Linguistics

Questions tagged [sanskrit]

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For questions about Sanskrit, the Ancient Classical language of Northern India.

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Resources for self learning Sanskrit? [closed]

I wanted to self-thought learn Sanskrit, but I don't find any reliable resource available online. The only way I can learn is online and through self-through. It's physically impossible for me to find ...
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1answer
79 views

Prefix a(n)- in Sanskrit and English

In learning about the three Buddhist marks of existence - referred to by the Sanskrit words anatman (lack of permanent self), anitya (impermanence) and dukkha (suffering) - I was interested to learn ...
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echo/doubling of consonants in sanskrit

I've notice that whenever people in india pronounce a sanskrit word where one syllable ends in a consonant and following syllable starts with a consonant, they tend to double up one of the consonant. ...
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2answers
374 views

Are there traces of lost PIE laryngeals in Sanskrit?

I read on wiki that "Hittite retains laryngeals that disappeared entirely in Sanskrit (but left plenty of traces showing that it must once have existed). In Proto-Indo-Iranian, the laryngeals ...
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1answer
67 views

questions regarding satemisation in sanskrit

I have some questions regarding satemisation in sanskrit. why there are still k in sanskrit if pie k tunred into sanskrit s ? It seems to me that pie *kʷ turned into k in sanskrit. is that right ? If ...
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1answer
101 views

How do we know that Mitanni Indo-Aryan loan words are derived from Proto-Indo-Aryan and not Vedic Sanskrit?

This question is similer to my previous question. I came across a person who makes the following claims: The names of Previous Kings of Mitannis that are mentioned on inscriptions belongs to period ...
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1answer
175 views

Where did the Sanskrit language originate from?

Where did the Sanskrit language originate from? Did it originate from Persia or Greece? Where did Sanskrit evolve into a classic language: India or Persia or Greece? Origin of Sanskrit The above ...
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2answers
346 views

How do we know that Avestan is sister of Vedic Sanskrit and not its daughter?

I am new here and to linguistics. Recently I have developed a passion and an interest for linguistics, but I am not familiar with it. So I got into debate with a person from India. He was claiming ...
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1answer
124 views

Does the root word mus- in Latin mean "thief"'? Mouse=thief, Moses=Extractor etc

I first got the idea of Latin mus- = mouse = thief from this list My primary question here is whether someone can confirm this, because I have not found any direct words in Latin that indicates that ...
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1answer
110 views

What is the reason of this alternation?

The second case is similiar to e-grade / zero-grade ablaut. Is it possible to find out the place of a stress here? For use: वसति vásati वर्धति várdhati
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1answer
167 views

Historically, did the Sanskrit alphabet contain two 'la' consonants?

Historically, did the Sanskrit alphabet (varnamala) contain two 'la' consonants (vyanjan varnas)? It seems there was one in the 'ya' series (varga) and another one in the 'sha' series. Current texts ...
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1answer
131 views

Algorithms used for identifying the syllables in a Sanskrit word

Could anyone give a reference to the best book or website for learning the algorithms used for identifying the syllables in a Sanskrit word, in a completely unambiguous way, just from a piece of text? ...
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35 views

The various forms of the Sanskrit word 'Para'?

I came across the word 'Paratpara' and found the meaning to be 'Greatest of the Great'. This led me to try and understand it in relation with other similar words I already knew - paraspara(mutual) and ...
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1answer
82 views

What is the frequency of Devanagari signs in Sanskrit?

I've been searching everywhere to find the frequency of Devanagari's signs (including the sign in a conjunct) in a typical Sanskrit text. I found the frequency of Devanagari conjuncts here and there ...
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1answer
180 views

Does any Sanskrit noun stem end in e ए?

Sanskrit nouns stems ending in dipthongs are very rare but I could still find examples of at least one stem each ending in every dipthong except e‌ ए. ऐ ai - रै rai ओ o - गो go औ au - नौ nau But I ...
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1answer
111 views

Is Indra grammatically irregular?

I came across this on http://sanskritdictionary.com/: kubera kuberaḥ, yakṣarāṭ, yakṣendraḥ, yakṣeśvaraḥ, tryambakasakhā, guhyakeśvaraḥ, manuṣyadharmā, dhanadaḥ, dhanādhipaḥ, kinnareśaḥ, vaiśravaṇaḥ, ...
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2answers
473 views

Is it possible in Sanskrit to distinguish between the names Rāma and Rām i.e. राम and राम् when used in a sentence?

Consider this sentence: रामो लेखन्या लिखति Is रामो in that sentence always referring to someone named राम (Rāma) or could it be equally possible that the person's name was राम् (Rām)? Are names like ...
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3answers
713 views

Sanskrit consonant clusters

I thought it'd be fairly easy to find a list of Sanskrit consonant clusters online, but the last hour or so has proved me wrong. There's information out there about how to write conjoined consonants ...
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2answers
548 views

Is Sanskrit 100% phonetic?

Even though many languages are still written in Devanagari, they have a problem of schwa deletion. But that problem doesn't exist in Sanskrit. I know that almost all languages have phonetic ...
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0answers
97 views

What is meant by the term 'genitive of appurtenance'

In his Sanskrit Grammar, William Dwight Whitney describes the uses of the genitive case in Sanskrit and he mentions the 'genitive of possession or appurtenance': The genitive in its normal ...
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1answer
318 views

Why are there so many 'a' sounds in Sanskrit?

I noticed that in Sanskrit (as well as in many Indo-Aryan languages), the vowel /a/ appears much more frequently than any other vowel. Many words have only have /a/ as a vowel. Is there any reason ...
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2answers
127 views

why the number of phonemes for speaking and alphabet for writing (वर्णों की कुल संख्या) in 'Sanskrit' language is fixed and specific?

In the given below sentences the word, 'sound' means any sound wave. I am not asking/talking about the meaning of that sound. That sound can be meaningless too. **I am curious about, why can't it ...
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1answer
119 views

Modern Thai writing system and modern Khmer writing system and the sharing of Non-Sanskrit symbols

I understand that both old and modern Khmer and old and modern Thai, effected one another and share lots of words or "roots" of words. For example Modern Thai words derived from Old Khmer ឆ្លាតor ...
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0answers
90 views

How to transliterate Devanagari into Brahmi (mainly, diacritics)

I have been messing around with converting a large Devanagari Sanskrit text to Brahmi using a simple mapping function. There is also this table showing how most of the characters map. I found one that ...
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1answer
285 views

What is the sound for ज्ञ in Sanskrit? [closed]

Wikipedia has this: ɟɲ ज्ञ jñ roughly like argue But those 3 writings all conflict with one another, so what is the correct pronunciation?
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3answers
16k views

Is Sanskrit really the mother of all languages?

Hindus believe that "Sanskrit is the mother of all Languages". It is a fact that Sanskrit has enriched most Indian Languages including the Dravidian Languages such as Telugu, as Latin enriched some ...
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3answers
6k views

Why are Latin and Sanskrit called dead languages?

I hear Latin and Sanskrit are called dead languages. Sanskrit is used in rituals and at the temples. I think this is also true of Latin. What is the cause of their degradation when they have enriched ...
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2answers
287 views

Is Latin "ulula" cognate with hindi उल्लू ("ullu")?

Hindi उल्लू /ʊl.luː/ (derived from Sanskrit उलूक /uluːka/) appears superficially very similar to Latin ulula (both meaning "owl"). Are these words cognate?
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1answer
147 views

Standardized and ambiguity-free language

Is there exist a language (the natural or the constructed one) with a completely standardized and ambiguity-free rules, and which is suitable for the modern use? I am wondering for a language which ...
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1answer
150 views

Do Old Indian words with voiceless aspirated stops have cognates in other branches of Indogermanic?

Inspired by this answer by Arnaud Fournet I have this question: Do Old Indic (Vedic, Sankrit) words beginning with a voiceless aspirated stop (like ph, th, or kh) have cognates in other branches of ...
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1answer
150 views

Possible absolute synonymy in PIE for 'night'?

I recently came across this post (question attached). But this rule seems to struggle once it comes to the Sanskrit - Indo-Aryan side of the family (PIE) , for example ratri in Sanskrit and raat in ...
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1answer
71 views

Given a name in sanskrit, how to find what to call the son or daughter of that person. What is the grammatical rule for forming such words? [closed]

Example:- Kunti-- Kauntey anjana-- aanjane What are the rules
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1answer
51 views

Universal Grammar or Other Area of Study

So, what I am wondering about is what I should look up to study the following. From my understanding, there is a limited number of ways languages are implemented. That is, there is a set of abstract ...
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2answers
390 views

Why does Sankr. नक्ति (nákti) not show Satemization

Did Sanskrit नक्ति (nákti) "night", PIE *nókʷts, not participate in the kentum-satem split? Why? Is it a loan? There are at least two synonyms, if that makes any difference. I have no actual reason ...
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1answer
246 views

Possible extrapolation of old German word "hansa" to protogermanic and possibly common root with Sanskrit "sangha"

I came across a discussion about if "Lufthansa" means air-Swan, inspired by the sanskrit word hansa swan. Which is of course wrong as it has its origins in the old german word hansa for group or ...
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1answer
229 views

Does Sanskrit निस् • (nis) "out, forth, away" come from PIE *ni- "in; down?" with meaning shift from "in" to "out"?

निस्·nis "out, forth, away" > nirvana "to blow out, extinguish; out of breath?" नि·ni "down, back, in, into" < PIE *h₁én "in; down?" My question is ...
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2answers
326 views

Doesn't Sanskrit use adpositions of any kind?

For some reason, the Wikipedia article makes no mention of any adpositions of any kind. I find it highly unbelievable that the language makes no use of such. It has a case system, but there's only 8 ...
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2answers
610 views

Can you help identify a strange Devanagari symbol in a book that doesn't look like any Devanagari letters? [closed]

In the book Shaktapramode (example page), there is a strange symbol that I have never encountered before. Here it is in the context: . Does anybody know what it signifies? Thank you!
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2k views

In what way is Japanese related to Sanskrit?

The Wikipedia says that Japanese katakana vowels “The gojūon inherits its vowel and consonant order from Sanskrit practice. “. Could expert explains this in easy language?
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3answers
822 views

Soft consonants in Devanagari [closed]

Can someone tell me what are the soft consonants in Devanagari? This link gives me a list of the devanagari soft consonants. However, is this the complete list? I find in other sources another list. ...
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1answer
96 views

Evolution of perfective aspect from Sanskrit derivational suffix -ka in Modern Indo-Aryan languages

It is well attested that the Sanskrit derivational suffix -ka for adjectives together with the syntesized participle on nominals like krta-ka>done, evolved as the possessive case marker in modern Indo-...
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3answers
3k views

Anunasika(Chandrabindu) in Vowels (Sanskrit)

Someone said Anunasika is like trying to say something entirely in nasal voice. So let’s say I want to pronounce a vowel ‘U’kara with Chandrabindu on top of it. I know it’s should be completely a ...
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1answer
302 views

How should I pronounce double consonant in a Sanskrit word? [closed]

The visarga in रामः शेते is facing Sh so it should change to Sh, right? And we get the one word रामश्शेते Raamashshete, but I am not sure how it should be pronounced. Should the dobule Sh be mingled ...
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2answers
237 views

Good recent historical grammar of Sanskrit, preferably in English?

Does there exist a reliable, reasonably up-to-date historical-comparative grammar of Sanskrit written in English? Failing that, what are the standard works for historical Sanskrit phonology and ...
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1answer
2k views

How many "principal parts" do Sanskrit verbs have?

What is the minimum number of forms that one needs to memorize in order to be able to fully conjugate a Sanskrit verb? I've found differing answers: some say six, others ten, and in fact, I personally ...
3
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2answers
293 views

Does Sanskrit really have a large proportion of borrowings from non IE stock?

A comment on an answer to anoher question about Lithuanian suggests that 'quite a large number of words was borrowed from non-IE languages'. While some words in Sanskrit indeed seem to have Fenno-...
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2answers
332 views

Difference in translating Sanskrit words कोप​ [kopa] and क्रोध [krodha]

Translationg the terms makes a semantic rendering important. The English resourse translates क्रोध [krodha] as 'anger' wrath, passion, etc.' with the same definition for कोप​ [kopa] plus defining it ...
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4answers
1k views

Etymology of Sanskrit नारक / नरक [nāraka / naraka]

If the word नर [nara], sometimes represented as नार [nāra] primarly means 'man, human, person' and the word नारक / नरक [nāraka / naraka] means 'hell', 'infernal' and/or 'inhabitant of hell', then ...
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1answer
184 views

Is there a difference between 'doot' (दूत) and 'dut' (दुत) in Sanskrit? [closed]

I recently came across a verse from RigVeda यदक्रन्दः परथमं जायमान उद्यन समुद्रादुत वा पुरीषात | शयेनस्य पक्षा हरिणस्य बाहू उपस्तुत्यं महि जातं ते अर्वन || Now, I can understand उद्यन समुद्रादुत (...
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4answers
7k views

Is Thai language related or a descendant of Sanskrit?

Why is the Thai language classified as Sino-Tibetan/Sino-Burmese when its script looks like Sanskrit to me?

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