pronunciation of Sanskrit

[Madhav Deshpande]

bs> From: bpj at netg.se (Mr B.Philip.Jonsson [Seeker of Useless
 bs> Knowledge])
 bs> Subject: Re: pronunciation of Sanskrit

 bs> Are there any dictionaries of Sanskrit terms for
 bs> modern concepts? 

	The best source for these are not Sanskrit dictionaries per se,
but terminological and administrative dictionaries published by the
various state governments for the regional languages.  The Indian states
are almost all, except perhaps Tamilnadu, involved in developing new
replacement-terminologies in the local language and these are by and large
Sanskritic in their derivation, though modern in their reference.  In many
regions these new terminologies get routinely used especially in the
school textbooks, and through them they become accessible to the new
generations.  Modern Sanskrit simply borrows these terms back into
Sanskrit usage.  The use of newly coined Sanskrit terms for modern
linguistics can be seen in a modern Sanskrit work like Dr. G.B. Palsule's
book Yubhaata.h sa.msk.rta.m prati ("From IE to Sanskrit").  Sanskritic or
pseudo-Sanskritic terms were used in Marathi science textbooks when I was
in school.  Thus, our textbooks used praa.navaayu for oxygen, natravaayu
for nitrogen, karba-dvi-praa.nila-vaayu for Carbon-di-oxide, etc.  I
remember modern Sanskrit use of these terms on some occasions.  The same
happens with respect to administrative/civic terms like loka-sabhaa,
raajya-sabhaa, vidhaana-sabhaa etc.  One can hear these terms routinely
used in Sanskrit on the daily All India Radio news broadcasts. 

		Madhav Deshpande