Postby KingHarvest » 2009-01-02, 20:04
Ok, I'll start posting lessons here when I have time. I do not have the CD needed to install complex scripts, so I will be posting things in a modified version of the standard Romanization of Devanagari. When I get a hold of the CD, I will start incorporating Devanagari into the lessons. If anyone knows how to make custom keyboards, please let me know so that I can easily use the letters with their correct diacritic marks.
Introduction:
There are two major "dialects" of Sanskrit: Vedic and Classical. The Rig Veda is the oldest of the Vedas and contains the most "pure" Vedic Sanskrit. The remaining Vedas and certain prose commentaries on them begin to resemble Classical Sanskrit in certain ways. Vedic Sanskrit is actually a bit of a misnomer as it is really a conglomeration of all of the most archaic Indic languages, and the German term for it, Altindisch, is probably more accurate. Classical Sanskrit was a relatively artificial language codified by paaNini that was spoken by the upper-classes. These lessons will focus on Classical Sanskrit.
Phonology and Orthography/Alphabet:
(NB: this is also the order of the alphabet in Devanagari)
Simple vowels:
Short vowels are represented by a single letter (except in the case of o, e, and L, these will be explained later), and long vowels by doubling the letter. Long vowels and diphthongs should be pronounced at least twice as long as the short vowels.
a: The omnipresent a of the Indic languages, it is pronounced [ə]
aa: [a:]
i: [ i ]
ii: [i:]
u: [u]
uu: [u:]
Sonorants:
R: [r̩ ]
RR: [r̩ :] (extremely rare)
L: [l̩ ] (occurs in only one verb)
Dipthongs:
e: [e:] This was originally a diphthong [ai] (and was probably pronounced as such in Vedic), but has monophthongized into [e:] in Classical. For purposes of sandhi, however, it still functions as a diphthong.
ai: [ai], or, more accurately, [a:i].
o: [o:] The same explanation as for "e," except it was originally [au].
au: [au] or [a:u]
Consonants:
Stops:
Sanskrit posses an extremely rich consonant inventory, especially in stops. This is to be read left to right. NB: Sanskrit does geminate consonants.
k: [k]; kh: [kʰ]; g: [g]; gh: [gʰ]; N: [ŋ]
c: [tʃ]; ch: [tʃʰ]; j: [dʒ]; jh: [dʒʰ]; J: [ɲ]
T: [ʈ]; Th: [ʈʰ]; D: [ɖ]; Dh: [ɖʰ]; n`: [ɳ]
t: [t̪]; th: [t̪ʰ]; d: [d̪]; dh: [d̪ʰ]; n: [n̪]
p: [p]; ph: [pʰ]; b: [ b ]; bh: [bʰ]; m: [m]
You will notice that the rows progress from the furthest back in the mouth to the furthest front in the mouth. Each row is ordered unvoiced, unvoiced aspirated, voiced, voiced aspirated, nasal at that particular articulation point.
Semivowels:
y: [j]
r: [r]
l: [l̪]
v: [vʷ], probably [w] in Vedic
Sibilants:
C: [ʂ]
S: [ʃ]
s: [s]
Fricatives:
h: [ɦ]
There are also two other sounds that are marked by diacritics in Devanagari. The first is the anusvara, which I will represent with M. It nasalizes the vowel preceding it. The other is the visarga, which I will represent with H. It is [h] (a true fricative, not the voiceless vowel like in English and other European languages), and occurs only at the end of syllables.
Sandhi:
Sandhi is probably the most frustrating aspect of Sanskrit, and, unfortunately, cannot be ignored by the beginning student and must be learned immediately. Sandhi is the changes in sound that take place when words are put into the context of a sentence. The vast majority of these changes take place only between the final syllable of a word and the initial syllable of the following word.
Word-Boundary Consonant Sandhi:
Fortunately, few of the consonants can end a word in Sanskrit, which drastically reduces the number of Sandhi rules.
Final Stop Sandhi
Of the stops, only k, T, t, and p can end a word.
-Before any voiceless sound (voiceless stops and fricatives), they will remain unchanged.
-Before a voiced sound (voiced stops, vowels, and semi-vowels), they change into the voiced sound of their respective rows.
E.g., bhagavat + giitaa -> bhagavad giitaa
-Before a nasal, they change into the nasal of their respective rows.
E.g., vak + na -> vaN na
-Before h, the stop will become voiced and the h will be dropped and replaced with the appropriate voiced consonant.
E.g., tat + hanti -> tad dhanti
-t has a few other special rules just for it. Before c/ch/C and j/jh it becomes c and j respectively. Before l it also becomes l.
E.g., tat + ca -> tac ca; tat + likhati -> tal likhati
Final Nasal Sandhi
Only N, n, and m may end a word in Sanskrit.
-N never changes, except it is doubled when the next sound is a short vowel.
-n likewise is doubled before short vowels. Before the voiceless coronals (c/ch, T/Th, t/th) it changes to M + plus the respective sibilant.
E.g., taan + cintanti -> taaMC cintanti
Likewise, before C it assimilates to J, and C may optionally be changed to ch
taan + CatruH -> taaJ CatruH or taaJ chatruH
Before the voiced coronals it simply assimilates to that row's nasal
taan + jiivati -> taaJ + jiivati
-m always changes to M except when the following sound is a vowel.
Final H Sandhi
This is broken down into 3 divisions: -aH, -aaH, and any other vowel + H or r
Final -aH Sandhi
-Before all voiced sounds, except vowels, it becomes o
pan`DiTaH + vadati -> pan`DiTo vadati
-Before vowels the H is dropped, unless the following vowel is an "a," then the -aH becomes o and the a is dropped.
aCvaH + iti -> aCva iti; aCvaH + api -> aCvo 'pi
-Before the voiceless coronals the H is dropped and assimilated to the corresponding sibilant.
aCvaH + ca -> aCvaC ca; aCvaH + tat -> aCvas tat
-Before the remaining voiceless sounds, the -aH remains unchanged.
Final -aaH Sandhi
-Before all voiced sounds, the H is dropped
aCvaaH + jiivati -> aCvaa jiivati
-Before the voiceless coronals, the H is assimilated to the corresponding sibilant.
aCvaaH + ca -> aCvaaC ca; aCvaaH + tat -> aCvaas tat
-Before the remaining voiceless sounds the -aaH remains unchanged.
Other final H/r Sandhi
-Before all voiced sounds the H/r is represented by r, except if the following sound is r, then it is dropped and if the vowel is any of the short vowels it is lengthened.
baalaiH + api -> baalaiH api; baalaabhiH + rakSasaH -> baalaabhii rakSasaH
-Before the voiceless coronals the H/r is assimilated to the respective sibilant.
muneH + ca -> muneC ca
-Before all other voiceless sounds the H/r is H.
-At the end of the sentence the H/r is H.
Word-Boundary Vowel Sandhi
Vowel Sandhi is generally quite straightforward. When only one vowel is given as the outcome of the following Sandhi rules, it means that the two vowels have coalesced into a single vowel.
Final a/aa Sandhi
-Before a/aa ->aa
-Before i/ii -> e (remember that e and o were originally diphthongs)
-Before u/uu -> o
-Before R -> ar
-Before e/ai -> ai
-Before o/au -> au
Final i/ii Sandhi
-Before a/aa -> ya/yaa
-Before i/ii -> ii
-Before u/uu -> yu/yuu
-Before R -> yR
-Before e/ai -> ye/yai
-Before o/au -> yo/yau
Final u/uu Sandhi
-Before a/aa -> va/vaa
-Before i/ii -> vi/vii
-Before u/uu -> uu
-Before R -> vR
-Before e/ai -> ve/vai
-Before o/au -> vo/vau
Final R Sandhi
-Before a/aa -> ra/raa
-Before i/ii -> ri/rii
-Before u/uu -> ru/ruu
-Before R -> RR
-Before e/ai -> re/rai
-Before o/au -> ro/rau
Final e/o Sandhi
-Before a -> e/o
-Before aa -> a aa
-Before i/ii -> a i/ii
-Before u/uu -> a u/uu
-Before R -> a R
-Before e/ai -> a e/ai
-Before o/au -> a o/au
Final ai/au Sandhi
Almost exactly the same, ai + a, however, results in aa a.
All of the a 's are lengthened to aa. All of the combinations with au replace the space with a v, so aava, aavaa, aavi, etc.
These rules operate at all times across word boundaries and when compound words are formed. The only times when these rules are not followed are:
1. The end of a sentence
2.) When ii, uu, or e are the ending of a dual inflection
3.) Vocatives
4.) The pronoun saH follows an irregular sandhi pattern in that it becomes sa before all consonants and remains saH before vowels and the end of the sentence.
Internal Sandhi
Internal Sandhi occurs principally when the different inflections are used. There are only two major rules of Internal Sandhi, others exist but they are intuitive and will be treated on an ad hoc basis.
Retroflexion of s
s becomes S when it is immediately preceded by k, r, or any vowel besides a/aa unless it is final or followed immediately by an r. If an anusvara or visarga is between the k/r/vowel and s, the s still becomes S.
#stha in the present tense has a ti prefixed to the front and the stem becomes tiSTh-
Retroflexion of n
If an R, RR, r, or S occurs anywhere in a word before an n, then the n changes to n` unless any coronal sound (c row, T row, t row, l, s, or C) is between the R, RR, r, or S and n or one of the coronals immediately follows the n or the n is final. If an n is followed by an m, y, v, or n in a situation in which it undergoes retroflexion, these sounds will also turn into an n`.
priya + ani (neuter nom./acc. ending) -> priyaan`i
That's it for this lesson. If anything isn't clear, just ask, and I will do my best to clear up any confusion. I will let you all mull this over for now, and I will post some sandhi exercises later tonight.
Last edited by
KingHarvest on 2009-01-03, 2:12, edited 1 time in total.
Most men are rather stupid, and most of those who are not stupid are, consequently, rather vain.
-A.E. Housman