Linguistics

[Lars Martin Fosse]

At 10:00 21.02.98 -0600, you wrote:
>It seems to me that there are  contradictions here in the various
> postings by linguistic scholars.
......

>And there are other experts who say that the language of the
>vedas cannot even be called as Sanskrit and has to be termed as
>Vedic.

This is partly a simple question of terminology. Vedic Sanskrit is Sanskrit
in the same way that Homeric Greek is Greek. The point is that Vedic differs
from classical Skt. in a number of ways, both in terms of grammar and
vocabulary. But the difference is not so big that we could say that Vedic is
a different language altogether! As far as I can see, the difference between
Vedic and Classical Skt. is less than the difference between - say - avadhi
or braj on the one hand and khari boli on the other.

It is practical to have a term for Vedic Skt. Then we know what we are
referring to: the language of the four Vedas, the Brahmanas and the
classical Upanishads.

>Please explain to me as to who among all these is correct.

They are all correct! There is no contradiction.

Best regards,

Lars Martin Fosse


Dr.art. Lars Martin Fosse
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