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Sanskrit

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Languages

   Sanskrit
   संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam
   Spoken in: India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, 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: 49,736 fluent speakers (as of 1991)
   194,433 second-language speakers (as of 1961).
   Language family: Indo-European
     Indo-Iranian
      Indo-Aryan
      Sanskrit
   Writing system: Devanāgarī script
   Official status
   Official language of: India (one of the scheduled languages)
   Regulated by: no official regulation
   Language codes
   ISO 639-1: sa
   ISO 639-2: san
   ISO/FDIS 639-3: san
Indic script
            This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see
            irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

   The Sanskrit language (संस्कृतम् saṃskṛtam, संस्कृता वाक् saṃskṛtā vāk)
   is a classical language of India, a liturgical language of Hinduism,
   Buddhism, and Jainism, and one of the 22 official languages of India.

   It has a position in the cultures of South and Southeast Asia similar
   to that of Latin and Greek in Europe, and is a central part of Hindu
   tradition and Philosophy. It appears in pre-Classical form as Vedic
   Sanskrit (appearing in the Vedas) with the language of the Rigveda
   being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved. This fact and
   comparative studies in historical linguistics show that it is from one
   of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family
   and descends from the same.

   Today, Sanskrit is used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious
   rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. The vast literary tradition
   of Sanskrit in the form of the Hindu scriptures and the philosophical
   writings are also studied. The corpus of Sanskrit literature
   encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and literature, as well as
   scientific, technical, philosophical and religious texts.

   The scope of this article is the Classical Sanskrit language as laid
   out in the grammar of Panini, around 500 BC.

   Sir William Jones, speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta,
   February 2, 1786 said:


   Sanskrit

     The Sanskrit language whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful
    structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin,
   and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a
      stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of
   grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong,
      indeed, that no philosopher could examine them all three, without
   believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps,
                              no longer exists.


   Sanskrit

History

   Devimahatmya manuscript on palm-leaf, in an early Bhujimol script,
   Bihar or Nepal, 11th century.
   Enlarge
   Devimahatmya manuscript on palm-leaf, in an early Bhujimol script,
   Bihar or Nepal, 11th century.

   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
   learned discourse and contrasted with the languages spoken by the
   people. It is also called deva-bhāṣā meaning "language of the gods".
   The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī
   ("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.

   Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Aryan sub-family of the Indo-European
   family of languages. Together with the Iranian languages it belongs to
   the Indo-Iranian branch and as such is part of the Satem group of
   Indo-European languages, which also includes the Balto-Slavic branch.

   When the term arose in Southern India, "Sanskrit" was not thought of as
   a specific language set apart from other languages, 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. Sanskrit as the learned language of Ancient
   India thus existed alongside the Prakrits (vernaculars), which evolved
   into the modern Indo-Aryan languages (Hindi/ Urdu, Bengali etc.). Most
   of the Dravidian languages of India, despite being a separate
   linguistic family by their own right, are highly influenced by
   Sanskrit, especially in terms of loanwords. Kannada, Telugu and
   Malayalam have the highest incidence of loans while Tamil has the
   lowest. This influence of Sanskrit on these languages is recognized by
   the notions of Tat Sama (equivalent) and Tat Bhava (rooted in).
   Sanskrit itself has also been exposed to Dravidian substratum influence
   in ancient times.

Vedic Sanskrit

   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.

   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" (niḥśvāsitam 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 (see: Apaurusheyatva). 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.

Classical Sanskrit

   A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of
   the Hindu Epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. The deviations from
   Pāṇini in the epics are generally due to interference from Prakrits,
   and not because they are 'pre-Paninean'. "In fact, almost all
   'un-Paninean' forms of Epic Sanskrit are innovations" [Oberlies, "A
   Grammar of Epic Sanskrit", p.XXIX, emphasis in the original].
   Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha (आर्ष) 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 (see also
   termination of spoken Sanskrit). According to Tiwari ([1955] 2004),
   there were four principal dialects of Sanskrit, viz., paścimottarī
   (Northwestern, also called Northern or Western), madhyadeśī (lit.,
   middle country), pūrvi (Eastern) and dakṣiṇī (Southern, arose in the
   Classical period). The first three are even attested in the Vedic
   Brāhmaṇas, of which the first one was regarded as the purest (Kauṣītaki
   Brāhmaṇa, 7.6).

European Scholarship

   European scholarship in Sanskrit, begun by Heinrich Roth (1620 - 1668)
   and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (1681 - 1731), 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.

Principal Differences

   Vedic Sanskrit differs from Classical Sanskrit to an extent comparable
   to the difference between Homeric Greek and Classical Greek. Tiwari
   ([1955] 2005) lists the following principal differences between the
   two:

In Phonology

     * Vedic Sanskrit had a voiceless bilabial fricative (/ɸ/, called
       upadhmānīya) and a voiceless velar fricative (/x/, called
       jihvāmūlīya)—which used to occur when the breath visarga (अः)
       appeared before voiceless labial and velar consonants respectively.
       Both of them were lost in Classical Sanskrit to give way to the
       simple visarga.
     * Vedic Sanskrit had a retroflex lateral approximant (/ɭ/) (ळ) as
       well as its aspirated counterpart /ɭʰ/ (ळ्ह), which were lost in
       Classical Sanskrit, to be replaced with the corresponding plosives
       /ɖ/ (ड) and /ɖʰ/ (ढ). (Varies by region; vedic pronunciations are
       still in common use in some regions, e.g. southern India, including
       Maharashtra.)
     * The pronunciations of syllabic /ɻˌ/ (ऋ), /lˌ/ (लृ) and their long
       counterparts no longer retained their pure pronunciations, but had
       started to be pronounced as short and long /ɻi/ (रि) and /li/
       (ल्रि). (Varies by region; vedic pronunciations are still in common
       use in some regions, e.g. southern India, including Maharashtra)
     * The vowels e (ए) and o (ओ) were actually realized in Vedic Sanskrit
       as diphthongs /ǎi/ and /ǎu/, but they became pure monophthongs /eː/
       and /oː/ in Classical Sanskrit.
     * The vowels ai (ऐ) and au (औ) were actually realized in Vedic
       Sanskrit as diphthongs /aːi/ (आइ) and /aːu/ (आउ), but they became
       diphthongs /ǎi/ (अइ) and /ǎu/ (अउ) in Classical Sanskrit.
     * The Prātishākhyas claim that the dental consonants were articulated
       from the root of the teeth (dantamūlīya), but they became pure
       dentals later. This included the /r/, which later became retroflex.
     * Vedic Sanskrit had a pitch accent which could even change the
       meaning of the words, and was still in use in Panini's time, as we
       can infer by his use of devices to indicate its position. At some
       latter time, this was replaced by a stress accent limited to the
       second to fourth syllables from the end. Today, the pitch accent
       can be heard only in the traditional Vedic chantings.
     * Vedic Sanskrit often allowed two like vowels to come together
       without merger during Sandhi.

In Grammar

     * The subjunctive mood of Vedic Sanskrit was also lost in Classical
       Sanskrit. Also, there was no fixed rule about the use of various
       tenses (luṇ, laṇ and liṭ).
     * There were more than 12 ways of forming infinitives in Vedic
       Sanskrit, of which Classical Sanskrit retained only one form.
     * Nominal declinations and verbal conjugation also changed
       pronunciation, although the spelling was mostly retained in
       Classical Sanskrit. E.g., along with the Classical Sanskrit's
       declension of deva as devaḥ—devau—devāḥ, Vedic Sanskrit
       additionally allowed the forms devaḥ—devā—devāsaḥ. Similarly Vedic
       Sanskrit has declined forms such as asme, tve, yuṣme, tvā, etc. for
       the 1st and 2nd person pronouns, not found in Classical Sanskrit.
       The obvious reason is the attempt of Classical Sanskrit to
       regularize and standardize its grammar, which simultaneously led to
       a purge of Old Proto-Indo-European forms.
     * To emphasize that Proto-Indo-European and its immediate daughters
       were essentially end-inflected languages, both Proto-Indo-European
       and Vedic Sanskrit had independent prefix-morphemes. Such prefixes
       (especially for verbs) could come anywhere in the sentence, but in
       Classical Sanskrit, it became mandatory to attach them immediately
       before the verb.

In Vocabulary

     * Many lexemes attested in the Vedic texts became lost, while others
       contained a considerable amount of polysemy. Numerous loanwords
       from Dravidian languages brought in more and more retroflex
       plosives.

Phonology of Classical Sanskrit

   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 (Ach),
   diphthongs (Hal), anusvara and visarga, stops (Sparśa) 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 of Pāṇini.

Vowels

   The vowels of Classical 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:
Letter Diacritical mark with “प्” Pronunciation Pronunciation with /p/
          IAST equiv. ITRANS equiv. Approximate English equivalent
अ प /ə/ or /ä/ (two sounds are represented by the same letter) /pə/ or
     /pä/ a a short Schwa: as the a in above or sometimes like the u in
                                   under.
आ पा /ɑː/ /pɑː/ ā A long Open back unrounded vowel: as the a in father
   इ पि /i/ /pi/ i i short close front unrounded vowel: as i in bit
ई पी /iː/ /piː/ ī I long close front unrounded vowel: as i in machine
     उ पु /u/ /pu/ u u short close back rounded vowel: as u in put
 ऊ पू /uː/ /puː/ ū U long close back rounded vowel: as oo in school
ए पे /eː/ /peː/ e e long close-mid front unrounded vowel: as a in game
                      (not a diphthong), or é in café
ऐ पै /əi/ or /ai/ /pəi/ or /pai/ ai ai a long diphthong: approx. as ei
                                  in height
 ओ पो /οː/ /poː/ o o long close-mid back rounded vowel: as o in tone
                              (not a diphthong)
औ पौ /əu/ or /au/ /pəu/ or /pau/ au au a long diphthong: approx. as ou
                                  in house
ऋ पृ /ɻ̩/ /pɻ̩/ ṛ R short syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant
ॠ पॄ /ɻ̩ː/ /pɻ̩ː/ ṝ RR long syllabic vowel-like retroflex approximant:
                          a longer version of /r̩/
 ऌ पॢ /ɭ̩/ /pɭ̩/ ḷ LR short syllabic vowel-like retroflex lateral
                       approximant: approx. as handle
ॡ पॣ /ɭ̩ː/ /pɭ̩ː/ ḹ LRR long syllabic vowel-like retroflex lateral
                    approximant: longer version of /l̩/

   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 /ai/, /au/, 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. (See above).

   Additional points:
     * There are some additional vowels traditionally listed in the
       Sanskrit/Hindi alphabet. They are :
          + अं (called anusvāra), pronounced as /əŋ/ ( 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 /aː/ in Sanskrit is realized as being more central and
       less back than the closest English approximation, which is ɑː. But
       the grammarians have classified it as a back vowel. (Tiwari, [1955]
       2004).
     * 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 front vowels. Hence ए and ओ are
       classified respectively as palato-velar (a+i) and 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 (see above). These vowels are
       pronounced as long /eː/ and /oː/ respectively by learned Sanskrit
       Brahmans and priests of today. Other than the "four" diphthongs,
       Sanskrit usually disallows any other diphthong—vowels in
       succession, where they 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
       (/ə/) 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 /ɑː/—this makes the masculine Sanskrit/Hindi words sound like
       feminine! e.g., shiva must be pronounced as /ɕivə/ and not as
       /ɕivɑː/. Tiwari ([1955] 2004) argues that in Vedic Sanskrit, अ was
       simply short ɑ, and became centralized and raised in the era of the
       Prakrits.

Consonants

   IAST and Devanagari notations are given, with approximate IPA values in
   square brackets.
   Labial
   Ōshtya Labiodental
   Dantōshtya Dental
   Dantya Retroflex
   Mūrdhanya Palatal
   Tālavya Velar
   Kantya Glottal
   Stop
   Sparśa Unaspirated
   Śvāsa p प [p] b ब [b] t त [t̪] d द [d̪] ṭ ट [ʈ] ḍ ड [ɖ] c च [c] j ज [ɟ]
   k क [k] g ग [g]
   Aspirated
   Nāda ph फ [pʰ] bh भ [bʱ] th थ [t̪ʰ] dh ध [d̪ʱ] ṭh ठ [ʈʰ] ḍh ढ [ɖʱ] ch छ
   [cʰ] jh झ [ɟʱ] kh ख [kʰ] gh घ [gʱ]
   Nasal
   Anunāsika m म [m] n न [n̪] ṇ ण [ɳ] ñ ञ [ɲ] ṅ ङ [ŋ]
   Semivowel
   Antastha v व [ʋ] y य [j]
   Liquid
   Drava l ल [l̪] r र [ɻ]
   Fricative
   Ūshman s स [s̪] ṣ ष [ʂ] ś श [ɕ] ḥ ः [h] h ह [ɦ]

   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 (/ə/), and is named in the table as such.
   Plosives
   Sprshta
   Unaspirated
   Voiceless
   Alpaprāna Śvāsa Aspirated
   Voiceless
   Mahāprāna Śvāsa Unaspirated
   Voiced
   Alpaprāna Nāda Aspirated
   Voiced
   Mahāprāna Nāda Nasal
   Anunāsika Nāda
                                    Velar
                                 Kantya क
                          /kə/; English: skip ख
                          /kʰə/; English: cat ग
                          /gə/; English: game घ
                         /gʱə/; Aspirated /g/ ङ
                            /ŋə/; English: ring
                                   Palatal
                                Tālavya च
                         /cə/; ≈English: chat छ
                         /cʰə/; Aspirated /c/ ज
                         /ɟə/; ≈English: jam झ
                        /ɟʱə/; Aspirated /ɟ/ ञ
                           /ɲə/; English: finch
                                  Retroflex
                               Mūrdhanya ट
                      /ʈə/; American Eng: hurting ठ
                        /ʈʰə/; Aspirated /ʈ/ ड
                      /ɖə/; American Eng: murder ढ
                        /ɖʱə/; Aspirated /ɖ/ ण
                        /ɳə/; American Eng: hunter
                                Apico- Dental
                                 Dantya त
                        /t̪ə/; Spanish: tomate थ
                       /t̪ʰə/; Aspirated /t̪/ द
                         /d̪ə/; Spanish: donde ध
                       /d̪ʱə/; Aspirated /d̪/ न
                           /n̪ə/; English: name
                                   Labial
                                 Ōshtya प
                          /pə/; English: spin फ
                          /pʰə/; English: pit ब
                          /bə/; English: bone भ
                         /bʱə/; Aspirated /b/ म
                            /mə/; English: mine
   Non-Plosives/Sonorants
   Palatal
   Tālavya Retroflex
   Mūrdhanya Dental
   Dantya Labial/
   Glottal
   Ōshtya
                                 Approximant
                                Antastha य
                           /jə/; English: you र
                      /rə/; American Eng: tearing ल
                  /l̪ə/; English: love व (labio-dental)
                            /ʋə/; English: vase
                                  Sibilant/
                                  Fricative
                                 Ūshman श
                          /ɕə/; English: ship ष
                     /ʂə/; Retroflex form of /ʃ/ स
                    /s̪ə/; English: same ह (glottal)
                           /ɦə/; English behind

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 /zʱ/ 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, three nasals, four
   semi-vowels or liquids, and four fricatives, written in IAST
   transliteration as follows:

          k, kh, g, gh; c, ch, j, jh; ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh; t, th, d, dh; p, ph,
          b, bh; m, n, ṇ; y, r, l, v; ś, ṣ, s, 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 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" (ऋ) 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 (ड़) in Sanskrit. In modern Hindi, they
       have sprung up as the allophonic flap variants of Sanskrit’s simple
       voiced retroflex plosives. The /ɳ/ (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 (devanagari/ Hindi: ड़ँ).
     * Aspiration is actually a puff of breath that may follow a plosive
       consonant. English speakers could try pronouncing the words “kite”,
       “take”, “chip” and “pack” 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, as in
       the English words "ski", "steak", "speak".
     * For practicing the voiced aspirates, one could try pronouncing,
       with very clear articulation: “drag him”, “said him”, “enrage him”,
       “grab him”. The voiced aspirated plosives (also called as murmur
       stops or breathy voice) are extremely important and frequent in
       Sanskrit, and preserve the series of Proto-Indo-European voiced
       aspirates.
     * 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-up 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 happened in English chips and jam.
       These are more of pure plosives than affricates.
     * Sanskrit has no /v/. Its nearest equivalent is /ʋ/, 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 voiceless palatal sibilant of Sanskrit (श, IAST: ś) is very
       close to like the English sh in ship (although the Sanskrit phoneme
       is the voiceless alveolo-palatal fricative /ɕ/) while the English
       phoneme is the voiceless postalveolar fricative /ʃ/ with optional
       lip rounding). Today, some speakers of Sanskrit vary the palatal
       fricative from /ɕ/ to /ʃ/.
     * The voiceless retroflex sibilant (ष, /ʂ/) is pronounced like /ʃ/,
       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 /kʰ/.
     * The Sanskrit voiced glottal fricative (ह, /ɦ/) is a voiced
       allophone of the normal h, as in English behind.
     * 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
       severely limited and determined by the rules of Sandhi. Only the
       following consonants may come in the word-final position: /k/, /ʈ/,
       /t/, /p/, /l/ (rare), voiceless /h/ (i.e., visarga), and all nasals
       except /ɲ/. 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. That is, Sanskrit, like
   Latin, is a syllable-timed language. It is the syllable which forms the
   basis of Sanskrit prosody.

Traditional Phonology of Sanskrit ( Śikshā)

   Traditionally syllables (not alphabets) in Sanskrit are called
   Aksharam, meaning non-diminishing entity. These aksharas are basically
   classified mainly into two types,
     * Svaram (Ach) - (Vowel)
     * Vyanjanam (Hal) ( Consonant)

   Svara aksharas are also known as Prāna akshara i.e., they are main
   sounds in speech without which speech is not possible. So, they are
   considered as life letters. We find same notation used for refering the
   Tamil vowels calling them as Uyir ezhutthu. Panini refered the svara by
   Ach Pratyahāra. So aftermath him, they are refered as Ach Aksharam.

   Vyanjana means embellishment. i.e., Consonants are treated as
   embellishment for the vowels in order to make a language sonorant. They
   are also known as Prāni akshara i.e., they are like a body in which
   life (Svara) will be present. We find same notation used for refering
   the Tamil Consonants calling them as Mey ezhutthu. Panini refered the
   vyanjana by Hal Pratyahāra. So aftermath him, they are refered as Hal
   Aksharam.

   Again Vyanjana aksharas are divided into three types,
     * Vyanjana
          + Sparśa ( Stop)
          + Antastha ( Approximant)
          + Ūshman ( Sibilant)

   Sparśa aksharas include syllables from Ka to Ma they are 25 in number.
   Antastha aksharas include syllables ya, ra, la and va. Ūshman aksharas
   include śa, sha, sa and ha.

   It was told that an vowel can be pronunciated in 18 ways (3x2x3) in
   Sanskrit language based on timing, manner and accent of pronunciation.

Time based classification

   Each vowel can be classified into three types based on the time of
   pronunciation. The unit of time is mātra (Approxly, 0.4 second). They
   are,
     * Hrasvam ( Short vowel, Eka Mātra)
     * Dīrgam ( Long vowel, Dvi Mātra)
     * Plutam (Prolonged vowel, Tri Mātra)

   So each vowel can be pronunciated in three ways according to timespan
   of articulation.

Manner based classification

   Each vowel cane be classifies into two types based on manner of
   pronunciation. They are,
     * Mukha ( Oral)
     * Nāsika ( Nasal) (all vowels are considered phonemically oral)

   so each vowel can be pronounced in two ways according to the manner of
   pronunciation.

Accent based classification

   Each vowel can be classifies into three types based on accent of
   articulation. This was lost in classical sanskrit, but used in chanting
   vedic & upanishadic hyms and mantras.
     * Udātta (high pitch)
     * Anudātta (low pitch)
     * Svarita (falling pitch)

   so each vowel can be pronounced in three ways according to the accent
   of pronunciation.

Traditional Articulatory phonetics

   According to the Indian linguistic tradition, articulation is analysed
   by different parameters and features.

Places of Articulation

   Generally, in articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also
   point of articulation) of a consonant is the point of contact, where an
   obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an active (moving)
   articulator (typically some part of the tongue) and a passive
   (stationary) articulator (typically some part of the roof of the
   mouth).

   According to Indian linguistic tradition,
     * The places of articulation (passive) are classified as five. They
       are,
          + Kanthyam ( Velar)
          + Tālavyam ( Palatal)
          + Mūrdhanyam ( Cerebral)
          + Dantyam ( Dental)
          + Ōshtyam ( Labial)
            Apart from that, other places are combinations of the above
            five places. They are,
          + Dantōsthyam ( Labio-dental) (Eg:v)
          + Kantatālavyam (Eg: Diphtong e)
          + Kantōsthyam ( labial-velar) (Eg: Diphtong o)

     * The places of articulation (active) are classified as three, they
       are
          + Jihvā Mūlam ( tongue root, for velar)
          + Jihvā Madhyam ( tongue body, for palatal)
          + Jihvāgram ( tip of tongue, for cerebral and dental)
          + Adhōstam ( lower lip, for labial)

Efforts of Articulation

   Effort of articulation (Ucchārana Prayatna)is of two types for
   consonants,
     * Bāhya Prayatna (External effort)
          + Spristam ( Plosive)
          + Īshat Spristam ( Approximate)
          + Īshat Samvritam ( Fricative)
     * Abhyantara Prayatna (Internal effort)
          + Alpaprānam ( Unaspirated)
          + Mahāprānam ( Aspirated)
          + Śvāsam ( Unvoiced)
          + Nādam ( Voiced)

Articulation of Consonants

   Articulation of consonants will be a logical combination of components
   in the two prayatnas. The belove table gives a view upon articulation
   of consonants.

   CAPTION: Samskrita Vyanjana Ucchārana Pattika

   Prayatna Niyamāvalī Kanthya
   (jihvā Mūlam) Tālavya
   (jihvā Madhyam) Mūrdhanya
   (jihvāgram) Dantya
   (jihvāgram) Dantōshtya Ōshtya
   (adhōstam)
   Sparśam, Śvāsam, Alpaprānam ka ca Ta ta - pa
   Sparśam, Śvāsam, Mahāprānam kha cha Tha tha - pha
   Sparśam, Nādam, Alpaprānam ga ja Da da - ba
   Sparśam, Nādam, Mahāprānam gha jha Dha dha - bha
   Sparśam, Nādam, Alpaprānam,
   Anunāsikam, Dravam nga nja Na na - ma
   Antastham, Nādam, Alpaprānam,
   Dravam - ya ra
   ( Lunthitam) la
   ( Pārśvikam) va -
   Ūshman, Śvāsam, Mahāprānam Visarga śa sha sa - -
   Ūshman, Nādam, Mahāprānam ha - - - - -

Writing System

   Kashmiri Shaivaite manuscript in the Sharada script (17th or 18th
   century)
   Enlarge
   Kashmiri Shaivaite manuscript in the Sharada script (17th or 18th
   century)

   Historically, Sanskrit is not associated with any particular script.
   The emphasis on orality, not textuality, in the Vedic Sanskrit
   tradition was maintained through the development of early classical
   Sanskrit literature. When Sanskrit was written, the choice of writing
   system was influenced by the regional scripts of the scribes. As such,
   virtually all of the major writing systems of South Asia have been used
   for the production of Sanskrit manuscripts. Since the late 19th
   century, Devanagari has been considered as the de facto writing system
   for Sanskrit, quite possibly because of the European practice of
   printing Sanskrit texts in the script.

   In northern India, there are Brahmi inscriptions dating from the 3rd
   century BCE onwards, the oldest appearing on the famous Prakrit pillar
   inscriptions of king Ashoka. 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. In Eastern India,
   the Bengali script and, later, the Oriya script, were used.

   In the south where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used for
   Sanskrit include Kannada in Kannada and Telugu speaking regions, Telugu
   in Telugu and Tamil speaking regions, Malayalam and Grantha in Tamil
   speaking regions.

                          Image:Phrase sanskrit.png
      Sanskrit in modern Indian scripts. May Śiva bless those who take
              delight in the language of the gods. ( Kalidasa)

   Verbal learning occupied the pride of place in ancient India and bears
   an influence which can still be felt in Indian schooling today. High
   value was placed on the 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

   Since the late 18th century, Sanskrit has been transliterated using the
   Latin alphabet. The system 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

   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. Recent work on Sanskrit grammar
   has been done by Dr. B.P.T. Vagish Shastri. He has developed a mnemonic
   method VAGYOGA, which proposes learning grammar in a mathematical way.

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. 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 the Proto-Indo-European language [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

   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. Panini identifies six
   karakas corresponding to the nominative, accusative, dative,
   instrumental, locative, and ablative cases . Panini defines them as
   follows (Ashtadhyayi, I.4.24-54):
    1. Apadana (lit. 'take off'): "(that which is) firm when departure
       (takes place)." This is the equivalent of the ablative notion which
       signifies a stationary object from which movement proceeds.
    2. Sampradana ('bestowal'): "he whom one aims at with the object".
       This is equivalent to the dative notion which signifies a recipient
       in an act of giving or similar acts.
    3. Karana ("instrument") "that which effects most". This is equivalent
       to the instrumental notion.
    4. Adhikarana ('location'): or "substratum". This is equivalent to the
       locative notion.
    5. Karman ('deed'/'object'): "what the agent seeks most to attain".
       This is equivalent to the accusative notion.
    6. Karta ('agent'): "he/that which is independent in action". This is
       equivalent to the nominative notion. (On the basis of Scharfe,
       1977: 94)

   Possessive (Sambandha) and vocative are absent in Panini's grammar.

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

The basic declension 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 (/ə/ or /ɑː/) comprise the largest class of nouns. As a rule,
   nouns belonging to this class, with the uninflected stem ending in
   short-a (/ə/), are either masculine or neuter. Nouns ending in long-A
   (/ɑː/) are almost always feminine. A-stem adjectives take the masculine
   and neuter in short-a (/ə/), and feminine in long-A (/ɑː/) in their
   stems. This class is so big because it also comprises the
   Proto-Indo-European o-stems.
   Masculine (kā́ma- 'love') Neuter (āsya- 'mouth') Feminine (kānta-
   'beloved')
   Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural Singular Dual Plural
   Nominative kā́mas kā́māu kā́mās āsyàm āsyè āsyā̀ni kāntā kānte kāntās
   Accusative kā́mam kā́māu kā́mān āsyàm āsyè āsyā̀ni kāntām kānte kāntās
   Instrumental kā́mena kā́mābhyām kā́māis āsyèna āsyā̀bhyām āsyāìs
   kāntayā kāntābhyām kāntābhis
   Dative kā́māya kā́mābhyām kā́mebhyas āsyā̀ya āsyā̀bhyām āsyèbhyas
   kāntāyai kāntābhyām kāntābhyās
   Ablative kā́māt kā́mābhyām kā́mebhyas āsyā̀t āsyā̀bhyām āsyèbhyas
   kāntāyās kāntābhyām kāntābhyās
   Genitive kā́masya kā́mayos kā́mānām āsyàsya āsyàyos āsyā̀nām kāntāyās
   kāntayos kāntānām
   Locative kā́me kā́mayos kā́meṣu āsyè āsyàyos āsyèṣu kāntāyām kāntayos
   kāntāsu
   Vocative kā́ma kā́mau kā́mās ā́sya āsyè āsyā̀ni kānte kānte kāntās

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 tā́m 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'. There are mainly two kinds of dvandva
                constructions in Sanskrit. The first is called itaretara
                dvandva, an enumerative compound word, the meaning of
                which refers to all its constituent members. The resultant
                compound word is in the dual or plural number and takes
                the gender of the final member in the compound
                construction. e.g. rāma-lakşmaņau - Rama and Lakshmana, or
                rāma-lakşmaņa-bharata-śatrughnāh - Rama, Lakshmana,
                Bharata and Satrughna. The second kind is called samāhāra
                dvandva, a collective compound word, the meaning of which
                refers to the collection of its constituent members. The
                resultant compound word is in the singular number and is
                always neuter in gender. e.g. pāņipādam - limbs, literally
                hands and feet, from pāņi = hand and pāda = foot.
                According to some grammarians, there is a third kind of
                dvandva, called ekaśeşa dvandva or residual compound,
                which takes the dual (or plural) form of only its final
                constituent member, e.g. pitarau for mātā + pitā, mother +
                father, i.e. parents. According to other grammarians,
                however, the ekaśeşa is not properly a compound at all.

   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

   Because of Sanskrit's complex declension 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

Symbolic Usage

   In the Republic of India, Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes
   for various educational and social organizations. The motto of the
   Republic is also in Sanskrit.
     * Republic of India - Satyameva Jayate
     * Nepal - Janani Janmabhūmischa Svargādapi garīyasi
     * Life Insurance Corporation of India - Yogakshemam Vahāmyaham
     * Indian Navy - Shanno Varuna
     * Indian Air Force - Nābha Sparsham Dīptam
     * Indian Coast Guard - Vayam Rakshāmaha
     * All India Radio - Bahujana-hitāya bahujana-sukhāya
     * Andhra University - Tejasvi Nāvadhitamastu
     * Sri Venkateswara University - jnanam samyaga vekshanam
     * University of Calicut - Nirmaya Karmana Sree
     * University of Colombo - buddhih sarvatra brājate
     * University of Moratuwa - Vidyaiwa Sarwadhanam
     * University of Peradeniya - Sarvasva Locanam Sāstram
     * University of Delhi - Nishtā drithih Satyam
     * University of Kerala - Karmani Vyajyate Prajna
     * Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur - Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam
     * Indian Institute of Technology Bombay - Dhyānam Paramam Dhyeyam
     * Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur - Tamaso Mā Jyotirgamaya
     * Indian Institute of Technology Madras - Siddhirbhavati Karmaja
     * Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee - Shramam Binam Na Kimapi
       Sādhyam
     * Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad - Vidya Viniyogadvikāsaha
     * Indian Institute of Management Bangalore - Tejasvi Nāvadhitamastu
     * Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode - Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam

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 élite 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 and Classical Chinese's
   influence on East Asian 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. Of modern day Indian
   languages, while Hindi tends to be 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
   witten in a higher form of Bengali, so Sanskritized as to be archaic.
   The national song of India Vande Mataram which was originally a poem
   composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and taken from his book called
   'Aanandmath', is in highly Sanskritized Bengali. Malayalam, Telugu and
   Kannada also combine a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary. Sanskrit is
   still prized and widespread as a medium of spiritual instruction for
   Hindus in India.

In non-Indian languages

   Due to common cultural, ethnic and linguistic traditions, Sanskrit
   words are found in Sinhalese, Nepali, Sindhi and other languages of the
   Indian subcontinent.

   Sanskrit words are also 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 a derivation of his Sanskrit name
   'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks"). The influence extends as far as the
   Philippines, e.g., Tagalog 'gurò' from 'Guru', or 'teacher', with the
   Hindu seafarers who traded there. Many Sanskrit words are also found in
   modern day Malay 9 10% of the words are Sanskrit), Old Javanese
   language (close to 50%) and Vietnamese.

Attempts at revival

   Of late, there have been attempts to revive the speaking of this
   ancient tongue, so that the 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
   (though it is an option for the school to adopt it or not, the other
   choice being the state's own official language) in the schools it
   governs. In such schools, learning Sanskrit is an option for grades 5
   to 8 (Classes V to VIII). This is true of most schools, including but
   not limited to Christian missionary schools, affiliated to the ICSE
   board too, especially in those states where the official language is
   Hindi. 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 spoken natively by the population in Mattur 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 efforts to revive the
   language and to preserve oral transmission of the Vedas. Shri
   Vedabharathi is one such organization based out of Hyderabad, Andhra
   Pradesh that has been digitizing the Vedas through voice recording the
   recitations of Vedic Pandits.

   In recent years, there has been an interest with using Sanskrit in
   computer programming. Because of its syntax, it was believed to be
   ideal for computer translation.

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.)

Sanskrit's usage in modern times

   All of India's scientific discoveries and developments are named in
   Sanskrit, as a counterpart of the practice of naming scientific
   developments in Latin or Greek followed in the west. The Indian guided
   missile program that was commenced in 1983 by DRDO has named the five
   missiles (ballistic and others) that it has developed as Prithvi, Agni,
   Akash, Nag and Trishul. India's first modern fighter aircraft is named
   Tejas. The Indian Space Research Organization ISRO has named all of its
   propulsion rockets after mythological characters found in Sanskrit
   literature.

   This practice is usually followed in scientific institutions in India
   also.

   Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films, television
   advertisements and as slogans for corporate organizations has become a
   trend.

   Recently, Sanskrit has also made an appearance in Western pop music in
   recent years, in two recordings by Madonna. One, "Shanti/Ashtangi,"
   from the 1998 album "Ray of Light," is the traditional Ashtanga yoga
   chant referenced above set to music. The second, "Cyber-raga," released
   in 2000 as a B-side to Madonna's single "Music," is a Sanskrit-language
   ode of devotion to a higher power and a wish for peace on earth.

   Some noted western scholars (mainly from Europe) have taken interest in
   the study of Sanskrit. Main article: Sanskrit in the West.

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.
   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.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanskrit"
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   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
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