Sanskrit

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Sanskrit (संस्कृता)
Spoken in: Asia
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.
Total speakers: 6,106 (1981 census). 194,433 second language speakers (1961 census)
Ranking: not in top 100
Genetic classification: Indo-European

 Indo-Iranian
  Indo-Aryan
   Sanskrit

Official status
Official language of: India
Regulated by: Language Academy
Language codes
ISO 639-1sa
ISO 639-2san
SILSKT
See also: Language – List of languages

Sanskrit (saṃskṛtā संस्कृता) is a 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 Medieval Europe, and is a central part of Hindu/Vedic traditions, but at a very advanced level. Even today, it is an official language of India, though Hindi and the vernacular languages are more commonly used.

Contrary to many beliefs, it is not a dead language; reading and writing is still taught in schools and households across the country, although as a second language. Some Brahmins even identify it as their mother tongue. According to recent reports, it is being revived as a vernacular in the village of Mathoor, near Shimoga, Karnataka [1].

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 is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family, and its most archaic text is the Rigveda. 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 medieval India.

Contents

History

Image:Devimahatmya Sanskrit MS Nepal 11c.jpg

The word saṃskṛta- means "purified, 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 Ạṣtādhyāyī ("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.

Almost every student of Sanskrit hears the traditional story that Sanskrit was created and then refined over many generations (traditionally more than a thousand years) until it was considered complete and perfect. 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 manner of speaking, bearing a similar relation to common language that "Standard" English bears to dialects spoken in the United Kingdom or United States. Knowledge of Sanskrit was a marker of social class and educational attainment, and was taught through close analysis of Sanskrit grammarians such as Panini. This form of the language evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form, and scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical Sanskrit as separate languages. However, they are extremely similar in many ways and differ mostly in a few points of phonology, vocabulary, and grammar.

Vedic is the language of the Vedas, the earliest sacred texts of India and the base of the Hindu religion. The earliest of the Vedas, the Rigveda, was composed in the 2nd millennium BC. The Vedic form survived until the middle of the first millennium BC. It is around this time that Sanskrit made the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period. A form of Sanskrit called Epic Sanskrit is seen in the Mahabharata and other Hindu epics. This includes more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than Classical Sanskrit proper. 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.

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.

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, key terms for compound analysis are taken from Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is often used to illustrate the conservative nature of the Lithuanian language. Although both have gone through considerable changes since their last common ancestor Proto-Indo-European, they retain some remarkable similarities. For example, the following proverb written in modern Lithuanian and Sanskrit demonstrates these likenesses:

Lithuanian: Dievas dave dantis, Dievas duos duonos.
Sanskrit: Devas adat datas, Devas dasyati dhanas.
(God gave us teeth, God will give us bread.)

Phonology and writing system

See also Shiva Sutra.

Note: This page contains
IPA phonetic symbols
in Unicode.

Classical Sanskrit has 48 phonemes (Vedic Sanskrit has 49).

The sounds are described here in their traditional order: vowels, stops and nasals (starting in the back of 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 in the vocative.)

Simple vowels

Devanāgarī IAST HK approximate pronunciation
independent vowel sign English IPA
अ a a gut ʌ
आ ा ā A father aː
इ ि i i pin i
ई ी ī I tweak iː
उ ु u u push u
ऊ ू ū U moo uː
ऋ ृ ṛ R American bird r̩
ॠ ॄ ṝ RR the same, but longer and rolled r̩ː
ऌ ॢ ḷ L pickle l̩

Unlike in English, ṛ, ṝ, and ḷ are treated as vowels. Some grammarians mention ॡ ḹ, a longer version of ḷ, but this does not actually occur in Sanskrit and seems to have been created by analogy with the other vowels. Technically speaking, ṝ was created in analogy with the other vowels, and only occurs in one Sanskrit root.

Diphthongs (combinations of simple vowels)

Devanāgarī transliteration approximate pronunciation
independent vowel sign English IPA
ए े e hay
 eː
ऐ ै ai bite
 aːj
ओ ो o snow
 oː
औ ौ au pow
 aːw

Vowels can be nasalized.

Consonants

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

There is also the anusvāra (ṃ (M) ं), which often appears as nasalization of the preceding vowel or as a nasal homorganic to the following consonant.

Pitch

Sanskrit is a pitch accent language. Native grammarians define three tones (svara): udātta 'raised', anudātta 'not raised', and svarita. In transliteration udātta is marked with accute accent (´) and anudātta with a grave accent (`). Svarita occurs only as a product of euphonic vowel combination and is less frequently encountered than the other two tones.

Sandhi

Sanskrit has an elaborate set of phonological rules called sandhi and samās which are expressed in writing (except in so-called pada texts). Sandhi refers to combination of words when they are spoken with each other without a gap. Since the word scheme is based on pronunciation, this is no exception. Sandhi rules define how the entire word or phrase sounds when two words are combined or merged. Almost always, the new word sounds like the two words spoken one after other except for euphonic changes at the point where the first word ends and the second one starts. This change depends on the sound with which the first word ends and the sound with which the second word starts. These sounds also form the basis of classification of sandhis. The effects of Sandhi have been carefully observed and described, leading to codified rules of combination. For example, when saying one word ending in i followed by another starting in u, these will be combined into yu.

Samās is a combination of two words like 'newborn' is for 'newly born'. The meaning of a samās is normally clear from the samās itself, though some of the samās have a meaning very different from their constituent words. These are normally used to refer to some personality, deity or thing by one of its well known characteristics. samās are also categorized according to the kind of meaning they have and the constituent word that dominates the meaning. Samās plays a key role in many cases, especially in certain expressions. Samās does not have any distortion in the words, although sometimes prefixes and suffixes are used to impart a certain type of meanings to the words. A sandhi always consists of two meaningful words while all constituent words of a samās may not be meaningful individually. A sandhi may be difficult to understand for a person who is inexperienced in Sanskrit or has a poor vocabulary. It is same with samās, but they are much easier to understand as they are mostly used in some fixed formats and meanings. Sandhi and samās add beauty to the language and are extensively used by poets. When a sandhi can be broken in more than one way or a samās can be interpreted in more than one way, they can be used as puns. There are many examples of such uses in Sanskrit literature.

Script

Image:Kashmir Sharada MS.jpg

Sanskrit historically has had no single script associated with it. Ashoka used the Brahmi script for his pillar inscriptions (which were not in Sanskrit, but in Prakrit dialects and other languages). 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. Other scripts used include Kannada in the South, Grantha in Tamil speaking regions, Bengali, and other North Indian scripts in other regions.

From the late Middle Ages, and especially in modern times, the Devanagari (meaning "as used in the city of the Gods") script has become the most widely used and associated with Sanskrit. Occasionally, in regions of India where Devanagari is not the script of the vernacular (as it is with Hindi or Marathi) one will find texts still written in the local script.

Writing was introduced relatively late to India, and it did not immediately become important since oral learning was the primary means of transmitting knowledge. Rhys Davids suggests that writing may have been introduced from the Middle East by traders, but Sanskrit, which had been used exclusively in sacred contexts, remained 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.

Since the 19th 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. Other transliteration schemes have evolved due to difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto that was used earlier, and ITRANS, a lossless transliteration scheme that is used widely on the Internet (especially Usenet).

For scholarly work, Devanagari has generally been preferred for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts; however, references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages are usually represented using Roman transliteration.

Grammar

Grammatical tradition

Please improve this section according to the posted request for expansion.
Panini (scholar), Shiva Sutra, Astadhyayi, Dhatupatha, Patanjali, Varadaraja, Laghukaumudi.

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 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 multiple ways.

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

  • No modification at all, for example ad from ad 'eat'. This is classified by native grammarians as the second class.
  • Reduplication prefixed to the root, for example juhu from hu 'sacrifice'. This is classified as the third class.
  • Infixion of na or n before the final root consonant (with appropriate sandhi changes), for example rundh or ruṇadh from rudh 'obstruct'. This is classified as the seventh class.
  • Suffixation of nu, for example sunu from su 'press out'. This is classified as the fifth class. Very rarely this may appear as only u, for example tanu from tan 'stretch'. This is traditionally labeled as the eighth class, though for modern linguistic purposes it is better treated as a subclass of the fifth.
  • Suffixation of nā or nī, for example krīṇa or krīṇī from krī 'buy'. This is classified as the ninth class.

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

  • Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with guṇa strengthening, for example, bháva from bhū 'be'. This is classified by native grammarians as the first class.
  • Suffixation of the thematic vowel a with a shift of accent to this vowel, for example tudá from tud 'thrust'. This is classified as the sixth class.
  • Suffixation of ya, for example dī́vya from div 'play'. This is classified as the fourth class.

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 mode. 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 are not modified in the weak forms, and recieve guṇa in the strong forms.
  • The nasal class extends the nasal to ná in the weak form, and is not modified in the strong form.
  • The nu-class has nó in the weak form and nu in the strong form.
  • The nā-class has nā́ in the weak form and nī 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 dviṣṭā́ dviṣā́tām dviṣátām

Nominal inflection

Please improve this section according to the posted request for expansion.

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.

a-stems

A-stems comprise the largest class of nominals. As a rule nouns belonging to this class are either masculine or neuter.

Masculine (kā́ma- 'love') Neuter (āsya- 'mouth')
Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural
Nominative kā́mas kā́māu kā́mās āsyàm āsyè āsyā̀ni
Accusative kā́mam kā́māu kā́mān āsyàm āsyè āsyā̀ni
Instrumental kā́mena kā́mābhyām kā́māis āsyèna āsyā̀bhyām āsyāìs
Dative kā́māya kā́mābhyām kā́mebhyas āsyā̀ya āsyā̀bhyām āsyèbhyas
Ablative kā́māt kā́mābhyām kā́mebhyas āsyā̀t āsyā̀bhyām āsyèbhyas
Genitive kā́masya kā́mayos kā́mānām āsyàsya āsyàyos āsyā̀nām
Locative kā́me kā́mayos kā́meṣu āsyè āsyàyos āsyèṣu
Vocative kā́ma kā́mau kā́mas ā́sya āsyè āsyā̀ni

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 vā́rirīṇi
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 mádhūnām
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 bhūvā́m, 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 kinsmanship 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 yusmān, vas
Instrumental mayā āvābhyām asmābhis tvayā yuvābhyām yusmābhis
Dative mahyam, me āvābhyām, nau asmabhyam, nas tubhyam, te yuvābhyām, vām yusmabhyam, vas
Ablative mat āvābhyām asmat tvat yuvābhyām yusmat
Genitive mama, me āvayos, nau asmākam, nas tava, te yuvayos, vām yusmākam, vas
Locative mayi āvayos asmāsu tvayi yuvayos yusmāsu

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, some examples of which are:

1. Dvandva (co-ordinative)

These consist of two or more noun stems, connected in sense with 'and', e.g. matara-pitara 'Mother and Father'.

2. Bahuvrihi (possessive)

Bahuvrihi, or "much-rice", denotes a rich person—one who has much rice. Bahuvrihi 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).

3. Tatpurusha (determinative)

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.

4. Karmadharaya (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. Amredita (iterative)

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

Syntax

Please improve this section according to the posted request for expansion.
Word order is free with tendency toward SOV.

Numerals

The numbers from one to ten are:

1 éka
2 dvá
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 pronomial 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

Influences

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 is 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 the Vijayanagara Empire to Vedic scholars and their families.

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 Raavana - 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.

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.)

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. (See link.)

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

References

External links

Wikibooks has more about this subject:

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