A Conjunct Consonants
A conjunct consonant samyoga, literally 'yoked together' comprises two or more consonants with nothing separating them in particular there is no vowel between them. At a first glance through these samyoga, familiarity with them may seem like a daunting task, but fortunately you don't have to learn them. It is the general principles that are important once you understand the principles, you can discard the notes. Simply read through the general principles and use the illustrative examples to...
llAl Visarga Sandhi
This is most conveniently presented directly in tabular form 1 -Vs any vowel except a or a before the final s. 2 -Vr any vowel before the final r. 3 A followed by another is elided, and a preceding 3T f or 3 lengthened. Note The words iT or followed by hrasva -3T becomes TtS or 'il before any other letter the visarga is dropped. The table is simple enough. Basically a final s or r becomes r before a voiced ghosa sound which includes the vowels, of course the exceptions to this are 1 -Vs any...
A Guna and Vrddhi
The grammatical terms guna 'secondary form' and vrddhi 'increase' can be considered as degrees of strengthening of the three primary vowels. Panini defines guna as the three vowels and and vrddhi as and afr , and also gives the means for deriving the strengthened forms of the other two simple vowels f and 1 The breve and macron diacritical marks, used together indicate a long OR short measure of the vowel. 2 In the grammatical formation of words, the dlrgha measure does not occur. 3 The vrddhi...
A Special Conjunct Consonants ksa and jria
Normally the symbols for a samyoga are constructed from their component symbols and are quite obvious to see, and their construction reflects their pronunciation. However, there are two which are quite different from their component parts Although these two samyoga may be separated into their component parts when, for example, the alphabetical order is required in looking up a word in the dictionary, the symbols being so different from their components, reflect their sounds which are somewhat...
B Noun Gender
The nouns considered thus far are all masculine pum-linga the paradigms below are for the neuter napumsaka-linga noun phala 'fruit', and the feminine strl-linga noun bala 'girl'. Note that, due to internal sandhi, the napumsaka-linga bahu-vaeana forms of prat ham a and dvitiya will also change from -ani to -ani if preceded by 'r' or's'. There is another sandhi rule applicable within a word, that applies here the saptami bahu-vacana ending -su changes to -su following any vowel except a or a...
A Pronunciation of ksa
The idea may be novel, but it is quite straightforward to pronounce halanta sa prolonged try it. Now, sound halanta ka through the sound of halanta sa i.e. the prolonged halanta sa begins with halanta ka the important point is that the tip of the tongue is in the murdhanya position throughout. Before sounding the halanta ka the breath is fully cut off by the back of the tongue in the kanthya position as for the normal pronunciation of ka the difference for ksa is that the tip of the tongue is...
A List of Conjunct Consonants
The following is a standard list of conjunct consonants, arranged in alphabetical order simply read through the list and you will find that most of the symbols are easily recognizable. Tgya WH ghya nksa ngha STnya H cya dghra O nta e ndha CSh tkra jR tna rM tya rPT tsnya dda ksrria fTgra ghra nksva U ghya IT cca EW chya PH jma xfM ncya t5 kca ktva SW krya ksya iM grya nka nkha nghra ccha chra nTM jya iicha thra dm a US nda kta W knya kva Wf khya Wf ghnya J nktya nga nna lif ciia lt 4 dhya ndra...
B Exercises Jsn
a Practise reading and writing all the letters of the alphabet. b Practise sounding the full declension of bala and phala. c Translate the following sentences into English 1. bala asvam vrksam phalaya nayate 2. asvah naram ca balam ca vrksam vahati 3. narasya asvah phalam balayah labhate 4. narau vrksanam phalani asvam labhete 5. balah naran phalani asvena nayante 6. bale vrksesu tisthatah vadatah ca 7. vrksau gaeehami ca phalani labhe 8. narah phale vrksat balayai vahati 9. bale phalani...
A Devanagari Alphabet Ycf
Here is the rest of the alphabet in devanagari script. Each symbol includes the sound a for example, the first symbol is pa and not just p. Note the differences between ba and va ya and tha pa and sa la and 1 bha ma and sa and kha with ra and va. The transliteration of the three rows of devanagari characters is pa pha ba bha ma ya ra la va sa sa sa ha
B Summary of Verbs
The tin-vibhakti personal endings of verbs are grouped into three's, which means that one vibhakti consists of the three vacana forms. Thus three vibhakti cover one entire pada. It would be useful to practise sounding the full conjugation of dh tu n , with a pause between each vibhakti and a longer pause between each pada. Thus the pattern is n ay at i- n ay at ah - n ay ant i pause nayasi-nayathah-nayatha pause nay mi-nay vah-nay mah longer pause nayate-nayete-nayante pause...
llBl Dvandva Samasa
The dvandva lit. 'couple' samasa is a copulative compound in which the members, if not compounded, would be in the same case vibhakti and connected by the conjunction T and . There are two types of dvandva Itaretara the members are considered separately the gender of the compound is the gender of the last member the number is the sum of the members. For example ramah ca krsnah ca ramakrsnau note the dual Rama and Krsna. Samahara the members are taken collectively as a unit it is always neuter...
lBl The Concept of Dhatu
A dhatu is a rudimentary verbal element from which words are derived it is the nucleus to which other word fragments are added to form a whole word. Consider the English verb 'to stand'. Prefixes may be added to this to form further verbs, such as 'misunderstand', or suffixes may be added to form nouns and adjectives, such as 'standard' indeed, a host of words may be derived from 'stand', such as constant, constitution, stagnant, instant, static, estate, extant, ecstatic, etc. But a dhatu or...
A Pronunciation of jna
The pronunciation of this is similar to the French 'J' as in 'Jean-Jacques', or as in the 'z' sound in the English words 'mirage', 'rouge', 'measure', or 'vision' but in all cases it is sounded through the talavya mouth position, and is strongly nasalized. As a practical method of approaching this sound, begin by sounding the English 'hiss' and holding the sibilant this sibilant is much like the Sanskrit halanta sa. Now sound the English 'his', again holding the sibilant note that the...
B Tatpurusa Samasa
The tat-purusa lit. 'his man' samasa is a determinative compound in which the first member depends on i.e. has a case relationship to , or modifies, the second. There are several types Tatpurusa also called vyadhikarana-tatpurusa, is characterised as having different case endings if the compound is dissolved, i.e. the members are different objects. The compound may be further classified according to the case relationship dvitiya through s apt ami of the first member to the second. For example...
llB Bahuvrlhi Samasa
The bahuvrlhi lit. ' having much rice' samasa is a descriptive compound forming an adjective visesana agreeing with a noun expressed or understood for example padmaksa 4 padma lotus aksa eye whose eyes are like lotuses, lotus-eyed. The difference between the tatpurusa and the bahuvrlhi is that the former remains a noun, while the latter becomes an adjective or epithet. In the Vedic Sanskrit the determinative and descriptive compounds were distinguished by accents see 9.A.1 raja-putra 4 rajan...
B Verbal Prefixes
The English verb 'to tend' derives from the pie root sjten, to stretch when a prefix is appended to it, its meaning alters. For example with prefix meanings given Assuming that the meaning of these verbs is already understood more or less , then a grasp of their etymological derivation from the root and prefixes should contribute to enlarging that understanding. Again, given the meanings of these verbs, it can be appreciated that that the prefixes are instrumental in modifying the original root...
B More on Nouns Cases 1
Unlike the other case endings, the sixth sasthl indicates a relationship to a word other than the verb, i.e. to another noun in the sentence. This is usually rendered in English by the preposition 'of' or with an apostrophe, for example, 'he talks to the son of John', 'he drives John's car'. In both these examples John has no relation to the action of the verb indeed John may be absent, even deceased. This case ending generally indicates a relationship of source or possession, for example,...