Sanskrit grammar
Encyclopedia
The grammar
of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal
declension
, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period
(roughly 8th century BC), culminating in the Pāṇinian grammar of the 4th century BC.
(, one of the six Vedanga
disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the of , a work which consists of 3990 sutra
s or aphorism
s. Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas (explanations) on Pāṇini's sũtras. Patañjali
, who lived three centuries after Pānini, wrote the , the "Great Commentary" on the and the Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient [Sanskrit grammarians] this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana or 'grammar of three sage
s'. Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote the commentary named Kāsikā 600 CE, to elucidate the meaning of the sũtras,
an grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras. The whole Mātrika (alphabet
) is abbreviated here. This abbreviation is called Pratyāhāra. '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 (Mughal) period was Siddhānta Kaumudi by (17th century) and its various derivate versions by Varadarāja
.
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 Boehtlingk, William Dwight Whitney
, Jacob Wackernagel
and others.
s (plus one used in the Vedas : the लाति lakār, for "take", "receive" or "give") divided into 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, suffix
es, infix
es, and reduplication
.
(a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerund
s and infinitive
s, and such creatures as intensive
s/frequentative
s, desiderative
s, causative
s, and benedictive
s derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms (derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems:
and the imperfect (past imperfective), the optative
and imperative
moods, as well as some of the remnant forms of the old subjunctive
. The tense stem of the present system is formed in various ways. The numbers are the native grammarians' numbers for these classes.
The perfect system also produces separate "strong" and "weak" forms of the verb—the strong form is used with the singular active, and the weak form with the rest.
system includes aorist proper (with past indicative meaning, e.g. "you were") and some of the forms of the ancient injunctive
(used almost exclusively with mā in prohibitions, e.g. "don't be"). The principal distinction of the two is presence/absence of an augment
– a- prefixed to the stem. The aorist system stem actually has three different formations: the simple aorist, the sibilant aorist, and the reduplicating aorist, which is semantically related to the causative
verb.
and an imperative mood
. Older forms of the language had a subjunctive
, though this had fallen out of use by the time of Classical Sanskrit.
, number
, and voice. Different forms of the endings are used depending on what tense stem and mood they are attached to. Verb stems or the endings themselves may be changed or obscured by sandhi.
Primary endings are used with present indicative and future forms. Secondary endings are used with the imperfect, conditional, aorist, and optative. Perfect and imperative endings are used with the perfect and imperative respectively.
language with three grammatical gender
s (masculine, feminine, neuter)(Sanskrit: पुल्लिंग, स्त्रीलिंग, नपुंसकलिंग) and three numbers (singular, plural, dual) (एकवचनं, द्वीवचनम्, बहुवचनं). It has eight cases
: nominative
, vocative
, accusative
, instrumental
, dative
, ablative
, genitive
, and locative
.
The number of actual declension
s is debatable. Pāṇini identifies six kārakas corresponding to the nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, and ablative cases http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/man3.html. defines them as follows (Ashtādhyāyi, I.4.24-54):
Genitive (Sambandha) and vocative are absent in 's grammar.
In this article they are divided into five declensions. The declension to which a noun belongs to is determined largely by form.
derivatives like 'giver', though also include kinship terms like 'father', 'mother', and 'sister'.
The numbers one through four are declined. Éka is declined like a pronominal adjective, though the dual form does not occur. Dvá appears only in the dual. Trí and catúr are declined irregularly.
assimilated themselves with one another.
Note: 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.
The demonstrative ta, declined below, also functions as the third person pronoun.
. 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. Some examples of nominal compounds include:
A compound
consisting of the same word repeated twice, but with the first occurrence being accented.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_200310/ai_n9761222 Amreditas are used to express repetitiveness; for example, from dív (day) we obtain divé-dive (day after day, daily) and from devá (god) we obtain or devó-devas (god after god).http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/vedol-EI-X.html
stems, connected in sense with 'and'. There are mainly two kinds of dvandva constructions in Sanskrit. The first is called itaretara dvandva, an enumerative compound word, the meaning of which refers to all its constituent members. The resultant compound word is in the dual or plural number and takes the gender of the final member in the compound construction. e.g. rāma-lakşmaņau – Rama and Lakshmana, or rāma-lakşmaņa-bharata-śatrughnāh – Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna. The second kind is called samāhāra dvandva, a collective compound word, the meaning of which refers to the collection of its constituent members. The resultant compound word is in the singular number and is always neuter in gender. e.g. pāņipādam – limbs, literally hands and feet, from pāņi = hand and pāda = foot. According to some grammarians, there is a third kind of dvandva, called ekaśeşa dvandva or residual compound, which takes the dual (or plural) form of only its final constituent member, e.g. pitarau for mātā + pitā, mother + father, i.e. parents. According to other grammarians, however, the ekaśeşa is not properly a compound at all.
is pretty much free (with tendency toward SOV). There are some normative syntax conventions to decrease ambiguity, though.
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal
Nominal (linguistics)
In linguistics, a nominal is a part of speech in some languages that shares features with nouns and adjectives.- Examples :Nominals are a common feature of Indigenous Australian languages, many of which do not categorically differentiate nouns from adjectives.Some features of nominals in some...
declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period
Vedic period
The Vedic period was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE, also...
(roughly 8th century BC), culminating in the Pāṇinian grammar of the 4th century BC.
Grammatical tradition
The grammatical tradition of SanskritSanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
(, one of the six Vedanga
Vedanga
The Vedanga are six auxiliary disciplines traditionally associated with the study and understanding of the Vedas.#Shiksha : phonetics, phonology and morphophonology #Kalpa : ritual#Vyakarana : grammar...
disciplines) began in late Vedic India and culminated in the of , a work which consists of 3990 sutra
Sutra
Sūtra is an aphorism or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual. Literally it means a thread or line that holds things together and is derived from the verbal root siv-, meaning to sew , as does the medical term...
s or aphorism
Aphorism
An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
s. Kātyāyana composed Vārtikas (explanations) on Pāṇini's sũtras. Patañjali
Patañjali
Patañjali is the compiler of the Yoga Sūtras, an important collection of aphorisms on Yoga practice. According to tradition, the same Patañjali was also the author of the Mahābhāṣya, a commentary on Kātyāyana's vārttikas on Pāṇini's Aṣṭādhyāyī as well as an unspecified work of medicine .In...
, who lived three centuries after Pānini, wrote the , the "Great Commentary" on the and the Vārtikas. Because of these three ancient [Sanskrit grammarians] this grammar is called Trimuni Vyākarana or 'grammar of three sage
Wise old man
The wise old man is an archetype as described by Carl Jung, as well as a classic literary figure, and may be seen as a stock character...
s'. Jayaditya and Vāmana wrote the commentary named Kāsikā 600 CE, to elucidate the meaning of the sũtras,
an grammar is based on 14 Shiva sutras. The whole Mātrika (alphabet
Alphabet
An alphabet is a standard set of letters—basic written symbols or graphemes—each of which represents a phoneme in a spoken language, either as it exists now or as it was in the past. There are other systems, such as logographies, in which each character represents a word, morpheme, or semantic...
) is abbreviated here. This abbreviation is called Pratyāhāra. '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 (Mughal) period was Siddhānta Kaumudi by (17th century) and its various derivate versions by Varadarāja
Varadaraja
Varadarāja was a 17th century Sanskrit grammarian. He compiled an abridgement of the work of his master, the Siddhānta Kaumudī of Bhaṭṭoji Dīkṣita, in three versions, referred to as madhya "middle", laghu "short" and sāra "substance, quintessence" versions of the Siddhāntakaumudī, the latter...
.
European grammatical scholarship began in the 18th century with Jean François Pons
Jean François Pons
Jean François Pons was a French Jesuit who pioneered the study of Sanskrit in the West.He published a survey of Sanskrit literature in 1743, where he described the language as "admirable for its harmony, copiousness, and energy", reporting on the parsimonity of the native grammatical tradition,...
and others, and culminated in the exhaustive expositions by 19th century scholars such as Otto Boehtlingk, William Dwight Whitney
William Dwight Whitney
William Dwight Whitney was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer who edited The Century Dictionary.-Life:William Dwight Whitney was born in Northampton, Massachusetts on February 9, 1827. His father was Josiah Dwight Whitney of the New England Dwight family...
, Jacob Wackernagel
Jacob Wackernagel
Jacob Wackernagel was an Indo-Europeanist and scholar of Sanskrit. He was born in Basel, son of the philologist Wilhelm Wackernagel.He studied classical and Germanic philology and history in...
and others.
Classification of verbs
Sanskrit has ten classes of verbVerb
A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...
s (plus one used in the Vedas : the लाति lakār, for "take", "receive" or "give") divided into two broad groups: athematic
Athematic
In the Indo-European languages, thematic stems are stems ending in a theme vowel, a vowel sound that is always present between the stem of the word and the attached ending...
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
Exponent (linguistics)
An exponent is a phonological manifestation of a morphosyntactic property. In non-technical language, it is the expression of one or more grammatical properties by sound...
used in verb conjugation
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
include prefixes, suffix
Suffix
In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs...
es, infix
Infix
An infix is an affix inserted inside a word stem . It contrasts with adfix, a rare term for an affix attached to the end of a stem, such as a prefix or suffix.-Indonesian:...
es, and reduplication
Reduplication
Reduplication in linguistics is a morphological process in which the root or stem of a word is repeated exactly or with a slight change....
.
Tense systems
The verbs tensesGrammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
(a very inexact application of the word, since more distinctions than simply tense are expressed) are organized into four 'systems' (as well as gerund
Gerund
In linguistics* As applied to English, it refers to the usage of a verb as a noun ....
s and infinitive
Infinitive
In grammar, infinitive is the name for certain verb forms that exist in many languages. In the usual description of English, the infinitive of a verb is its basic form with or without the particle to: therefore, do and to do, be and to be, and so on are infinitives...
s, and such creatures as intensive
Intensive
In grammar, an intensive word form is one which denotes stronger or more forceful action relative to the root on which the intensive is built. Intensives are usually lexical formations, but there may be a regular process for forming intensives from a root...
s/frequentative
Frequentative
In grammar, a frequentative form of a word is one which indicates repeated action. The frequentative form can be considered a separate, but not completely independent word, called a frequentative...
s, desiderative
Desiderative
In linguistics, a desiderative form is one that has the meaning of "wanting to X". Desiderative forms are often verbs, derived from a more basic verb through a process of morphological derivation.-Sanskrit:...
s, causative
Causative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
s, and benedictive
Benedictive
The benedictive mood is found in Sanskrit, although extremely rarely. For verbs in the active voice , it is formed by adding endings very similar to the athematic optative endings directly to the verb root itself. Essentially, the sibilant -s is inserted between the optative marker -yā and the...
s derived from more basic forms) based on the different stem forms (derived from verbal roots) used in conjugation. There are four tense systems:
- Present (PresentPresent tenseThe present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
, Imperfect, ImperativeImperative moodThe imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
, OptativeOptative moodThe optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....
) - Perfect
- AoristAoristAorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...
- Future (FutureFuture tenseIn grammar, a future tense is a verb form that marks the event described by the verb as not having happened yet, but expected to happen in the future , or to happen subsequent to some other event, whether that is past, present, or future .-Expressions of future tense:The concept of the future,...
, ConditionalConditional moodIn linguistics, the conditional mood is the inflectional form of the verb used in the independent clause of a conditional sentence to refer to a hypothetical state of affairs, or an uncertain event, that is contingent on another set of circumstances...
)
Present system
The present system includes the present tensePresent tense
The present tense is a grammatical tense that locates a situation or event in present time. This linguistic definition refers to a concept that indicates a feature of the meaning of a verb...
and the imperfect (past imperfective), the optative
Optative mood
The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....
and imperative
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
moods, as well as some of the remnant forms of the old subjunctive
Subjunctive mood
In grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
. The tense stem of the present system is formed in various ways. The numbers are the native grammarians' numbers for these classes.
Perfect system
The perfect system includes only the perfect. The stem is formed with reduplication as with the present system.The perfect system also produces separate "strong" and "weak" forms of the verb—the strong form is used with the singular active, and the weak form with the rest.
Aorist system
The aoristAorist
Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...
system includes aorist proper (with past indicative meaning, e.g. "you were") and some of the forms of the ancient injunctive
Injunctive mood
The injunctive mood was a mood in Sanskrit characterized by secondary endings but no augment, and usually looked like an augmentless aorist or imperfect. It typically stood in a main clause and had a subjunctive or imperative meaning; for example, it could indicate intention, e.g. "Indra's heroic...
(used almost exclusively with mā in prohibitions, e.g. "don't be"). The principal distinction of the two is presence/absence of an augment
Augment (linguistics)
In linguistics, the augment is a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages, most notably Greek, Armenian, and the Indo-Iranian languages such as Sanskrit, to form the past tenses.-Indo-European languages:...
– a- prefixed to the stem. The aorist system stem actually has three different formations: the simple aorist, the sibilant aorist, and the reduplicating aorist, which is semantically related to the causative
Causative
In linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
verb.
Future system
The future system is formed with the suffixation of sya or and . Verbs then conjugate as though they were thematic verbs in the present system. The imperfect of the future system is used as a conditional.Verbs: Conjugation
Each verb has a grammatical voice, whether active, passive or middle. There also is an impersonal voice, which can be described as the passive voice of intransitive verbs. Sanskrit verbs have an indicative, an optativeOptative mood
The optative mood is a grammatical mood that indicates a wish or hope. It is similar to the cohortative mood, and closely related to the subjunctive mood....
and an imperative mood
Imperative mood
The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :...
. Older forms of the language had a subjunctive
Subjunctive mood
In grammar, the subjunctive mood is a verb mood typically used in subordinate clauses to express various states of irreality such as wish, emotion, possibility, judgment, opinion, necessity, or action that has not yet occurred....
, though this had fallen out of use by the time of Classical Sanskrit.
Basic conjugational endings
Conjugational endings in Sanskrit convey personGrammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
, number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, and voice. Different forms of the endings are used depending on what tense stem and mood they are attached to. Verb stems or the endings themselves may be changed or obscured by sandhi.
| Active | Middle | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Person | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Primary | 1 | mi | vás | más | é | váhe | máhe |
| 2 | si | thás | thá | sé | ā́the | dhvé | |
| 3 | ti | tás | ánti, áti | té | ā́te | ánte, áte | |
| Secondary | 1 | am | vá | má | í, á | váhi | máhi |
| 2 | s | tám | tá | thā́s | ā́thām | dhvám | |
| 3 | t | tā́m | án, ús | tá | ā́tām | ánta, áta, rán | |
| Perfect | 1 | a | vá | má | é | váhe | máhe |
| 2 | tha | áthus | á | sé | ā́the | dhvé | |
| 3 | a | átus | ús | é | ā́te | ré | |
| Imperative | 1 | āni | āva | āma | āi | āvahāi | āmahāi |
| 2 | dhí, hí,— | tám | tá | svá | ā́thām | dhvám | |
| 3 | tu | tā́m | ántu, átu | tā́m | ā́tām | ántām, átām | |
Primary endings are used with present indicative and future forms. Secondary endings are used with the imperfect, conditional, aorist, and optative. Perfect and imperative endings are used with the perfect and imperative respectively.
Nominal inflection
Sanskrit is a highly inflectedInflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
language with three grammatical gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
s (masculine, feminine, neuter)(Sanskrit: पुल्लिंग, स्त्रीलिंग, नपुंसकलिंग) and three numbers (singular, plural, dual) (एकवचनं, द्वीवचनम्, बहुवचनं). It has eight cases
Grammatical case
In grammar, the case of a noun or pronoun is an inflectional form that indicates its grammatical function in a phrase, clause, or sentence. For example, a pronoun may play the role of subject , of direct object , or of possessor...
: nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
, vocative
Vocative case
The vocative case is the case used for a noun identifying the person being addressed and/or occasionally the determiners of that noun. A vocative expression is an expression of direct address, wherein the identity of the party being spoken to is set forth expressly within a sentence...
, accusative
Accusative case
The accusative case of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used in many languages for the objects of prepositions...
, instrumental
Instrumental case
The instrumental case is a grammatical case used to indicate that a noun is the instrument or means by or with which the subject achieves or accomplishes an action...
, dative
Dative case
The dative case is a grammatical case generally used to indicate the noun to whom something is given, as in "George gave Jamie a drink"....
, ablative
Ablative case
In linguistics, ablative case is a name given to cases in various languages whose common characteristic is that they mark motion away from something, though the details in each language may differ...
, genitive
Genitive case
In grammar, genitive is the grammatical case that marks a noun as modifying another noun...
, and locative
Locative case
Locative is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by"...
.
The number of actual declension
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
s is debatable. Pāṇini identifies six kārakas corresponding to the nominative, accusative, dative, instrumental, locative, and ablative cases http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/epc/srb/cyber/man3.html. defines them as follows (Ashtādhyāyi, I.4.24-54):
- Apādāna (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.
- Sampradāna ('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.
- ("instrument") "that which effects most." This is equivalent to the instrumental case.
- ('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.
- Kartā ('agent'): "he/that which is independent in action". This is equivalent to the nominative case. (On the basis of Scharfe, 1977: 94)
Genitive (Sambandha) and vocative are absent in 's grammar.
In this article they are divided into five declensions. The declension to which a noun belongs to is determined largely by form.
Basic noun and adjective declension
The basic scheme of suffixation is given in the table below—valid for almost all nouns and adjectives. However, according to the gender and the ending consonant/vowel of the uninflected word-stem, there are predetermined rules of compulsory sandhi which would then give the final inflected word. The parentheses give the case-terminations for the neuter gender, the rest are for masculine and feminine gender. Both Devanagari script and IAST transliterations are given.| Singular | Dual | Plural |
|---|---|
| Nominative (Karta) |
-स् -s (-म् -m) |
| Accusative (Karma) |
-अम् -am (-म् -m) |
| Instrumental (Karana) |
-आ -ā |
| Dative (Sampradana) |
-ए -e |
| Ablative (Apadana) |
-अस् -as |
| Genitive (Sambandha) |
-अस् -as |
| Locative (Adhikarana) |
-इ -i |
| Vocative | -स् -s (- -) |
a-stems
A-stems (/ə/ or /aː/) comprise the largest class of nouns. As a rule, nouns belonging to this class, with the uninflected stem ending in short-a (/ə/), are either masculine or neuter. Nouns ending in long-A (/aː/) are almost always feminine. A-stem adjectives take the masculine and neuter in short-a (/ə/), and feminine in long-A (/aː/) in their stems. This class is so big because it also comprises the Proto-Indo-European o-stems.| Masculine (rāma-) | Neuter (āsya- 'mouth') | Feminine (kānta- 'beloved') | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | rā́maḥ | rā́māu | rā́māḥ | āsyàm | āsyè | āsyā̀ni | kāntā | kānte | kāntās |
| Accusative | rā́mam | rā́māu | rā́mān | āsyàm | āsyè | āsyā̀ni | kāntām | kānte | kāntās |
| Instrumental | rā́mena | rā́mābhyām | rā́māis | āsyèna | āsyā̀bhyām | āsyāìs | kāntayā | kāntābhyām | kāntābhis |
| Dative | rā́māya | rā́mābhyām | rā́mebhyas | āsyā̀ya | āsyā̀bhyām | āsyèbhyas | kāntāyai | kāntābhyām | kāntābhyās |
| Ablative | rā́māt | rā́mābhyām | rā́mebhyas | āsyā̀t | āsyā̀bhyām | āsyèbhyas | kāntāyās | kāntābhyām | kāntābhyās |
| Genitive | rā́masya | rā́mayos | rā́mānām | āsyàsya | āsyàyos | āsyā̀nām | kāntāyās | kāntayos | kāntānām |
| Locative | rā́me | rā́mayos | rā́meṣu | āsyè | āsyàyos | kāntāyām | kāntayos | kāntāsu | |
| Vocative | rā́ma | rā́mau | rā́mās | ā́sya | āsyè | āsyā̀ni | kānte | kānte | kāntās |
i- and u-stems
| Masc. and Fem. (gáti- 'gait') | Neuter (vā́ri- 'water') | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | gátis | gátī | gátayas | vā́ri | ||
| Accusative | gátim | gátī | gátīs | vā́ri | ||
| Instrumental | gátyā | gátibhyām | gátibhis | vā́ribhyām | vā́ribhis | |
| Dative | gátaye, gátyāi | gátibhyām | gátibhyas | vā́ribhyām | vā́ribhyas | |
| Ablative | gátes, gátyās | gátibhyām | gátibhyas | vā́ribhyām | vā́ribhyas | |
| Genitive | gátes, gátyās | gátyos | gátīnām | |||
| Locative | gátāu, gátyām | gátyos | ||||
| Vocative | gáte | gátī | gátayas | vā́ri, vā́re | ||
| Masc. and Fem. (śátru- 'enemy') | Neuter (mádhu- 'honey') | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | śátrus | śátrū | śátravas | mádhu | mádhunī | mádhūni |
| Accusative | śátrum | śátrū | śátrūn | mádhu | mádhunī | mádhūni |
| Instrumental | śátrubhyām | śátrubhis | mádhunā | mádhubhyām | mádhubhis | |
| Dative | śátrave | śátrubhyām | śátrubhyas | mádhune | mádhubhyām | mádhubhyas |
| Ablative | śátros | śátrubhyām | śátrubhyas | mádhunas | mádhubhyām | mádhubhyas |
| Genitive | śátros | śátrvos | mádhunas | mádhunos | mádhūnām | |
| Locative | śátrāu | śátrvos | mádhuni | mádhunos | ||
| Vocative | śátro | śátrū | śátravas | mádhu | mádhunī | mádhūni |
Long Vowel-stems
| -stems ( 'progeny') | -stems ( 'thought') | ( 'earth') | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | dhíyas | bhúvas | |||||||
| Accusative | , jás | dhíyam | dhíyas | bhúvam | bhúvas | ||||
| Instrumental | dhiyā́ | ||||||||
| Dative | jé | dhiyé, | bhuvé, | ||||||
| Ablative | jás | dhiyás, | bhuvás, | ||||||
| Genitive | jás | jós | dhiyás, | dhiyós | bhuvás, | bhuvós | |||
| Locative | jí | jós | dhiyí, | dhiyós | bhuví, | bhuvós | |||
| Vocative | jā́s | dhíyas | bhúvas | ||||||
-stems
-stems are predominantly agentalAgent (grammar)
In linguistics, a grammatical agent is the cause or initiator of an event. Agent is the name of the thematic role...
derivatives like 'giver', though also include kinship terms like 'father', 'mother', and 'sister'.
| Singular | Dual | Plural | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | pitā́ | pitárāu | pitáras |
| Accusative | pitáram | pitárāu | |
| Instrumental | pitrā́ | ||
| Dative | pitré | ||
| Ablative | pitúr | ||
| Genitive | pitúr | pitrós | |
| Locative | pitári | pitrós | |
| Vocative | pítar | pitárāu | pitáras |
Numerals
The numbers from one to ten are:- éka
- dvá
- trí
- catúr
- pañca
- ṣáṣ
- saptá, sápta
- aṣṭá, áṣṭa
- náva
- dáśa
The numbers one through four are declined. Éka is declined like a pronominal adjective, though the dual form does not occur. Dvá appears only in the dual. Trí and catúr are declined irregularly.
Personal Pronouns and Determiners
The first and second person pronouns are declined for the most part alike, having by analogyAnalogy
Analogy is a cognitive process of transferring information or meaning from a particular subject to another particular subject , and a linguistic expression corresponding to such a process...
assimilated themselves with one another.
Note: 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.
| First Person | Second Person | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | aham | āvām | vayam | tvam | yuvām | yūyam |
| Accusative | mām, mā | āvām, nau | asmān, nas | tvām, tvā | yuvām, vām | , vas |
| Instrumental | mayā | āvābhyām | asmābhis | tvayā | yuvābhyām | |
| Dative | mahyam, me | āvābhyām, nau | asmabhyam, nas | tubhyam, te | yuvābhyām, vām | , vas |
| Ablative | mat | āvābhyām | asmat | tvat | yuvābhyām | |
| Genitive | mama, me | āvayos, nau | asmākam, nas | tava, te | yuvayos, vām | , vas |
| Locative | mayi | āvayos | asmāsu | tvayi | yuvayos | |
The demonstrative ta, declined below, also functions as the third person pronoun.
| Masculine | Neuter | Feminine | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | Singular | Dual | Plural | |
| Nominative | sás | tāú | té | tát | té | tā́ni | sā́ | té | tā́s |
| Accusative | tám | tāú | tā́n | tát | té | tā́ni | tā́m | té | tā́s |
| Instrumental | téna | tā́bhyām | tāís | téna | tā́bhyām | tāís | táyā | tā́bhyām | tā́bhis |
| Dative | tásmāi | tā́bhyām | tébhyas | tásmāi | tā́bhyām | tébhyas | tásyāi | tā́bhyām | tā́bhyas |
| Ablative | tásmāt | tā́bhyām | tébhyam | tásmāt | tā́bhyām | tébhyam | tásyās | tā́bhyām | tā́bhyas |
| Genitive | tásya | táyos | tásya | táyos | tásyās | táyos | tā́sām | ||
| Locative | tásmin | táyos | tásmin | táyos | tásyām | táyos | tā́su | ||
Compounds (samāsa)
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 GermanGerman language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
. 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. Some examples of nominal compounds include:
A compound
Compound (linguistics)
In linguistics, a compound is a lexeme that consists of more than one stem. Compounding or composition is the word formation that creates compound lexemes...
consisting of the same word repeated twice, but with the first occurrence being accented.http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_go2081/is_200310/ai_n9761222 Amreditas are used to express repetitiveness; for example, from dív (day) we obtain divé-dive (day after day, daily) and from devá (god) we obtain or devó-devas (god after god).http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/vedol-EI-X.html
Avyayibhāva
The first member of this type of nominal compounds is an indeclinable, to which another word is added so that the new compound also becomes indeclinable (i.e., avaya). Examples : yathā+śakti, upa+ (near ),etc. In avyayibhāva compounds, first member has primacy (pūrva-pada-pradhāna), i.e., the whole compound behaves like an indeclinable due to the nature of the first part which is indeclinable.(determinative)
Unlike the avyayibhāva compounds, in compounds second member has primacy (uttara-pada-pradhāna). There are many (one for each of the nominal cases, and a few others besides). In a , the first component is in a case relationship with another. For example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house for a dog. It would be called a "" (caturti refers to the fourth case—that is, the dative). Incidentally, "" is a ("this man"—meaning someone's agent), while "" is a Karmadhāraya, being both dative, and a . An easy way to understand it is to look at English examples of : "battlefield", where there is a genitive relationship between "field" and "battle", "a field of battle"; other examples include instrumental relationships ("thunderstruck") and locative relationships ("towndwelling"). All these normal compounds are called vyadhikarana , because the case ending should depend upon the second member because semantically second member has primacy, but actually the case ending depends upon the first member. Literally, vyadhikarana means opposite or different case ending. But when the case ending of both members of a compound are similar then it is called a Karmadhāraya compound, or simply a Karmadhāraya compound.(descriptive)
It is a variety of as shown above, but treated separately. 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.Dvigu
In a karmadhāraya compound one part behaves like an adjective for the other. :If the part behaving like an adjective is a number, it is called dvigu. Dvigu itself is a compound : dvau+gāvau. In a dvigu compounds, later part is principal, like a compound.nañ-samāsa
Example : na + = a, in which 'n' vanishes and only the 'a' of 'na' remains. But with words beginning with vowel this 'a' becomes 'an' : na+aśva > (na > a > an) anaśva.(co-ordinative)
These consist of two or more nounNoun
In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...
stems, connected in sense with 'and'. There are mainly two kinds of dvandva constructions in Sanskrit. The first is called itaretara dvandva, an enumerative compound word, the meaning of which refers to all its constituent members. The resultant compound word is in the dual or plural number and takes the gender of the final member in the compound construction. e.g. rāma-lakşmaņau – Rama and Lakshmana, or rāma-lakşmaņa-bharata-śatrughnāh – Rama, Lakshmana, Bharata and Satrughna. The second kind is called samāhāra dvandva, a collective compound word, the meaning of which refers to the collection of its constituent members. The resultant compound word is in the singular number and is always neuter in gender. e.g. pāņipādam – limbs, literally hands and feet, from pāņi = hand and pāda = foot. According to some grammarians, there is a third kind of dvandva, called ekaśeşa dvandva or residual compound, which takes the dual (or plural) form of only its final constituent member, e.g. pitarau for mātā + pitā, mother + father, i.e. parents. According to other grammarians, however, the ekaśeşa is not properly a compound at all.
(possessive)
Bahuvrīhi, or "much-rice", denotes a rich person—one who has much rice. Bahuvrīhi compounds refer (by example) to a compound noun with no head—a compound noun that refers to a thing which is itself not part of the compound. For example, "low-life" and "block-head" are bahuvrihi compounds, since a low-life is not a kind of life, and a block-head is not a kind of head. (And a much-rice is not a kind of rice.) Compare with more common, headed, compound nouns like "fly-ball" (a kind of ball) or "alley cat" (a kind of cat). Bahurvrīhis can often be translated by "possessing..." or "-ed"; for example, "possessing much rice", or "much riced".Madhyama-pada-lopī-samāsa
It is that variety of Karmadhāraya compound in which the middle part vanishes. E.g., = deva; Śrīyukta+ =Upapada-samāsa
It is a variety of compound in which nouns make unions with verbs, like Kumbham+karoti = .Syntax
Because of Sanskrit's complex declension system the word orderWord order
In linguistics, word order typology refers to the study of the order of the syntactic constituents of a language, and how different languages can employ different orders. Correlations between orders found in different syntactic subdomains are also of interest...
is pretty much free (with tendency toward SOV). There are some normative syntax conventions to decrease ambiguity, though.