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grammar In linguistics, grammar is the set of rules for how a natural language is structured, as demonstrated by its speakers or writers. Grammar rules may concern the use of clauses, phrases, and words. The term may also refer to the study of such rul ...
of the
Sanskrit language Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
has a complex verbal system, rich nominal
declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by
Sanskrit grammarians Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
from the later
Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the e ...
(roughly 8th century BCE), culminating in the
Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...
an grammar of the 4th century BCE.


Grammatical tradition


Origins

Sanskrit grammatical tradition ('' vyākaraṇa'', one of the six Vedanga disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'' of
Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...
. The oldest attested form of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language as it had evolved in the
Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...
after its introduction with the arrival of the Indo-Aryans is called
Vedic upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed ...
. By 1000 BCE, the end of the early
Vedic period The Vedic period, or the Vedic age (), is the period in the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age of the history of India when the Vedic literature, including the Vedas (–900 BCE), was composed in the northern Indian subcontinent, between the e ...
, a large body of Vedic hymns had been consolidated into the Ṛg·Veda, which formed the canonical basis of the Vedic religion, and was transmitted from generation to generation entirely orally. In the course of the following centuries, as the popular speech evolved, there was rising concern among the guardians of the Vedic religion that the hymns be passed on without "corruption", which for them was vital to ensure the religious efficacy of the hymns. This led to the rise of a vigorous, sophisticated grammatical tradition involving the study of linguistic analysis, in particular phonetics alongside grammar, the high point of which was Pāṇini's stated work, which eclipsed all others before him.Burrow, §2.1.


Pāṇini

Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...
's
Aṣṭādhyāyī The (; ) is a grammar text that describes a form of the Sanskrit language. Authored by the ancient Sanskrit scholar Pāṇini and dated to around 6th c. bce, 6-5th c.BCE and 4th c.BCE, it describes the language as current in his time, specifica ...
, a prescriptive and generative grammar with algebraic rules governing every single aspect of the language, in an era when oral composition and transmission was the norm, is staunchly embedded in that oral tradition. In order to ensure wide dissemination, Pāṇini is said to have preferred brevity over clarity – it can be recited end-to-end in two hours. This has led to the emergence of a great number of commentaries of his work over the centuries, which for the most part adhere to the foundations laid by Pāṇini's work.


After Pāṇini

About a century after Pāṇini,
Kātyāyana Kātyāyana (कात्यायन) also spelled as Katyayana ( century BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India. Origins According to some legends, he was born in the Katya lineage origina ...
composed vārtikas (explanations) on the Pāṇinian sũtras. Patañjali, who lived three centuries after Pāṇini, wrote the ''
Mahābhāṣya ''Mahabhashya'' (, IAST: '','' , "Great Commentary"), attributed to Patañjali, is a commentary on selected rules of Sanskrit grammar from Pāṇini's treatise, the ''Aṣṭādhyāyī'', as well as Kātyāyana's ''Vārttika-sūtra'', an ela ...
'', the "Great Commentary" on the Aṣṭādhyāyī and Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient
Sanskrit grammarians Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...
this grammar is called ''Trimuni Vyākarana''. Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote a commentary named Kāśikā in 600 CE. 's (12th century AD) commentary on Patañjali's also exerted much influence on the development of grammar, but more influential was the ''Rupāvatāra'' of Buddhist scholar Dharmakīrti which popularised simplified versions of Sanskrit grammar. The most influential work of the Early Modern period was '' Siddhānta Kaumudī'' by (17th century). Bhaṭṭoji's disciple Varadarāja wrote three abridged versions of the original text, named Madhya Siddhānta Kaumudī, Sāra Siddhānta Kaumudī and Laghu Siddhānta Kaumudī, of which the latter is the most popular. Vāsudeva Dīkṣita wrote a commentary named '' Bālamanoramā'' on '' Siddhānta-Kaumudī''. European grammatical scholarship began in the 18th century with Jean François Pons and others, and culminated in the exhaustive expositions by 19th century scholars such as Otto von Böhtlingk, William Dwight Whitney, Jacob Wackernagel and others.


Timeline

The following is a timeline of notable post-Pāṇinian grammatical figures and approximate dates: *
Kātyāyana Kātyāyana (कात्यायन) also spelled as Katyayana ( century BCE) was a Sanskrit grammarian, mathematician and Vedic priest who lived in ancient India. Origins According to some legends, he was born in the Katya lineage origina ...
– 300 BCE * Patañjali – 150 BCE * Bhartṛhari – V CE * Kāśikā – VII * Śākaṭāyana – IX * Kaiyaṭa – XI * Hemacandra – XII * Śaraṇadeva – XII * Vopadeva – XIII * Bhattoji-dīkṣita – XVII


Phonology


The sound system

The Sanskrit sound system can be represented in a table of place and manner of articulation:


Pronunciation examples

The table below shows the traditional listing of the Sanskrit consonants with the nearest equivalents in English (as pronounced in
General American General American English, known in linguistics simply as General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm), is the umbrella accent of American English used by a majority of Americans, encompassing a continuum rather than a single unified accent. ...
and
Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent of British English regarded as the Standard language, standard one, carrying the highest Prestige (sociolinguistics), social prestige, since as late as the beginning of the 2 ...
or wherever relevant in Indian English), French, Spanish, Russian or Polish, along with approximate IPA values. (Further information: IPA chart (vowels and consonants) – 2015. and IPA pulmonic consonant chart with audio ) It should be understood that, while the script commonly associated with Sanskrit is
Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...
, this has no particular importance. It just happens currently to be the most popular script for Sanskrit. The form of the symbols used to write Sanskrit has varied widely geographically and over time, and notably includes modern Indian scripts. What is important is that the adherence to the phonological classification of the symbols elucidated here has remained constant in Sanskrit since classical times. It should be further noted that the phonology of modern Indian languages has evolved, and the values given to Devanagari symbols in modern
Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...
, e.g.,
Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...
, differ somewhat from those of Sanskrit.


Sound classes


Vowels & Semivowels

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 . Long syllabic r (ṝ) is also quite marginal, occurring (optionally) in the genitive plural of ṛ-stems (e.g. ''mātṛ'', ''pitṛ'' ⇒ ''mātṝṇām'', ''pitṝṇām''). i, u, ṛ, ḷ are vocalic allophones of consonantal y, v, r, l. There are thus only 5 invariably vocalic
phoneme A phoneme () is any set of similar Phone (phonetics), speech sounds that are perceptually regarded by the speakers of a language as a single basic sound—a smallest possible Phonetics, phonetic unit—that helps distinguish one word fr ...
s: a, ā, ī, ū, ṝ.


Visarga and anusvāra

Visarga ḥ is an
allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plos ...
of r and s, and
anusvara Anusvara ( ; , , ), also known as Bindu ( ; ), is a symbol used in many Indic scripts to mark a type of nasal sound, typically transliterated or in standards like ISO 15919 and IAST. Depending on its location in a word and the language for ...
ṃ,
Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...
of any nasal, both in
pausa In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek παῦσις, ''pâusis'' 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic declination units. The concept is somewhat broad, as it is primarily used to refer to allophones that occur in ...
(i.e., the nasalised vowel).


Sibilants

The exact pronunciation of the three sibilants may vary, but they are distinct phonemes. Voiced sibilants, such as z , ẓ , and ź as well as its aspirated counterpart źh , were inherited by Proto-Indo-Aryan from Proto-Indo-Iranian but lost around or after the time of the
Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...
, as evidenced due to ḷh (an aspirated retroflex lateral consonant) being metrically a cluster (that was most likely of the form ẓḍh; aspirated fricatives are exceedingly rare in any language).Whitney, §31–75.


Retroflex consonants

The
retroflex consonant A retroflex () or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the hard palate. They are sometimes referred to as cerebral consona ...
s 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, or spontaneous internal development from IE or other substrate languages.


Nasals

The nasal is a conditioned allophone of , while and are distinct phonemes (aṇu 'minute', 'atomic' om. sg. neutr. of an adjectiveis distinctive from anu 'after', 'along'). Phonologically independent /ŋ/ occurs only marginally, e.g. in prāṅ 'directed forwards/towards' om. sg. masc. of an adjective


Sandhi

Sanskrit deploys extensive phonological alternations on different linguistic levels through ''sandhi'' rules (literally, the rules of "putting together, union, connection, alliance"), similar to the English alteration of "going to" as ''gonna''. The Sanskrit language accepts such alterations within it, but offers formal rules for the ''sandhi'' of any two words next to each other in the same sentence or linking two sentences. The external ''sandhi'' rules state that similar short vowels coalesce into a single long vowel, while dissimilar vowels form glides or undergo diphthongization. Among the consonants, most external ''sandhi'' rules recommend regressive assimilation for clarity when they are voiced. These rules ordinarily apply at compound seams and morpheme boundaries. In Vedic Sanskrit, the external ''sandhi'' rules are more variable than in Classical Sanskrit. The internal ''sandhi'' rules are more intricate and account for the root and the canonical structure of the Sanskrit word. These rules anticipate what are now known as the
Bartholomae's law Bartholomae's law, sometimes referred to as the Buddha rule, is a Proto-Indo-European sound law affecting consonant clusters, most clearly in the Indo-Iranian languages. It states that in a cluster of two or more obstruents ( stops or the sibi ...
and
Grassmann's law Grassmann's law, named after its discoverer Hermann Grassmann, is a dissimilatory phonological process in Ancient Greek and Sanskrit which states that if an Aspiration (phonetics), aspirated consonant is followed by another aspirated consonant ...
. For example, states Jamison, the "voiceless, voiced, and voiced aspirated obstruents of a positional series regularly alternate with each other (''p'' ≈ ''b'' ≈ ''bh''; ''t'' ≈ ''d'' ≈ ''dh'', etc.; note, however, ''c'' ≈ ''j'' ≈ ''h''), such that, for example, a morpheme with an underlying voiced aspirate final may show alternants with all three stops under differing internal sandhi conditions". The velar series (k, g, gʰ) alternate with the palatal series (c, j, h), while the structural position of the palatal series is modified into a retroflex cluster when followed by dental. This rule creates two morphophonemically distinct series from a single palatal series.


Phonological processes

A number of phonological processes have been described in detail. One of them is (lit. 'adjacent imposition'), (also known as ', 'stoppage', ' or '). It is the incomplete articulation, or ""repressing or obscuring", of a
plosive In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
or, according to some texts, a
semi-vowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are ''y' ...
(except r), which occurs before another plosive or a pause. It was described in the various Prātiśākhyas as well as the '. These texts are not unanimous on the environments that trigger abhinidhana, nor on the precise classes of consonants affected. One ancient grammarian, ' (in 6.12), states that only occurred when a consonant was doubled, whereas according to the text of the ' it was obligatory in this context but optional for plosives before another plosive of a different
place of articulation In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation (also point of articulation) of a consonant is an approximate location along the vocal tract where its production occurs. It is a point where a constriction is made between an active and a pa ...
. The ' and the ' agree on the observation that abhinidhana occurs only if there is a slight pause between the two consonants and not if they are pronounced jointly. Word-finally, plosives undergo abhinidhāna according to the and the '. The latter text adds that final semivowels (excluding r) are also incompletely articulated. The ' 2.38 lists an exception: a plosive at the end of the word will not undergo and will be fully released if it is followed by a consonant whose place of articulation is further back in the mouth. The ' states that the consonants affected by abhinidhāna are the voiceless unaspirated plosives, the nasal consonants and the semivowels ' and '.


Morphophonology


Vowel gradation

Sanskrit inherits from Proto-Indo-European the feature of regular in-word, vowel variations known in the context of the parent language as ablaut or more generally apophony. This feature, which can be seen in the English forms ''sing'', ''sang'', ''sung'', and ''song'', themselves a direct continuation of the PIE ablaut, is fundamental in Sanskrit both for inflexion and derivation. Vowels within stems may change to other related vowels on the basis of the morphological operation being performed on it. There are three such grades, named the ''zero grade'', ''first grade'', and ''second grade''. The first and second grades are also termed ''guṇa'' and ''vṛddhi'' respectively. The full pattern of gradation, followed by example usage: As per the internal and historical structure of the system, the guṇa grade can be seen as the normal grade, whence proceeds either a ''strengthening'' to form the second grade, or a ''weakening'' to form the zero-grade. The ancient grammarians however took the zero-grade as the natural form on which to apply guṇa or vṛddhi. Whilst with the 1-grade-based system it is possible to derive the 0-grades thus: * ghóṣ·a·ti ⇒ ghuṣ·ṭá- * sráv·a·ti ⇒ sru·tá- * sváp·a·ti ⇒ sup·tá- the approach used by the ancient grammarians does not always work: * sup·tá- ≠ *sóp·a·ti To overcome this, the ancient grammarians, while formulating most roots in zero-grade form, make an exception for some, and prescribe a treatment called ''samprasāraṇa'' on these: * ghóṣ·a·ti, ghuṣ·ṭá- ⇒ ghuṣ- * sráv·a·ti, sru·tá- ⇒ sru- * sváp·a·ti, sup·tá- ⇒ svap- Thus, unlike most others, the root 'svap-' does not hold a 0-grade vowel, and is subject to ''samprasāraṇa'' before the past participle 'sup·tá-' can be formed.Coulson, p. 22. Besides *r̥, *l̥, Proto-Indo-European also had *m̥, *n̥, all of which, in capacity of zero-grade vowels, participated in the gradation system. Whilst the latter two did not survive in Sanskrit (they ended up as ''a'' instead), their effects can be seen in verb-formation steps such as just seen above. Therefore, it is possible to analogically expand the above vowel-gradation table thus: The proto-forms of ga·tá- and ha·tá- would thus have *m̥ and *n̥ respectively: *gʷm̥·tó- and *gʷʰn̥·tó-


Accent

Sanskrit inherited a
pitch accent A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch (music), pitch (tone (linguistics), linguistic tone) rather than by vol ...
(see: Vedic accent) from Proto-Indo-European, as well as vowel gradation, both of which, in Sanskrit, just as in the parent language, go hand in hand. As a general rule, a root bearing the accent takes the first (guṇa) or second (vṛddhi) grade, and when unaccented, reduces to zero grade.Coulson, §98. * i- ⇒ éti (0 ⇒ 1st grade) * i·tá ⇒ áy·anam (0 ⇒ 2nd grade) The gradation examples given in the previous sections demonstrate several more instances of this phenomenon with verbs. With nouns, the pattern does not always hold, as even from the earliest stage of the language, there has been a tendency to fix a single form, thus while ''kṣam'' has ''kṣā́mas'' (2-g) and ''kṣmás'' (0-g), ''vāc'' has 2nd-grade forms throughout. Nouns whose stem vary between strong, middle and weak forms may correspondingly reflect 2nd, 1st and zero-grade vowels respectively. This may not always be matched by the accent: * rā́jan, rā́jānam, rā́jnā (1, 2, 0 grades) The above system of accent disappeared completely at some point during the classical stage. It was still alive in Pāṇini's time and even after Patañjali. The author of the Kāśikā commentary () declares its use optional, and it might have disappeared from popular speech in the early centuries of the Common Era.


Verbs


Background

Sanskrit has inherited from its parent the Proto-Indo-European language an elaborate system of verbal morphology, more of which has been preserved in Sanskrit as a whole than in other kindred languages such as
Ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...
or
Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...
. Some of the features of the verbal system, however, have been lost in the classical language, compared to the older
Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...
, and in other cases, distinctions that have existed between different tenses have been blurred in the later language. Classical Sanskrit thus does not have the
subjunctive The subjunctive (also known as the conjunctive in some languages) is a grammatical mood, a feature of an utterance that indicates the speaker's attitude toward it. Subjunctive forms of verbs are typically used to express various states of unrealit ...
or the injunctive mood, has dropped a variety of
infinitive Infinitive ( abbreviated ) is a linguistics term for certain verb forms existing in many languages, most often used as non-finite verbs that do not show a tense. As with many linguistic concepts, there is not a single definition applicable to all ...
forms, and the distinctions in meaning between the
imperfect The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
, perfect and
aorist Aorist ( ; abbreviated ) verb forms usually express perfective aspect and refer to past events, similar to a preterite. Ancient Greek grammar had the aorist form, and the grammars of other Indo-European languages and languages influenced by the ...
forms are barely maintained and ultimately lost.


Conjugation

Verb conjugation in Sanskrit involves the interplay of five 'dimensions', number, person, voice, mood and tense, with the following variables: Further, participles are considered part of the verbal systems although they are not verbs themselves. Classical Sanskrit has only one infinitive, of accusative case-form.


Formation

The starting point for the morphological analysis of the Sanskrit verb is the
root In vascular plants, the roots are the plant organ, organs of a plant that are modified to provide anchorage for the plant and take in water and nutrients into the plant body, which allows plants to grow taller and faster. They are most often bel ...
. Before the final endings to denote number, person etc can be applied, additional elements may be added to the root. Whether such elements are affixed or not, the resulting component here is the stem, to which these final endings can then be added. Based on the treatment they undergo to form the stem, the roots of the Sanskrit language are arranged by the ancient grammarians in ten classes , based on how they form the present stem, and named after a verb typical to each class. No discoverable grammatical principle has been found for the ordering of these classes. This can be rearranged for greater clarity into non-thematic and thematic groups as summarized below:


Scope

As in kindred Indo-European languages, conjugation is effected across the tenses, moods, voices, persons and numbers stated, yielding, in Sanskrit, a huge number of combinations. Furthermore, Sanskrit has so-called ''Secondary'' conjugations: * Passive * Intensive * Desiderative * Causative * Denominative The non-finite forms are: * Participles * Infinitive * Gerund


Nominals


Declension

Declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
of a
noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...
in Sanskrit involves the interplay of two 'dimensions': 3 numbers and 8 cases.Bucknell, p. 11. Further, nouns themselves in Sanskrit, like its parent Proto-Indo-European, can be in one of three genders. In addition,
adjectives An adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, ...
behave much the same way morphologically as nouns do, and can conveniently be considered together. While the same noun cannot be seen to be of more than one gender, adjectives change gender on the basis of the noun they are being applied to, along with case and number, thus giving the following variables: The oldest system of declension was in Proto-Indo-European, inherited by Sanskrit, to affix the endings directly to the nominal root. In later stages, a new system developed wherein an intermediary called the
thematic vowel In Indo-European studies, a thematic vowel or theme vowel is the vowel or from ablaut placed before the ending of a Proto-Indo-European (PIE) word. Nouns, adjectives, and verbs in the Indo-European languages with this vowel are thematic, and ...
is inserted to the root before the final endings are appended: ''*-o-'' which in Sanskrit becomes ''-a-'', producing the thematic stem.


Stem classification

Substantives may be divided into different classes on the basis of the stem vowel before they are declined on the above basis. The general classification is: * a-stems * i- and u-stems * ā-, ī- and ū-stems * ṛ-stems * Consonant stems When the nominal endings are being affixed to a noun of each class, they may undergo, in some cases, some changes, including being entirely replaced by other forms.


Numerals


Personal pronouns and determiners

Sanskrit pronouns and determiners behave in their
declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
largely like other declinable classes such as nouns,
adjectives An adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main parts of speech of the English language, ...
and
numerals A numeral is a figure (symbol), word, or group of figures (symbols) or words denoting a number. It may refer to: * Numeral system used in mathematics * Numeral (linguistics), a part of speech denoting numbers (e.g. ''one'' and ''first'' in English ...
, so that they can all be classed together under nominals. However, pronouns and determiners display certain peculiarities of their own compared to the other nominal classes. Furthermore, personal pronouns have an additional dimension not present in the other nominals, but shared by verbs:
person A person (: people or persons, depending on context) is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations suc ...
. Pronouns are declined for case,
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
, and gender. The pronominal declension applies to a few adjectives as well. Many pronouns have alternative enclitic forms.


Derivation

Derivation or word-formation in Sanskrit can be divided into the following types: # Primary derivation – suffixes directly appended to roots # Secondary derivation – suffixes appended to derivative stems # Word-compounding – combining one more word stems


Compounds

Sanskrit inherits from its parent Proto-Indo-European the capability of forming compound nouns, also widely seen in kindred languages such as especially German,
Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...
and also English. However, Sanskrit, especially in the later stages of the language, significantly expands on this both in terms of the number of elements making up a single compound and the volume of compound-usage in the literature, a development which has no parallels elsewhere.Coulson, p. xxi.Burrow, p. 209.


Indeclinables

Words that change no form across cases, numbers, genders are classified as ''indeclinables''. Indeclinables may be divided into either ''simple'' and ''compound''. The latter is treated under Sanskrit compounds and the term indeclinable usually implies only the former type. Indeclinables can be classified as follows: # Prepositions # Adverbs # Particles # Conjunctions # Interjections # Miscellaneous


Prepositions

In Sanskrit, a preposition is an indeclinable with an independent meaning that is prefixed to verbs and their derivatives with the result of modifying, intensifying, or in some cases, totally altering the sense of the roots.


Adverbs

In Sanskrit,
adverbs An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a determiner, a clause, a preposition, or a sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, or level of certainty by ans ...
are either inherited as set forms from the parent language or may be derived from nouns, pronouns or numeral. The typical way of forming an adverb is to simply use the accusative singular neutral form of nouns and adjectives.


Particles

Particles are used either as expletives or intensives. The most common ones are: # ''a-, an-'' – generally the same meaning as English 'un-' and 'a-', but with some extended senses # ''sma'' – when used with the present form of a verb, it conveys the past tense # ''kā-'', ''ku-'' – prefixed to give a negative, inadequate or pejorative connotation.


Conjunctions

The following is an enumeration of the main types of Sanskrit conjunctions: # ''atha'' – marks the beginning of a work # Copulative – ''atha, atho, uta, ca,'' etc # Disjunctive – ''vā, vā... vā,'' etc # Adversative – ''athavā, tu, kintu,'' etc # Conditional – ''cet, yadi, yadāpi, net,'' etc # Causal – ''hi, tat, tena,'' etc # Interrogative – ''āho, āha, uta, utāho, kim,'' etc # Affirmative and negative – ''atha kim, ām, addhā,'' etc # Conjunctions of time – ''yāvat-tāvat, yadā-tadā,'' etc # ''iti'' – marks the end of a work


Interjections

The main ones in Sanskrit expressing the various emotions are: # Wonder, grief, regret, etc: ''ā, aho, ha,'' etc # Contempt: ''kim, dhik,'' etc # Sorrow, dejection, grief: ''hā, hāhā, hanta,'' etc # Joy: ''hanta'' etc # Respectfully calling attention: ''aho, bhoḥ, he, ho,'' etc # Disrespectfully calling attention: ''are, rere,'' etc


Miscellaneous

A few nouns have only one inflection and thus behave like indeclinables. The most common ones are:


Syntax

Because of Sanskrit's complex
declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence by way of an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...
system, the
word order In linguistics, word order (also known as linear order) is the order of the syntactic constituents of a language. Word order typology studies it from a cross-linguistic perspective, and examines how languages employ different orders. Correlatio ...
is free. 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. Notably, Pāṇini did not fix syntax in the Aṣtādhyāyī, as to do so explicitly would be difficult in any language, given several ways of expressing the same idea and various other ways of expressing similar ideas. Thus within the bounds of phonological and morphological definition wrought by Pāṇini, the syntax of Sanskrit has continued to evolve in the course of its productive literary history.


Peculiar characteristics

In the introduction to his celebrated translation of Vidyakara's , Daniel H.H. Ingalls describes some peculiar characteristics of the Sanskrit language. He refers to the enormous vocabulary of Sanskrit, and also of the presence of a larger choice of synonyms in Sanskrit than any other language he knew of. Further, just as there exist a vast number of synonyms for almost any word in Sanskrit, there also exist synonymous constructions. In his elementary Sanskrit examinations he would ask his students to write in Sanskrit the sentence 'You must fetch the horse' in ten different ways. Actually, it is possible to write the sentence in Sanskrit in around fifteen different ways 'by using active or passive constructions, imperative or optative, an auxiliary verb, or any of the three gerundive forms, each of which, by the way, gives a different metrical pattern'. Ingalls writes: 'Every Indian, one may suppose, grew up learning naturally the language of his mother and his playmates. Only after this, and if he belonged to the priesthood or the nobility or to such a professional caste as that of the clerks, the physicians, or the astrologers, would he learn Sanskrit. As a general rule, Sanskrit was not the language of the family. It furnished no subconscious symbols for the impressions which we receive in childhood nor for the emotions which form our character in early adolescence.'


See also

* Sanskrit nominals *
Sanskrit verbs Sanskrit has, together with Ancient Greek verbs , Ancient Greek, kept most intact among descendants Proto-Indo-European verbs, the elaborate verbal morphology of Proto-Indo-European. Sanskrit verbs thus have an inflection system for different co ...
*
Sanskrit compound Sanskrit inherits from its parent, the Proto-Indo-European language, the capability of forming compound nouns, also widely seen in kindred languages, especially German, Greek, and English. However, Sanskrit, especially in the later stages of ...
*
Pāṇini (; , ) was a Sanskrit grammarian, logician, philologist, and revered scholar in ancient India during the mid-1st millennium BCE, dated variously by most scholars between the 6th–5th and 4th century BCE. The historical facts of his life ar ...
*
Aṣṭādhyāyī The (; ) is a grammar text that describes a form of the Sanskrit language. Authored by the ancient Sanskrit scholar Pāṇini and dated to around 6th c. bce, 6-5th c.BCE and 4th c.BCE, it describes the language as current in his time, specifica ...
* Vedic Sanskrit grammar * Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat, French sanskrit scholar * Proto-Indo-Aryan *
Proto-Indo-Iranian Proto-Indo-Iranian, also called Proto-Indo-Iranic or Proto-Aryan, is the reconstructed proto-language of the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Its speakers, the hypothetical Proto-Indo-Iranians, are assumed to have lived in the late 3rd ...
*
Proto-Indo-European Proto-Indo-European (PIE) is the reconstructed common ancestor of the Indo-European language family. No direct record of Proto-Indo-European exists; its proposed features have been derived by linguistic reconstruction from documented Indo-Euro ...


Notes


Glossary


Traditional glossary and notes


References


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * Böhtlingk, Otto, ''Pâṇini's Grammatik'', Leipzig (1887) * * B. Delbrück, ''Altindische Tempuslehre'' (1876

Topics in Sanskrit morphology and syntax * Frits Staal, Staal, Frits, ''Word order in Sanskrit and Universal Grammar'', Foundations of Language, supplementary series 5, Springer (1967), . * * * Wackernagel, Debrunner, '' Altindische Grammatik'', Göttingen. ** vol. I. phonolog

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) * *


Further reading

*Pooth, Roland A.
On converse lability and its decline from Vedic to Epic Sanskrit: The verb juṣ-‘to enjoy’and ‘to please’
" Yearbook of the Poznań Linguistic Meeting. Vol. 7. No. 1. Uniwersytet im. Adama Mickiewicza w Poznaniu, 2021.


External links


Vedic Society Sandhi Calculator

Little Red BookPDF


* ttps://www.youtube.com/shastralayam Sanskrit grammar Video AdiLaghu (English & Tamil)
Charles Wikner "A Practical Sanskrit Introductory"

Julia Papke "Order and Meaning in Sanskrit Preverbs"


* — sources results from Monier Williams etc. * — dynamic online declension and conjugation tool * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sanskrit Grammar Indo-Aryan grammars Indo-Iranian grammars Indo-European grammars