Sanskrit sasktam Pronunciation ssktm Spoken in Greater India Total speakers 14135 native speakers in India (2001)1 Language family Indo-European Indo-Iranian Indo-Aryan Sanskrit Writing system Devangar (de facto) various Brhmbased scripts and Latin alphabet Official status Official language in  India Uttarakhand one of the 22 scheduled languages of India Regulated by No official regulation Language codes ISO 639-1 sa ISO 639-2 san ISO 639-3 san This page contains Indic text. Without rendering support you may see irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. More...

Sanskrit ( sasktam ssktm originally saskt vk "refined speech") is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism Jainism and Buddhism.note 1 Today it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India2 and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand.3 In western classical linguistics Sanskrit occupies a pre-eminent position along with Greek and Latin in Indo-European studies.

Classical Sanskrit is the standard register as laid out in the grammar of Pini around the 4th century BCE. Its position in the cultures of Greater India is akin to that of Latin and Greek in Europe and it has significantly influenced most modern languages of the Indian subcontinent particularly in India Pakistan Sri Lanka and Nepal.4

The pre-Classical form of Sanskrit is known as Vedic Sanskrit with the language of the Rigveda being the oldest and most archaic stage preserved its oldest core dating back to as early as 1500 BCE.5 This qualifies Rigvedic Sanskrit as one of the oldest attestations of any Indo-Iranian language and one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family the family which includes English and most European languages.6

The corpus of Sanskrit literature encompasses a rich tradition of poetry and drama as well as scientific technical philosophical and Hindu religious texts. Sanskrit continues to be widely used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. Spoken Sanskrit is still in use in a few traditional institutions in India and there are many attempts at revival. Contents 1 Name 2 History 2.1 Vedic Sanskrit 2.2 Classical Sanskrit 2.3 Decline 2.4 European scholarship 3 Phonology 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 3.3 Phonology and Sandhi 4 Writing system 4.1 Romanization 5 Grammar 5.1 Grammatical tradition 5.2 Verbs 5.3 Nouns 5.4 Personal pronouns and determiners 5.5 Compounds 5.6 Syntax 5.7 Numerals 6 Influence 6.1 Modern-day India 6.1.1 Influence on vernaculars 6.1.2 Revival attempts 6.2 Symbolic usage 6.3 Interaction with other languages 6.4 Usage in modern times 6.5 Computational linguistics 7 See also 8 Notes 8.1 Footnotes 9 Citations 10 References 11 Further reading 11.1 Introductions 11.2 Grammars 11.3 Dictionaries 12 External links 12.1 Software 12.2 Sanskrit documents 12.3 Primers Name

The Sanskrit verbal adjective sskta- may be translated as "put together constructed well or completely formed; refined adorned highly elaborated". It is derived from the root sa-skar- "to put together compose arrange prepare"7 where sa- "together" (as English same) and (s)kar- "do make".

The term in the generic meaning of "made ready prepared completed finished" is found in the Rigveda. Also in Vedic Sanskrit as nominalized neuter sasktm it means "preparation prepared place" and thus "ritual enclosure place for a sacrifice".

As a term for "refined or elaborated speech" the adjective appears only in Epic and Classical Sanskrit in the Manusmriti and in the Mahabharata. The language referred to as saskta "the cultured language" has by definition always been a "sacred" and "sophisticated" language used for religious and learned discourse in ancient India and contrasted with the languages spoken by the people prkta- "natural artless normal ordinary". History Devimahatmya manuscript on palm-leaf in an early Bhujimol script Bihar or Nepal 11th century.

Sanskrit is a member of the Indo-Iranian sub-family of the Indo-European family of languages. Its closest ancient relatives are the Iranian languages Old Persian and Avestan.8 Within the wider Indo-European language family Sanskrit shares characteristic sound changes with the Satem languages (particularly the Slavic and Baltic languages) and also with Greek.9

In order to explain the common features shared by Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages many scholars have proposed migration hypotheses asserting that the original speakers of what became Sanskrit arrived in what is now India and Pakistan from the north-west some time during the early second millennium BCE.10 Evidence for such a theory includes the close relationship of the Indo-Iranian tongues with the Baltic and Slavic languages vocabulary exchange with the non-Indo-European Uralic languages and the nature of the attested Indo-European words for flora and fauna.11 The earliest attested Sanskrit texts are Hindu texts of the Rigveda which date to the mid-to-late second millennium BCE. No written records from such an early period survive. However scholars are confident that the oral transmission of the texts is reliable: they were ceremonial literature whose correct pronunciation was considered crucial to its religious efficacy.12 From the Rigveda until the time of Pini (fl. 4th century BCE) the development of the Sanskrit language may be observed in other Vedic texts: the Samaveda Yajurveda Atharvaveda Brahmanas and Upanishads. During this time the prestige of the language its use for sacred purposes and the importance attached to its correct enunciation all served as powerful conservative forces resisting the normal processes of linguistic change.13 However there is a clear five-level linguistic development of Vedic from the Rigveda to the language of the Upanishads and the earliest Sutras (such as Baudhayana)14 The oldest surviving Sanskrit grammar is Pini's Adhyy ("Eight-Chapter Grammar"). It is essentially a prescriptive grammar i.e. an authority that defines correct Sanskrit although it contains descriptive parts mostly to account for some Vedic forms that had become rare in Pini's time. The term "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 in ancient India and the language was taught mainly to members of the higher castes through close analysis of Sanskrit grammarians such as Pini. Sanskrit as the learned language of Ancient India thus existed alongside the Prakrits (vernaculars) also called Middle Indic dialects and eventually into the contemporary modern Indo-Aryan languages. Vedic Sanskrit Main article: Vedic Sanskrit Sanskrit as defined by Pini had evolved out of the earlier "Vedic" form. The beginning of Vedic Sanskrit can be traced as early as 1500-1200 BCE (for Rg-vedic and Indo-Aryan superstrate in Mitanni). Scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or "Pinian" Sanskrit as separate 'dialects'. Though they are quite similar they differ in a number of essential points of phonology vocabulary grammar and syntax. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas a large collection of hymns incantations (Samhitas) theological and religio-philosophical discussions in the Brahmanas and Upanishads. Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest composed by many authors over several 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 view; however the early Sutras are Vedic too both in language and content.15 Around the mid 1st millennium BCE Vedic Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning. Classical Sanskrit For nearly 2000 years a cultural order existed that exerted influence across South Asia Inner Asia Southeast Asia and to a certain extent East Asia.16 A significant form of post-Vedic Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of the Hindu Epicsthe Ramayana and Mahabharata. The deviations from Pini in the epics are generally considered to be on account of interference from Prakrits or "innovations" and not because they are pre-Paninean.17 Traditional Sanskrit scholars call such deviations aarsha () or "of the rishis" the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts there are also more "prakritisms" (borrowings from common speech) than in Classical Sanskrit proper. Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit is a literary language heavily influenced by Middle Indic based on early Buddhist prakrit texts which subsequently assimilated to the Classical Sanskrit standard in varying degrees.18 According to Tiwari (1955) there were four principal dialects of classical Sanskrit: pacimottar (Northwestern also called Northern or Western) madhyade (lit. middle country) prvi (Eastern) and daki (Southern arose in the Classical period). The predecessors of the first three dialects are even attested in Vedic Brhmaas of which the first one was regarded as the purest (Kautaki Brhmaa 7.6). Decline See also: Termination of spoken Sanskrit There are a number of sociolinguistic studies of spoken Sanskrit which strongly suggest that oral use of Sanskrit is limited with its development having ceased sometime in the past.19 Accordingly says Pollock (2001) "most observers would agree that in some crucial way Sanskrit is dead".16 He describes it in comparison with the "dead" language of Latin:20 Both died slowly and earliest as a vehicle of literary expression while much longer retaining significance for learned discourse with its universalist claims. Both were subject to periodic renewals or forced rebirths sometimes in connection with a politics of translocal aspiration At the same time both came to be ever more exclusively associated with narrow forms of religion and priestcraft despite centuries of a secular aesthetic. The decline of Sanskrit use in literary and political circles was likely due to a weakening of the political institutions that supported it and to heightened competition with vernacular languages seeking literary-cultural dignity.21 There was regional variation in the forcefulness of these vernacular movements and Sanskrit declined in different ways across the Indian subcontinent. For example in Kashmir Kashmiri was used alongside Sanskrit as the language of literature after the 13th century. Sanskrit works from the Vijayanagara Empire failed to circulate outside their place and time of composition. By contrast works in Kannada and Telugu flourished.22 Despite this presumed "death" of Sanskrit and the literary use of vernacular languages Sanskrit continued to be used in literary cultures in India and those who could read vernacular languages could also read Sanskrit.21 It did mean that Sanskrit was not used to express changing forms of subjectivity and sociality embodied and conceptualized in the modern age.21 Instead it was reduced to "reinscription and restatements" of ideas already explored and any creativity in Sanskrit was restricted to religious hymns and verses.2324 Hanneder (2002) and Hatcher (2007) contest Pollock's characterization pointing out that modern works continue to be produced in Sanskrit: On a more public level the statement that Sanskrit is a dead language is misleading for Sanskrit is quite obviously not as dead as other dead languages and the fact that it is spoken written and read will probably convince most people that it cannot be a dead language in the most common usage of the term. Pollocks notion of the death of Sanskrit remains in this unclear realm between academia and public opinion when he says that most observers would agree that in some crucial way Sanskrit is dead Hanneder (2002:294) Hanneder (2009) argues that modern works in Sanskrit are either ignored or their "modernity" contested. The Sahitya Akademi has had since 1967 an award for the best creative work written that year in Sanskrit. In 2009 Satyavrat Shastri became the first Sanskrit author to win the Jnanpith Award India's highest literary award.25 European scholarship See also: Sanskrit in the West and Sanskrit revival European scholarship in Sanskrit begun by Heinrich Roth (16201668) and Johann Ernst Hanxleden (16811731) is regarded as responsible for the discovery of the Indo-European language family by Sir William Jones. This scholarship played an important role in the development of Western philology or historical linguistics.citation needed Sir William Jones speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta (now Kolkata) on February 2 1786 said: 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 philologer could examine them all three without believing them to have sprung from some common source which perhaps no longer exists. Phonology Further information: ik Classical Sanskrit distinguishes about 36 phonemes. There is however some allophony and the writing systems used for Sanskrit generally indicate this thus distinguishing 48 sounds. The sounds are traditionally listed in the order vowels (Ach) diphthongs (Hal) anusvara and visarga plosives (Spara) 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 i u ; e ai o au k kh g gh ; c ch j jh ; h h ; t th d dh n; p ph b bh m y r l v; s h An alternate traditional ordering is that of the Shiva Sutra of Pini. Vowels The vowels of Classical Sanskrit with their word-initial Devanagari symbol diacritical mark with the consonant (/p/) pronunciation (of the vowel alone and of /p/+vowel) in IPA equivalent in IAST and (approximate) equivalents in English are listed below: Letter Pronunciation Pronunciation with /p/ IAST equiv. English equivalent (GA unless stated otherwise) // or // /p/ or /p/ a short near-open central vowel or schwa: u in bunny or a in about // /p/ long open back unrounded vowel: a in father (RP) /i/ /pi/ i short close front unrounded vowel: e in england /i/ /pi/ long close front unrounded vowel: ee in feet /u/ /pu/ u short close back rounded vowel: oo in foot /u/ /pu/ long close back rounded vowel: oo in cool // /p/ short retroflex approximant: r in run // /p/ long retroflex approximant r in run // /p/ short retroflex lateral approximant (no English equivalent) // /p/ long retroflex lateral approximant /e/ /pe/ e long close-mid front unrounded vowel: a in bane (some speakers) /i/ /pi/ ai a long diphthong: i in ice i in kite (Canadian and Scottish English) /o/ /po/ o long close-mid back rounded vowel: o in bone (some speakers) /u/ /pu/ au a long diphthong: Similar to the ou in house (Canadian English) The long vowels are pronounced 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 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 signs traditionally listed in tables of the Devanagari script: The diacritic called anusvra (IAST: ). It is used both to indicate the nasalization of the vowel in the syllable ( and to represent the sound of a syllabic /n/ or /m/; e.g. /p/. The diacritic called visarga represents /h/ (IAST: ); e.g. /ph/. The diacritic called chandrabindu not traditionally included in Devanagari charts for Sanskrit is used interchangeably with the anusvra to indicate nasalization of the vowel primarily in Vedic notation; e.g. /p/. If a lone consonant needs to be written without any following vowel it is given a halanta/virma diacritic below (). The vowel /a/ in Sanskrit is realized as being more central and less back than the closest English approximation which is //. But the grammarians have classified it as a back vowel.26 The ancient Sanskrit grammarians classified the vowel system as velars retroflexes palatals and plosives rather than as back central and front vowels. Hence and 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 mtrs. 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 /e/ and /o/ respectively by learned Sanskrit Brahmans and priests of today. Other than the "four" diphthongs Sanskrit usually disallows any other diphthongvowels in succession where they occur are converted to semivowels according to sandhi rules. Consonants IAST and Devanagari notations are given with approximate IPA values in square brackets. Labial shtya Labiodental Dantshtya Dental Dantya Retroflex Mrdhanya Palatal Tlavya Velar Kanthya Glottal Stop Spara Unaspirated Alpaprna p p b b t t d d c c j k k g Aspirated Mahprna ph p bh b th t dh d h h ch c jh kh k gh Nasal Anunsika m m n n Semivowel Antastha v y j Liquid Drava l l r r Fricative shman s s h h The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit consonants with the (nearest) equivalents in English (as pronounced in General American and Received Pronunciation) and Spanish. Each consonant shown below is deemed to be followed by the neutral vowel schwa (//) and is named in the table as such. PlosivesSprshta Unaspirated Voiceless Alpaprna vsa Aspirated Voiceless Mahprna vsa Unaspirated Voiced Alpaprna Nda Aspirated Voiced Mahprna Nda Nasal Anunsika Nda Velar Kanthya /k/; English: skip /k/; English: cat //; English: game //; somewhat similar to English: doghouse //; English: ring Palatal Tlavya /c/; English: exchange /c/; English: church //; English: jam //; somewhat similar to English: hedgehog //; English: bench Retroflex Mrdhanya //; No English equivalent //; No English equivalent //; No English equivalent //; No English equivalent //; No English equivalent Apico-Dental Dantya /t/; Spanish: tomate /t/; Aspirated /t/ /d/; Spanish: donde /d/; Aspirated /d/ /n/; English: name Labial shtya /p/; English: spin /p/; English: pit /b/; English: bone /b/; somewhat similar to English: clubhouse /m/; English: mine Non-Plosives/Sonorants Palatal Tlavya Retroflex Mrdhanya Dental Dantya Labial/ Glottal shtya Approximant Antastha /j/; English: you /r/; English: trip /l/; English: love (labio-dental) //; English: vase Sibilant/ Fricative shman //; English: ship //; Retroflex form of // /s/; English: same (glottal) //; English behind Phonology and Sandhi The Sanskrit vowels are as discussed in the section above. The long syllabic l () is not attested and is only discussed by grammarians for systematic reasons. Its short counterpart occurs in a single root only kp "to order array". Long syllabic r () is also quite marginal occurring in the genitive plural of r-stems (e.g. mt "mother" and pit "father" have gen.pl. mtm and pitm). i u are vocalic allophones of consonantal y v r l. There are thus only 5 invariably vocalic phonemes a . Visarga is an allophone of r and s and anusvara Devanagari of any nasal both in pausa (i.e. the nasalized vowel). The exact pronunciation of the three sibilants may vary but they are distinct phonemes. An aspirated voiced sibilant /z/ was inherited by Indo-Aryan from Proto-Indo-Iranian but lost shortly before the time of the Rigveda (aspirated fricatives 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 Dravidian27 or other substrate languages. The nasal is a conditioned allophone of /n/ (/n/ and // are distinct phonemesau 'minute' 'atomic' nom. sg. neutr. of an adjective is distinctive from anu 'after' 'along'; phonologically independent // occurs only marginally e.g. in pr 'directed forwards/towards' nom. sg. masc. of an adjective). 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; h h; t th d dh; p ph b bh; m n ; y r l v; s h or a total of 36 unique Sanskrit phonemes altogether. The phonological rules which are 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 padapha). Writing system Kashmiri Shaivaite manuscript in the Sharada script (c. 17th century) Sanskrit was spoken in an oral society and the oral tradition was maintained through the development of early classical Sanskrit literature.28 Writing was not introduced to India until after Sanskrit had evolved into the Prakrits; when it 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 Sanskrit29 quite possibly because of the European practice of printing Sanskrit texts in this scriptcitation needed. Devanagari is written from left to right lacks distinct letter cases and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. The earliest known inscriptions in Sanskrit date to the 1st century BCE.30 They are in the Brahmi script which was originally used for Prakrit not Sanskrit.31 It has been described as a "paradox" that the first evidence of written Sanskrit occurs centuries later than that of the Prakrit languages which are its linguistic descendants.3032 When Sanskrit was written down it was first used for texts of an administrative literary or scientific nature. The sacred texts were preserved orally and were set down in writing "reluctantly" (according to one commentator) and at a comparatively late date.31 Brahmi evolved into a multiplicity of scripts of the Brahmic family many of which were used to write Sanskrit. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi the Kharosthi script was used in the northwest of the subcontinent. Later (around the 4th to 8th centuries CE) the Gupta script derived from Brahmi became prevalent. From ca. the 8th century the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script. The latter was displaced in its turn by Devanagari from ca. the 11/12th 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 Telugu Tamil Malayalam and Grantha. Sanskrit in modern Indian and other Brahmi scripts. May iva bless those who take delight in the language of the gods. (Kalidasa) Romanization Main article: Devanagari transliteration 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 1888/1912. ASCII-based transliteration schemes have evolved due to difficulties representing Sanskrit characters in computer systems. These include Harvard-Kyoto and ITRANS a 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 online. It is also possible to type using an alphanumeric keyboard and transliterate to devanagari using software like Mac OS X's international support. European scholars in the 19th century generally preferred Devanagari for the transcription and reproduction of whole texts and lengthy excerpts. However references to individual words and names in texts composed in European languages were usually represented with Roman transliteration. From the 20th century onwards due to production costs textual editions edited by Western scholars have mostly been in Romanized transliteration. Grammar Main article: Sanskrit grammar Grammatical tradition Main article: Sanskrit grammarians Sanskrit grammatical tradition (vykaraa one of the six Vedanga disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the Adhyy of Pini which consists of 3990 sutras (ca. 5th century BCE). About a century after Pini (around 400 BCE) Ktyyana composed Vrtikas on Pinian stras. Patajali who lived three centuries after Pini wrote the Mahbhya the "Great Commentary" on the Adhyy and Vrtikas. Because of these three ancient Sanskrit grammarians this grammar is called Trimuni Vykarana. To understand the meaning of sutras Jayaditya and Vmana wrote the commentary named Ksik 600 CE. Pinian grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras (aphorisms). Here whole Mtrika (alphabet) is abbreviated. This abbreviation is called Pratyhara.33 Verbs Main article: Sanskrit 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 gua and vddhi grades. If V is the vowel of the zero grade the gua-grade vowel is traditionally thought of as a + V and the vddhi-grade vowel as + V. The verb 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 Imperfectcitation needed Imperative Optative) Perfect Aorist Future (Future Conditional) Nouns Main article: Sanskrit nouns 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. Pini identifies six karakas corresponding to the nominative accusative dative instrumental locative and ablative cases.34 Pini defines them as follows (Ashtadhyayi I.4.2454): Apadana (lit. 'take off'): "(that which is) firm when departure (takes place)." This is the equivalent of the ablative case which signifies a stationary object from which movement proceeds. Sampradana ('bestowal'): "he whom one aims at with the object". This is equivalent to the dative case which signifies a recipient in an act of giving or similar acts. Karana ("instrument") "that which effects most." This is equivalent to the instrumental case. Adhikarana ('location'): or "substratum." This is equivalent to the locative case. Karman ('deed'/'object'): "what the agent seeks most to attain". This is equivalent to the accusative case. Karta ('agent'): "he/that which is independent in action". This is equivalent to the nominative case. (On the basis of Scharfe 1977: 94) Personal pronouns and determiners Main article: Sanskrit pronouns and determiners Sanskrit pronouns are declined for case number and gender. The pronominal declension applies to a few adjectives as well. Many pronouns have alternative enclitic forms. The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike having by analogy assimilated themselves with one another. 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. Sanskrit does not have true third person pronouns but its demonstratives fulfill this function instead by standing independently without a modified substantive. There are four different demonstratives in Sanskrit: tat etat idam and adas. etat indicates greater proximity than tat. While idam is similar to etat adas refers to objects that are more remote than tat. eta is declined almost identically to ta. Its paradigm is obtained by prefixing e- to all the forms of ta. As a result of sandhi the masculine and feminine singular forms transform into eas and e. The enclitic pronoun ena is found only in a few oblique cases and numbers. Interrogative pronouns all begin with k- and decline just as tat does with the initial t- being replaced by k-. The only exception to this are the singular neuter nominative and accusative forms which are both kim and not the expected *kat. For example the singular feminine genitive interrogative pronoun "of whom" is kasy. Indefinite pronouns are formed by adding the participles api cid or cana after the appropriate interrogative pronouns. All relative pronouns begin with y- and decline just as tat does. The correlative pronouns are identical to the tat series. In addition to the pronouns described above some adjectives follow the pronominal declension. Unless otherwise noted their declension is identical to tat. eka: "one" "a certain". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both ekam) anya: "another". sarva: "all" "every". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both sarvam) para: "the other". (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both param) sva: "self" (a reflexive adjective). (singular neuter nominative and accusative forms are both svam) Compounds Main article: Sanskrit 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 and Finnish. 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. The four principle categories of nominal compounds are:35 Dvandva (co-ordinative) These consist of two or more noun stems connected in sense with 'and'. Examples are rma-lakmaauRama and Lakshmana rma-lakmaa-bharata-atrughnhRama Lakshmana Bharata and Satrughna and pipdamlimbs literally hands and feet from pi hand and pda foot. Tatpurua (determinative) There are many tatpuruas; in a tatpurua the first component is in a case relationship with another. For example a doghouse is a dative compound a house for a dog; other examples include instrumental relationships ("thunderstruck") and locative relationships ("towndwelling"). Karmadhraya (descriptive) A compound where 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. Karmadhrayas are considered by some to be tatpuruas.35 Bahuvrhi (possessive/exocentric) Bahuvrhi compounds refer to a compound noun that refers to a thing which is itself not part of the compound. For example the word bahuvrhi itself from bahu much and vrhi rice denotes a rich personone who has much rice. Syntax This section requires expansion. Because of Sanskrit's complex declension system the word order is free.36 In usage there is a strong tendency toward Subject Object Verb (SOV) which was the original system in place in Vedic prose. However there are exceptions when word pairs cannot be transposed.37 Numerals The numbers from one to ten: ka- dva- tri- catr- pcan- - saptn- a- nvan- dan- The numbers one through four are declined. ka is declined like a pronominal adjective though the dual form does not occur. Dv appears only in the dual. Tr and catr are declined irregularly: Three Four Masculine Neuter Feminine Masculine Neuter Feminine Nominative tryas tri tisrs catvras catvri ctasras Accusative trn tri tisrs catras catvri ctasras Instrumental tribhs tisbhis catrbhis catasbhis Dative tribhys tisbhyas catrbhyas catasbhyas Ablative tribhys tisbhyas catrbhyas catasbhyas Genitive triym tism caturm catasm Locative tri tisu catru catasu Influence Modern-day India Influence on vernaculars Sanskrit's greatest influence presumably is that which it exerted on languages of India that grew from its vocabulary and grammatical base; for instance Hindi which is a "Sanskritized register" of the Khariboli dialect. However all modern Indo-Aryan languages as well as Munda and Dravidian languages have borrowed many words either directly from Sanskrit (tatsama words) or indirectly via middle Indo-Aryan languages (tadbhava words).4 Words originating in Sanskrit are estimated to constitute roughly fifty percent of the vocabulary of modern Indo-Aryan languages38 and the literary forms of (Dravidian) Malayalam and Kannada.4 Literary texts in Telugu are lexically Sanskrit or Sanskritized to an enormous extent perhaps seventy percent or more39 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 and Urdu tend to be more heavily weighted with Arabic and Persian influence Nepali Bengali Assamese Konkani and Marathi still retain a largely Sanskrit and Prakrit vocabulary base. The Indian national anthem Jana Gana Mana is written in a literary form of Bengali (known as sadhu bhasha) Sanskritized so as to be recognizable but still archaic to the modern ear. The national song of India Vande Mataram was originally a poem composed by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and taken from his book called 'Anandamath' is in a similarly highly Sanskritized Bengali. Malayalam Telugu and Kannada also combine a great deal of Sanskrit vocabulary. Sanskrit also has influence on Chinese through Buddhist Sutras. Chinese words like chn (Skt. kana 'instantaneous period of time') were borrowed from Sanskrit. Revival attempts Main article: Sanskrit revival The 1991 and 2001 census of India recorded 49736 and 14135 persons respectively with Sanskrit as their native language.1 Since the 1990s efforts to revive spoken Sanskrit have been increasing. Many organizations like the Samskrta Bharati are conducting Speak Sanskrit workshops to popularize the language. The state of Uttarakhand in India has ruled Sanskrit as its second official language. The CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) of 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 affiliated to the ICSE board too especially in those states where the official language is Hindi. Sudharma the only daily newspaper in Sanskrit has been published out of Mysore in India since the year 1970. Since 1974 there has been a short daily news broadcast on All India Radio. In these Indian villages inhabitants of all castes speak Sanskrit natively since childhood: Mattur in Karnataka40 Jhiri District: Rajgadh Madhya Pradesh41 Ganoda District: Banswada Rajasthan42 Bawali District: Bagapat Uttar Pradesh Mohad District: Narasinhpur Madhya Pradesh ShyamsundarpurDistrict: Kendujhar Odisha.43 Symbolic usage In the Republic of India in Nepal and Indonesia Sanskrit phrases are widely used as mottoes for various educational and social organizations (much as Latin is used by some institutions in the West). The motto of the Republic is also in Sanskrit. Republic of India ' ' Satyameva Jayate "Truth alone triumphs" Nepal ' ' Janani Janmabhmisca Svargdapi garyasi "Mother and motherland are greater than heaven" Goa ' ' Sarve Bhadrni Payantu M Kacid Duhkhabhg bhavet "May all perceive good may not anyone attain unhappiness"44 Life Insurance Corporation of India  ' ' Yogakshemam Vahmyaham "I shall take care of welfare" (taken from the Bhagavad Gita)45 Indian Navy ' ' Shanno Varuna "May Varuna be peaceful to us" Indian Air Force  ' ' Nabha-Spa Dptam "Touching the Sky with Glory"46 Mumbai Police ' ' Sadrakshanaaya Khalanigrahanaaya "For protection of the good and control of the wicked" Indian Coast Guard ' ' Vayam Rakshmaha "We protect"47 All India Radio ' ' Bahujana-hitya bahujana-sukhya "For the benefit of all for the comfort of all" Indonesian Navy ' ' Jalesveva Jayamahe "On the Sea We Are Glorious" Rajputana Rifles ' ' Veerabhogya Vasundhara "The earth is fit to be ruled by the brave" Aceh Province '' Pancacita "Five Goals" Many of the postIndependence educational institutions of national importance in India and Sri Lanka have Sanskrit mottoes. For a fuller list of such educational institutions see List of educational institutions which have Sanskrit phrases as their mottoes. Interaction with other languages Further information: Silk Road transmission of Buddhism Hinduism in Southeast Asia Indianized kingdom and Sanskritisation Sanskrit and related languages have also influenced their Sino-Tibetan-speaking neighbors to the north through the spread of Buddhist texts in translation.48 Buddhism was spread to China by Mahayanist missionaries sent by Emperor Ashoka 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 grammar and vocabulary are substantially the same both because of genetic relationship and because of conscious implementation of Pinian standardizations on the part of composers. Buddhist texts composed in Sanskrit proper were primarily found in philosophical schools like the Madhyamaka.) The situation in Tibet is similar; many Sanskrit texts survive only in Tibetan translation (in the Tanjur). The Thai language contains many loan words from Sanskrit. For example in Thai the Rvanathe emperor of Sri Lanka is called 'Thosakanth' which is a derivation of his Sanskrit name 'Dashakanth' ("of ten necks"). Many Sanskrit loanwords are also found in traditional Malay Modern Indonesian and numerous Philippine languages49 Old Javanese language (nearly half)50 and to a lesser extent Cambodian Vietnamese through Sinified hybrid Sanskrit. Usage in modern times See also: Sanskrit in the West Many of India's and Nepal's scientific and administrative terms are named in Sanskrit as a counterpart of the western practice of naming scientific developments in Latin or Greek.citation needed 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 HAL Tejas. Recital of Sanskrit shlokas as background chorus in films television advertisements and as slogans for corporate organizations has become a trend. The opera Satyagraha by Philip Glass uses texts from the Bhagavad Gita sung in the original Sanskrit. Recently Sanskrit also made an appearance in Western pop music in two recordings by Madonna. One "Shanti/Ashtangi" from the 1998 album "Ray of Light" is the traditional Ashtanga Vinyasa 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. The climactic battle theme of The Matrix Revolutions features a choir singing a Sanskrit prayer from the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad in the closing titles of the movie. Composer John Williams also featured choirs singing in Sanskrit for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom51 and in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.citation needed The Sky1 version of the title sequence in season one of Battlestar Galactica 2004 features the Gayatri Mantra taken from the Rig Veda (3.62.10). The composition was written by miniseries composer Richard Gibbs. Sanskrit has also seen a significant revival in China. Musicians such as Sa Dingding have written pop songs in Sanskrit.52 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 relatively high regular structure.53 This is due to Classical Sanskrit being a regularized prescriptivist form abstracted from the much more complex and richer Vedic Sanskrit. This leveling of the grammar of Classical Sanskrit began during the Brahmana phase and had not yet completed by the time of Pini when the language had fallen out of popular use.citation needed See also Snskrit for more about Sanskrit Language Avestan Devanagari Grantha Script Indo-European languages International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration Languages of India Sanskrit literature Sanskrit numerals Notes Footnotes Buddhism: besides Pali see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Citations a b "Comparative speaker's strength of scheduled languages 1971 1981 1991 and 2001". Census of India 2001. Office of the Registrar and Census Commissioner India. http://censusindia.gov.in/CensusData2001/CensusDataOnline/Language/Statement5.htm. Retrieved 31 December 2009.  Indian Constitution Art.344(1) & Art.345 Sanskrit is second official language in Uttarakhand The Hindustan Times a b c Stall 1963 p. 272 Macdonell (2004:) Burrow (2001:) Monier-Williams (1898:1120) Masica p. 32 Masica p. 33 Masica pp. 3637 Masica p. 38 * Meier-Brgger Michael; Matthias Fritz Manfred Mayrhofer Charles Gertmenian (trans.) (2003) Indo-European Linguistics Berlin; New York: Walter de Gruyter pp. 20 ISBN 3110174332 http://books.google.com/id49xq3UlKWckC  Keith Arthur Berriedale (1993) A history of Sanskrit literature Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass pp. 4 ISBN 8120809793 http://books.google.com/idGNALtBMVbd0C  M.Witzel Inside the Texts-Beyond the Texts Harvard1997 Witzel Inside the Texts- Beyond the Texts harvard 1997 a b Pollock (2001:393) Oberlies (2003:xxvii-xxix) Edgerton (1953:) Hock H. "Language death phenomena in Sanskrit: Grammatical evidence for attrition in contemporary spoken Sanskrit" in Studies in the Linguistic Sciences v.13 no.2 1983 Dept. of Linguistics University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Dept. of Linguistics Pollock (2001:415) a b c Pollock (2001:416) Pollock (2001:414) Pollock (2001:398) A notable exception are the military references of Nlakaha Caturdhara's 17th-century commentary on the Mahbhrata according to Minkowski (2004). "Sanskrits first Jnanpith winner is a 'poet by instinct'". The Indian Express. Wednesday Jan 14 2009. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/sanskrits-first-jnanpith-winner-is-a-poet-by-instinct/410480/0.  Tiwari (1955:) Hamp Eric P. (Oct-December 1996). "On the Indo-European origins of the retroflexes in Sanskrit". Journal of the American Oriental Society The. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/migo2081/is/ain28679333. Retrieved 8 January 2009.  Salomon (1998) p. 7 Whitney (1889:) a b Salomon (1998) p. 86 a b Masica (1991:135) 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. The earliest South Indian inscriptions in Tamil Brahmi written in early Tamil belong to the same period. Mahadevan (2003:) Abhyankar (1986:) Utoronto.ca a b Lennart Warnemyr. An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar  Compounds Staal J.F. (1967) Word Order in Sanskrit and Universal Grammar Springer Science & Business ISBN 9789027705495 http://books.google.com/idVqihQhNkqu4C&pgPA28&lpgPA28&dqfree+order  Gillon B.S (March 25 1996) "Word order in Classical Sanskrit" Indian linguistics 57 (14): 1 ISSN 0378-0759 http://cat.inist.fr/aModeleafficheN&cpsidt2875140  Chatterji 1942 cited in Stall 1963 p. 272 Velcheru Narayana Rao; David Shulman Classical Telugu Poetry (2 ed.) The Regents of the University of California p. 3  This village speaks gods language India The Times of India Sanskrit boulevard: Hindustan Times Chitrapurmath.net Thehindu.com Orissa's Sasana village home to Sanskrit pundits! ! See the seal of the Government of Goa See e.g. File:LIC Logo.svg The IAF Motto Official website See banner on Indian Coast Guard website van Gulik (1956:) See this page from the Indonesian Wikipedia for a list Zoetmulder (1982:ix) http://www.filmtracks.com/titles/templedoom.html BBC - Awards for World Music 2008 - Asia/Pacific broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Four television. First suggested by Briggs (1985) References Abhyankar Kashinath V. (1986) A dictionary of Sanskrit Grammar Gaekwad's Oriental Series 134 Baroda: Oriental Institute  Briggs Rick (1985) "Knowledge Representation in Sanskrit and Artificial Intelligence (PDF)" AI Magazine 6 (1)  Burrow T. (2001) Sanskrit language Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 8120817672  Chatterji Suniti Kumar (1960) Indo-Aryan and Hindi Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay  Edgerton F. (1953) Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit grammar and dictionary New Haven: Yale University Press  van Gulik Robert (1956) Siddham; an essay on the history of Sanskrit studies in China and Japan Nagpur: International Academy of Indian Culture ISBN 8177420380  Hanneder J. (2002) "On "The Death of Sanskrit"" Indo-Iranian Journal 45 (4): 293310(18) doi:10.1023/A:1021366131934 http://www.springerlink.com/content/n5380t62066168r7/  Hanneder J. (2009) "Modernes Sanskrit: eine vergessene Literatur" in Straube Martin Psdikadna : Festschrift fr Bhikkhu Psdika Indica et Tibetica Verlag pp. 205228 http://indologica.de/drupal/qnode/749  Hatcher Brian A. (2007) "Sanskrit and the morning after" Indian Economic & Social History Review 44 (3): 333361 doi:10.1177/001946460704400303 http://ier.sagepub.com/content/44/3/333.abstract retrieved 2010-09-15  MacDonell Arthur Anthony (1900) A History of Sanskrit Literature Kessinger Publishing (2004) ISBN 1417906197  Mahadevan I (2003) Early Tamil epigraphy from the earliest times to the sixth century Common Era Chennai/Cambridge  Masica Colin (1991) The Indo-Aryan Languages Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ISBN 9780521299442 http://books.google.com/idJ3RSHWePhXwC  Minkowski Christopher (2004) "Nlakaha's instruments of war: Modern vernacular barbarous" The Indian Economic and Social History Review 41 (4): 365385 doi:10.1177/001946460404100402  Monier-Williams Monier (1898) A Sanskrit-English Dictionary  Oberlies Thomas (2003) A Grammar of Epic Sanskrit Walter de Gruyter ISBN 3110144484  Pollock Sheldon (2001) "The Death of Sanskrit" Comparative Studies in Society and History 43 (2): 392426 doi:10.1017/S001041750100353X http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pollock/sks/papers/deathofsanskrit.pdf  Pollock Sheldon I. (2006) The language of the gods in the world of men: Sanskrit culture and power in premodern India University of California Press ISBN 9780520245006  Staal J.F. (1963) "Sanskrit and Sanskritization" The Journal of Asian Studies (Association for Asian Studies) 22 (3): 261275 doi:10.2307/2050186 JSTOR 2050186 http://jstor.org/stable/2050186  Tiwari Bholanath (1955) (Bhasha Vijnan) ISBN 0-7007-1382-4  Warder A.K. (1972) Indian kvya Literature Literary Criticism 1 Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass  Whitney William Dwight (1889) Sanskrit Grammar: Including both the Classical Language and the Older Dialects Breitkopf & Hrtel http://books.google.com/idVHYKAAAAIAAJ  Zoetmulder Petrus Josephus (1982) Old Javanese-English dictionary The Hague: Nijhoff  Salomon Richard (1998) Indian epigraphy: a guide to the study of inscriptions in Sanskrit Prakrit and the other Indo-Aryan languages New York: Oxford University Press ISBN 0195099842 http://books.google.com/idXYrG07qQDxkC  Further reading Introductions Cameron Bruce (1992) Sanskrit Pronunciation S.l.: Theosophical Univ Press ISBN 1-55700-021-2  Coulson M. (2003) Teach Yourself Sanskrit London: Teach Yourself ISBN 0-340-85990-3  Goldman Robert P. (1999) Devavpraveik: An Introduction to the Sanskrit Language Berkeley: Center for South Asia Studies University of California ISBN 0-944613-40-3  Kale M. R. (Moreshwar Ramchandra) (1988) 1894 A Higher Sanskrit Grammar Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass ISBN 8120801784 http://www.sanskrit-lexicon.uni-koeln.de/scans/KALEScan/disp1/index1.phpsfxpng  Macdonell Arthur Anthony (1997) A Sanskrit Grammar for Students New Delhi: D.K. Printworld ISBN 81-246-0094-5  Maurer Walter Harding (2000) The Sanskrit Language: An Introductory Grammar and Reader Richmond Surrey: Curzon Press ISBN 0-7007-1382-4  Shastri Vagish (2000) Conversational Sanskrit Varanasi: Vgyoga Chetanpitham ISBN 81-85570-12-4  Monier-Williams Monier (1846) A Practical Grammar Of The Sanskrit Language Arranged With Reference To The Classical Languages Of Europe For The Use Of English Students W. H. Allen & co. http://books.google.com/idREQhAAAAMAAJ  Grammars Whitney William Dwight The Roots Verb-Forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language: (A Supplement to His Sanskrit Grammar) Wackernagel Debrunner Altindische Grammatik Gttingen. vol. I. Phonology Jacob Wackernagel (1896) vol. II.1. Introduction to morphology nominal composition Wackernagel (1905) vol. II.2. nominal suffixes J. Wackernagel and Albert Debrunner (1954) vol. III. nominal inflection numerals pronouns Wackernagel and Debrunner (1930) Delbrck B. Altindische Tempuslehre (1876) Dictionaries Otto Bhtlingk Rudolph Roth Petersburger Wrterbuch 7 vols. 185575 Otto Bhtlingk Sanskrit Wrterbuch in krzerer Fassung 188386 (1998 reprint Motilal Banarsidass Delhi) Manfred Mayrhofer Kurzgefasstes etymologisches Wrterbuch des Altindischen 195676 Manfred Mayrhofer Etymologisches Wrterbuch des Altindoarischen 3 vols. 2742 pages 2001 ISBN 3-8253-1477-4 External links Sanskrit edition of Wikipedia the free encyclopedia Wikibooks has a book on the topic of Sanskrit Academic Courses on Sanskrit Around The World Samskrita Bharati organization promoting Sanskrit Sanskrit Alphabet in Devanagari Gujarati Bengali and Thai scripts with an extensive list of Devanagari Gujarati and Bengali conjuncts Software Main page: Help:Multilingual support (Indic) Romanized Nepali Unicode Keyboard developed by OOPSLite Technologies Sanskrit transliteration software with font conversion to Latin and other Indian Languages Sanskrit documents Sanskrit Documents Documents in ITX format of Upanishads Stotras etc. and a metasite with links to translations dictionaries tutorials tools and other Sanskrit resources. Digital Sanskrit Buddhist Canon Gretil: Gttingen Register of Electronic Texts in Indian Languages a cumulative register of the numerous download sites for electronic texts in Indian languages. Gaudiya Grantha Mandira A Sanskrit Text Repository. This site also provides encoding converter. Sanskrit texts at Sacred Text Archive Digital Library of India at Ernet.in and IIIT.in scanned/OCRed copies of public-domain books Primers A Practical Sanskrit Introductory by Charles Wikner Sanskrit Self Study by Chitrapur Math An Analytical Cross Referenced Sanskrit Grammar By Lennart Warnemyr v d e Official Languages of India Union-level Official languages Hindi  English State-level Official languages Assamese  Bengali  Bodo  Chhattisgarhi  Dogri  English   Garo  Gujarati  Hindi  Kannada  Kashmiri  Khasi  Kokborok  Konkani  Maithili  Malayalam  Manipuri  Marathi  Mizo  Nepali  Oriya  Punjabi  Sanskrit   Santali  Sindhi  Telugu  Tamil  Urdu v d eLanguages of South Asia Main articles Languages of India (list by number of speakers - scheduled)  Languages of Pakistan  Languages of Bangladesh  Languages of Nepal  Languages of Sri Lanka Contemporary languages Austronesian: Sri Lanka Malay  Dravidian: Brahui  Jeseri  Kannada  Malayalam  Tamil  Telugu  Tulu  Indo-Aryan: Angika  Assamese  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