanagari script. Several Latin-alphabet transliterations of varying utility are also available. It is found written on stone, birch bark, palm leaves and paper.

Sanskrit had some influence on the Chinese culture because Buddhism was initially transmitted to China in Sanskrit. Many Chinese Buddhist scriptures were written with Chinese transliterations of Sanskrit words. Some Chinese proverbs use Buddhist terms that originate from Sanskrit.

Sanskrit words are found in many present-day languages. For instance the Thai language contains many loan words[?] from Sanskrit.

Phonology and writing system

Sanskrit is typically said to have 36 sounds, though there is some debate over whether certain sounds are separate phonemes or allophones of one phoneme. The Sanskrit syllabary serves as a model for all Indian language writing systems except Urdu. For the ingenious phonetic classification scheme of these writing systems see Indian language.

The sounds are described here in their traditional order: vowels, stops and nasals (starting in the back if the mouth and moving forward), and finally the liquids[?] and sibilants.

(Note: The long vowels are held about twice as long as their short counterparts. Also, there exists a third, extra-long length for most vowels, which is used in various cases, but particularly when recording a shout, or a greeting.)

Vowels (with approximate English equivalents)

a - gut
aa - father
i - pin
ii - tweak
u - push
uu - moo
r^i = r + i
long r^i = r + ii or r + uu, depending on the region
l^i = l + r^i

(Sanskrit recognizes vocalic r (errr) and l (ulll), unlike, say, English)

Diphthongs (Combinations of Simple Vowels)

e - hay
ai - aisle
o - snow
au - pow

Vowels can be nasalized[?].

Consonants

Sanskrit has a voiceless, voiceless aspirate, voiced, voiced aspirate, and nasal stop at each of the following places of articulation:

• Velar (soft palate[?]) (k, kh, g, gh, n as in ing)
• Palatal (hard palate[?]) (c, ch, j, jh, ~n)
• Retroflex[?] (roughly the place of articulation of English alveolars like t, but with the tongue curled back) (t, th, d, dh, n)
• Dental (tongue against teeth, like Spanish) (t, th, d, dh, n)
• Labial (with the lips[?]) (p, ph, b, bh, m)

It also has four semivowels: y, r, l, v. All of these but r have nasalized forms. Sanskrit also has palatal, retroflex, and alveolar sibilants. Rounding out the consonants are the voiced and voiceless h (the voiceless h, called the visarga[?], tends to repeat the preceding vowel after itself) and the anusvaara, which often appears as nasalization of the the preceding vowel or as a nasal homorganic[?] to the following consonant.

Vedas Sanskrit had a pitch (music) or tonal accent, but it was lost by the Classical period. Vedic Sanskrit also had labial and velar fricatives.

Sanskrit has an elaborate set of phonological rules called sandhi and samaas which are expressed in its writing (except in so-called pada texts). Sandhi reflects the sort of blurring that occurs, particularly between word-boundaries, in spoken language generally, but is codified in Sanskrit and written down. A simple example of English sandhi is "an apple" versus "a clock".

Sandhi makes Sanskrit very hard to read without a great deal of practice. It also creates ambiguities which clever poets have exploited to perform such feats as writing poems which can be interpreted in multiple, unrelated ways depending on how the reader chooses to break apart the sandhi.

Morphology and Syntax

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. It has over ten noun declensions.

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 well-behaved. Exponents utilized in verb conjugation include prefixes, suffixes, infixes, and reduplication. Also extremely common is vowel gradation; every root has (not necessarily all distinct) zero, guna[?], and vrdhii[?] grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade, the guna grade vowel is traditionally thought of a V + a, and the vrdhii grade vowel as V + aa.

One other notable feature of the nominal system is the very common use of nominal compounds, which may be huge (10+ words) like in some modern languages like German language. Nominal compounds occur with various meanings, some examples of which are:

1. Bahuvrihi

Bahuvrihi, or much-rice, denotes a rich person--one who has much rice. Bahuvrihi compounds refer to a thing which isn't specified in any of the parts of which the compound is formed. A block-head, for example, is someone whose head is said to be as thick as a block.

1. karmadhariya

A compound in which all of the words specify that to which the compound refers. A houseboat, for example, is both a house and a boat.

1. tatpurusha

There are many tatpurushas (one for each of the nominal cases, and a few others besides); in a tatpurusha, one component is related to another. For example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house for a dog. It would be called a "caturtitatpurusha" (caturti refers to the fourth case--that is, the dative). Incidentally, "tatpurusha" is a tatpurusha ("this man"--meaning someone's agent), while "caturtitatpurusha" is a karmadhariya, being both dative, and a tatpurusha.

The verbs tenses (a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (plus gerunds and infinitives, along with such creatures as intensives[?]/frequentives[?], desideratives[?], causatives[?], and benedictives[?] derived from more basic forms). Each verb is also has a grammatical voice: either active, passive or middle. (Middle indicates actions done to something other than the speaker for the speaker's own benefit. The semantic distinction between middle and passive isn't maintained in later Sanskrit). The four systems are:

• Present[?] (Present[?], Imperfect[?], Imperative, Potential)
• Future (Future[?], Conditional)
• Aorist[?]
• Perfect[?]

Word order[?] is free with tendency toward SOV.

Here is a simple example to illustrate the different contexts in which the cases are used for the pronouns:

            mayaa tatam idam sarvam jagad avyaktamuurtinaa |
      matsthaani sarvabhuutaani na caaham teshv avasthitah ||

                                    -- Giitaa (9.4)

"mayaa" (by me) in the first line is in the instrumental case. Word for word this says "by me is pervaded this all universe" but an exact translation would be "I pervade all this universe...".

"mat-sthaani" in the second line is a compound of "mat" (me) and "stha" (standing, staying at) and means "they are in me".

"-aham" (I) in the second line is nominative. na caaham = "...and not I....", meaning "but I am not...".

"teshv-" (in/at/by them) at the end of the second line is in locative plural. Translated: "...in them".

History

Sanskrit is the oldest member of Indo-Aryan[?] sub-branch of Indo-Iranian[?]. Vedic Sanskrit and Avestan are the oldest members of the Indo-Iranian sub-branch of the Indo-European[?] family. Nursitani languages, spoken in roughly what has become Afghanistan, are grouped with Vedic and Avestan.

The oldest form of Sanskrit is Vedic, in which the Vedas, the earliest Sanskrit texts, were composed. The earliest of the Vedas, the R^igveda, was composed in the middle of the second millennium BC. The Vedic form survived until the middle of the first millennium BC. Around this time, as Sanskrit made the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, the Classical period began. The intense study of the structure of Sanskrit at this time led to the beginnings of linguistics. The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Paanini's c. 500 BC Astaadhyaayii[?] ("8 Chapter Grammar"). A form of Sanskrit called Epic Sanskrit is seen in the Mahaabhaarata and other epics. Vernacular Sanskrit may have developed into the Prakrits (in which, among other things, early Buddhist texts are written) and the modern Indic languages. There has been much reciprocal influence between Sanskrit and the Dravidian languages.

See also: Upanishad

External Links

• Sanskrit Documents (http://sanskrit.gde.to/) Despite the name, a metasite with links to translations, dictionaries, tutorials, tools and other Sanskrit resources.
• Sanskrit Alphabet in Devanagari Script and Pronunciation Key (http://members.tripod.com/~sarasvati/alphabet.html)
• The Sanskrit Alphabet (http://www.americansanskrit.com/athome/online01/alphabet.html)
• The earliest dated illustrated Sanskrit manuscript in the world (http://ds.dial.pipex.com/town/avenue/xha71/pow2.htm)
• A list of Chinese words originated from Sanskrit (http://www.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/cgi-bin/agrep-lindict?query=Sanskr.&category=full&boo=no&ignore=on&substr=on&order=all)
• Transliteration of Indic Languages & Scripts - including devanagari for sanskrit (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stone-catend/trind.htm)

Common misspelling and questions (FAQ)

anskrit-language  snskrit-language  saskrit-language  sankrit-language  sansrit-language  sanskit-language  sanskrt-language  sanskri-language  sanskritlanguage  sanskrit-anguage  sanskrit-lnguage  sanskrit-laguage  sanskrit-lanuage  sanskrit-langage  sanskrit-languge  sanskrit-languae  sanskrit-languag  asnskrit-language  snaskrit-language  sasnkrit-language  sanksrit-language  sansrkit-language  sanskirt-language  sanskrti-language  sanskri-tlanguage  sanskritl-anguage  sanskrit-alnguage  sanskrit-lnaguage  sanskrit-lagnuage  sanskrit-lanugage  sanskrit-langauge  sanskrit-langugae  sanskrit-languaeg  sanskrit-languag  ssanskrit-language  saanskrit-language  sannskrit-language  sansskrit-language  sanskkrit-language  sanskrrit-language  sanskriit-language  sanskritt-language  sanskrit--language  sanskrit-llanguage  sanskrit-laanguage  sanskrit-lannguage  sanskrit-langguage  sanskrit-languuage  sanskrit-languaage  sanskrit-languagge  sanskrit-languagee  wanskrit-language  aanskrit-language  zanskrit-language  eanskrit-language  xanskrit-language  eanskrit-language  danskrit-language  xanskrit-language  sqnskrit-language  swnskrit-language  sznskrit-language  swnskrit-language  ssnskrit-language  sznskrit-language  sahskrit-language  sabskrit-language  sajskrit-language  sajskrit-language  samskrit-language  sanwkrit-language  sanakrit-language  sanzkrit-language  sanekrit-language  sanxkrit-language  sanekrit-language  sandkrit-language  sanxkrit-language  sansirit-language  sansjrit-language  sansmrit-language  sansorit-language  sans,rit-language  sansorit-language  sanslrit-language  sans,rit-language  sansk4it-language  sanskeit-language  sanskdit-language  sansk5it-language  sanskfit-language  sansk5it-language  sansktit-language  sanskfit-language  sanskr8t-language  sanskrut-language  sanskrjt-language  sanskr9t-language  sanskrkt-language  sanskr9t-language  sanskrot-language  sanskrkt-language  sanskri5-language  sanskrir-language  sanskrif-language  sanskri6-language  sanskrig-language  sanskri6-language  sanskriy-language  sanskrig-language  sanskrit0language  sanskritplanguage  sanskrit[language  sanskrit-oanguage  sanskrit-kanguage  sanskrit-,anguage  sanskrit-panguage  sanskrit-.anguage  sanskrit-panguage  sanskrit-;anguage  sanskrit-.anguage  sanskrit-lqnguage  sanskrit-lwnguage  sanskrit-lznguage  sanskrit-lwnguage  sanskrit-lsnguage  sanskrit-lznguage  sanskrit-lahguage  sanskrit-labguage  sanskrit-lajguage  sanskrit-lajguage  sanskrit-lamguage  sanskrit-lantuage  sanskrit-lanfuage  sanskrit-lanvuage  sanskrit-lanyuage  sanskrit-lanbuage  sanskrit-lanyuage  sanskrit-lanhuage  sanskrit-lanbuage  sanskrit-lang7age  sanskrit-langyage  sanskrit-langhage  sanskrit-lang8age  sanskrit-langjage  sanskrit-lang8age  sanskrit-langiage  sanskrit-langjage  sanskrit-languqge  sanskrit-languwge  sanskrit-languzge  sanskrit-languwge  sanskrit-langusge  sanskrit-languzge  sanskrit-languate  sanskrit-languafe  sanskrit-languave  sanskrit-languaye  sanskrit-languabe  sanskrit-languaye  sanskrit-languahe  sanskrit-languabe  sanskrit-languag3  sanskrit-languagw  sanskrit-languags  sanskrit-languag4  sanskrit-languagd  sanskrit-languag4  sanskrit-languagr  sanskrit-languagd  sanskryt-language  sanskriy-language  sanskrity-language  sanskrit-languages 


On the 29th of January warders on the wall saw them pouring down into their ships singular. The decks were covered by the black shields, above sunlight. As they reached the shore the Northmen sprang to flew towards the walls. Vast numbers of catapults, which of stone, heavy javelins, and leaden bullets, while thousands every citizen capable of bearing arms to the walls. The enemy, with his nephew, the valiant abbe, by his side. The foremost among the defenders. The Saxons, as before, were held in reserve, but to the command of the defence of the tower. It was against effort. Their main body advanced against it, and smaller galleys, divided into two bodies, strove to destroy the bridge, were well-nigh hidden under their great bucklers. maintained, made a terrific uproar; a storm of missiles from between the shields the bowmen shot incessantly at the defenders. tower was so small that comparatively few could approach at once. It had been greatly strengthened since the last assault, best to answer the storm of missiles poured into the fort. fire at random, but to choose moments when the movements covered them. Whenever this took place a dozen arrows fell true to.