Native speakers of Sanskrit...

[zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl]

Replies to msg 09 May 96: indology at liverpool.ac.uk (Kumar at pixie.udw.ac.za)

 Kuaz> From: Kumar at pixie.udw.ac.za (Dr Kumar)
 Kuaz> Subject: Re: Native speakers of Sanskrit...

 Kuaz> Dominik Wujastyk wrote--

>Secondly, I don't think medieval Latin was particularly artifical in any
>meaningful sense.  In fact, one reason why it is so difficult is that it
>is heavily coloured by the vernacular languages of the countries in which
>it was used, and this is because it was growing closer to the vernaculars,
>[...]

 Kuaz> Isn't it possible to say precisely the same thing about
 Kuaz> Sanskrit language
 Kuaz> because I believe it is also heavily coloured by Indian
 Kuaz> vernaculars. [...]
 Kuaz> I have a strong
 Kuaz> feeling that Sanskrit syntax is influenced by many South
 Kuaz> Indian languages.

My hunch is that Sanskrit is very similar to later Latin in this regard. Though
I haven't done any proper research in this direction, I sense that different
parts of India had, for instance, different preferences in vocabulary whenever
there was a choice between synonyms, and also for different verb forms and
syntactical constructions. A great deal of research still needs to be done on
this.

Robert Zydenbos
Internet: zydenbos at flevoland.xs4all.nl