Introduction

Index · Lesson 1: Cases and To Be

This is the lesson book. Questions stay in the Learn Sanskrit chat. A clarifying question is written back into the lesson it belongs to, so the book gets clearer and the chat does not have to be reread. When a new Sanskrit word appears, its meaning is written beside it.

The grammar here is ordinary classical Sanskrit, written from memory in this chat. No textbook was open beside it. When a point is wrong, the correction replaces it in this file.

The public check on that memory is William Dwight Whitney, Sanskrit Grammar (1889), which is in the public domain: Wikisource. It is a reference book, not a beginner course. Word meanings can be checked in the Monier-Williams dictionary at the Cologne Digital Sanskrit Dictionaries. The free Ancient Sanskrit Online lessons are Vedic, an older layer than the classical sentences in this book.

The reader knows Devanagari and Nepali. The script is not taught. Nepali words in the tables are the job of a form, or a cousin of the Sanskrit word, not always a full translation.

This page is sound, and a few phrases to say. The case endings start in Lesson 1, and “to be” is at the end of that lesson.

How to study

Memorize the patterns, not the sentences. A sentence is a pattern with words dropped in.

On this page, say the phrases below. They are lines to learn whole. Lesson 1 is the case endings, and the end of that lesson takes “to be” apart. Lesson 2 is “to go.”

Words in this book are written separately. A final म् before a consonant is written ं in every lesson. Lesson 22: Joining Words is that rule. सः changes in speech in more than one way, and those spellings are not written yet. Lines people recite, such as असतो मा सद्गमय, are on Common chants. The meter of a śloka still waits.

Pronunciation

Nepali already covers most of the letters. These are the sounds Nepali usually flattens.

दीर्घ means long. ह्रस्व means short. आ, ई, and ऊ are the long partners of अ, इ, and उ. Hold a दीर्घ vowel about twice as long. वा is “waa,” not “wa.”

ए, ऐ, ओ, and औ are दीर्घ as well. They have no short partner. ए and ओ are one held sound, “e” and “o.” ऐ and औ glide: ऐ moves from अ toward ए, and औ moves from अ toward ओ. In careful chanting those two glides are held a little longer than आ.

The short vowels are अ, इ, उ, and ऋ.

शृ is one syllable. श is “sha,” and the curl under it is the vowel ऋ, so the syllable is “shri.” Say it the way Nepali says रि after a consonant: one tap of the tongue, then move on. शृणोमि, “I hear,” is “shri-no-mi.” ण is “na” with the tongue curled back.

श्री is a different spelling. That is श plus र plus the long ई, the “shree” in श्रीमान्. शृ has no र and no ई. The curl under श is only the short vowel.

A few more sounds are easy for a Nepali reader to miss, because the spelling is familiar and the Sanskrit mouth-position is not.

Every अ that is written is pronounced, including the last one. Nepali often leaves that final अ silent. छात्रः is “chaa-tra-h,” with the अ of त्र said before the soft ः. पठति keeps all three vowels: “pa-tha-ti.”

ज्ञ is ज् plus ञ, one syllable “jña.” ज्ञानम्, “knowledge,” is “jñaa-nam.” The Nepali word ज्ञान is the same spelling said “gyaan.”

क्ष is क् plus ष, “ksha,” with the curled ष. क्षम्यताम्, “excuse me,” is “ksham-ya-taam.” Nepali क्षमा is often “chhyama.”

ट ठ ड ढ ण and ष keep the tongue curled in speech, not only on the page. ष is not श. ण is not न. शृणोमि uses that ण.

This book writes that nasal as ं. न किञ्चित् writes the same nasal as ञ inside the cluster ञ्च. The Nepali ँ is not the mark used here.

ॠ is the long form of ऋ. It is real Sanskrit. It appears in Lesson 29: Mother and Father, in पितॄन्, “fathers” as the object, and पितॄणाम्, “of the fathers,” and in मातॄणाम्, “of the mothers.” ऌ is a vowel “li,” also real, and rare. A word you may meet later is कॢप्त, “arranged.” ॡ is the long “li.” It is listed in the alphabet so the set of vowels is complete. Ordinary words do not use it. ऌ and ॡ are not in the lessons.

A word is ह्रस्व or दीर्घ by the vowels actually written in it. पठति, “he studies,” is ह्रस्व because its three vowels are short: प has अ, ठ has अ, and ति has इ. The verb ending ति is that short इ. विद्यार्थी, “student,” is दीर्घ because it is written with आ and with ई at the end. The dictionary stem is विद्यार्थिन्, with a short इ. The subject form lengthens that इ to ई, which is the विद्यार्थी Nepali borrowed.

The consonant after ं chooses the nasal. The vowel before ं does not. Each row is one mouth-position, and every consonant in that row shares one nasal.

Before य र ल व श ष स ह, ं is a nasal coloring on the vowel, not one of those five full nasals. संसार is “saṃsāra”: the अ of स is nasal, and there is no full न or म.

An aspirated consonant keeps the breath inside the same consonant. ध is “dha,” one sound.

Fire is अग्निः. The pieces are अ + ग् + नि + ः. ग् has no vowel. नि is न with the short ि. Devanagari prints that ि to the left of the whole cluster, so it looks as if the vowel sits on ग. It does not. The first vowel is the short अ, not आ.

धन्यवादः is “dha-nya-waa-dah.” The final ः is a soft breath, not a full syllable ह and not silence. Casual speech that drops it says “dhanyawaad.”

Phrases

A question is shown by a word such as किम्, “what.” The । at the end is a danda, a full stop. Sanskrit does not use a question mark. कथम्, “how,” appears with “to be” at the end of Lesson 1.

Good morning is two words. Morning, प्रभातम्, is neuter, the same kind of word as पुस्तकम्. “Good” has to match it, so the ending before the next word is शुभम् प्रभातम्। The single dot in शुभं is that final म्. प्रभातम् begins with प्, a consonant, and म् before a consonant is written ं. Said aloud it is still “shubham,” because ं before प is the म sound from the table above. Lesson 22: Joining Words is this same join.

Good night is one word because that is the greeting people say, not because night has to be joined. Sanskrit can keep them apart: शुभा रात्रिः। It can also join the morning: शुभप्रभातम्। A joined word is a compound. “Good” and “night” become one name for the occasion, and that one word takes one ending, the ः at the end. The phrases in this list are the ones people use: morning apart, night joined.

Night, रात्रिः, is feminine, so the separate phrase is शुभा रात्रिः। There is no म् in that phrase, and so no single dot. The ः on शुभरात्रिः is the two dots, the same soft breath as on धन्यवादः.

Practice

1. Say your own name with मम नाम …
2. Say thank you, and the reply स्वागतम्, and good morning.
3. Say yes, and say no.

Next

Lesson 1: Cases and To Be starts the cases, with छात्र, “student.”