Guest guest Posted October 16, 2002 Report Share Posted October 16, 2002 Dear list members, Someone who is editing an english book that has a large number of quotes and translations from sanskrit sutras and with explanations/translations of the individual words or phrases of the sutras has asked me to come up with a short (2 or 3 sentences at most) explanation of why sanskrit words change due to sandhi. The audience of the book would in general not be people who knew sanskrit but were interested in the sutras for religious reasons. Try as I may I've been unable to come up with anything that would be short, simple, ACCURATE and understandable to people (non-linguists) who didn't know Sanskrit. Any suggestions? Thanks, Harry Harry Spier 371 Brickman Rd. Hurleyville, New York USA 12747 _______________ Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 17, 2002 Report Share Posted October 17, 2002 The euphonic sandi, or "mutations" occur for the sake of smoother pronunciation when a particular terminal vowel of one word coalesces with the initial vowel of the following word. Thus a + a (or â) merge as â in such a way that vajra + âsana becomes Vajrâsana. A terminal u before an initial a changes to v, as in manu + antara (Manvantara). When a terminal a is followed by an initial u, they coalesce and become o in the way that Îza Upani.sad becomes Îzopani.sad. _____ TDH INDOLOGY, "Harry Spier" <harryspier@H...> wrote: > Dear list members, > > Someone who is editing an english book that has a large number of quotes and > translations from sanskrit sutras and with explanations/translations of the > individual words or phrases of the sutras has asked me to come up with a > short (2 or 3 sentences at most) explanation of why sanskrit words change > due to sandhi. The audience of the book would in general not be people who > knew sanskrit but were interested in the sutras for religious reasons. Try > as I may I've been unable to come up with anything that would be short, > simple, ACCURATE and understandable to people (non-linguists) who didn't > know Sanskrit. > > Any suggestions? > > Thanks, > Harry > > > > Harry Spier > 371 Brickman Rd. > Hurleyville, New York > USA 12747 > > > > > _______________ > Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. > http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted October 19, 2002 Report Share Posted October 19, 2002 Sandhi is not something unique to Sanskrit, though representing language with sandhi in writing may be so. In spoken English, one does not speak the sentence "What did you do" with gaps between words, but the phonetic representation of the spoken version comes out something like "whaddijyoodoo". This is precisely what Sandhi is. Written Sanskrit is a close mirroring of the spoken state of affairs, rather than words with gaps. The old definitions of Sandhi/Samhitaa provide two different views on what it is. The Praatizaakhya definition ekapraa.nayoga.h truly refers to the nature of spoken utterance "in one breath", meaning without gaps. The Paninian definition para.h sannikar.sa.h sa.mhitaa reflects a more analytical grammatical view that seeks to build larger linguistic units by combining smaller linguistic units by juxtaposing them without gaps. That is not how a language is actually produced or spoken. The best linguistic analysis of the phenomenon of sandhi is found in W.S. Allen's book titled Sandhi. The notion represented in rules like "x changes to y, before z" in Sanskrit grammar is simply based on the grammatical notion of building uttered speech from its analytical representation. Best, Madhav Deshpande INDOLOGY, "troyoga" <troyoga> wrote: > > The euphonic sandi, or "mutations" occur for the sake of smoother > pronunciation when a particular terminal vowel of one word coalesces > with the initial vowel of the following word. Thus a + a (or â) merge > as â in such a way that vajra + âsana becomes Vajrâsana. A terminal u > before an initial a changes to v, as in manu + antara (Manvantara). > When a terminal a is followed by an initial u, they coalesce and > become o in the way that Îza Upani.sad becomes Îzopani.sad. > _____ > > TDH > > > INDOLOGY, "Harry Spier" <harryspier@H...> wrote: > > Dear list members, > > > > Someone who is editing an english book that has a large number of > quotes and > > translations from sanskrit sutras and with > explanations/translations of the > > individual words or phrases of the sutras has asked me to come up > with a > > short (2 or 3 sentences at most) explanation of why sanskrit words > change > > due to sandhi. The audience of the book would in general not be > people who > > knew sanskrit but were interested in the sutras for religious > reasons. Try > > as I may I've been unable to come up with anything that would be > short, > > simple, ACCURATE and understandable to people (non-linguists) who > didn't > > know Sanskrit. > > > > Any suggestions? > > > > Thanks, > > Harry > > > > > > > > Harry Spier > > 371 Brickman Rd. > > Hurleyville, New York > > USA 12747 > > > > > > > > > > _______________ > > Internet access plans that fit your lifestyle -- join MSN. > > http://resourcecenter.msn.com/access/plans/default.asp Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.