[INDOLOGY] sanskrit and computers?

[Harry Spier]

Dear list members,

1) This topic and this article were discussed on the indology list in 1997.
http://list.indology.info/pipermail/indology_list.indology.info/1993-October/000715.html


Harry Spier





On Mon, Apr 13, 2020 at 6:32 PM Dominik Wujastyk via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> Backus-Naur notation is often cited as a re-discovery of Pāṇini's
> notational methods, not entirely without justification. This 1967 letter in
> CACM by Ingerman started this particular hare:
> https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/363162.363165.  Ingerman's assertion rests
> on a simplified view of how Pāṇini's grammar works, ignoring many features
> such as rule-ordering, blocking, and scoping.  Nevertheless, the general
> idea of BNF-style rewriting rules is there.
>
> Best,
> Dominik
>
>
>
> --
> Professor Dominik Wujastyk
> <https://www.ualberta.ca/arts/about/people-collection/dominik-wujastyk>
> ,
>
> Singhmar Chair in Classical Indian Society and Polity
> ,
>
> Department of History and Classics
> <http://historyandclassics.ualberta.ca/>
> ,
> University of Alberta, Canada
> .
>
> South Asia at the U of A:
>
> sas.ualberta.ca
>
>
>
> On Sun, 12 Apr 2020 at 03:27, patrick mccartney via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Dear Friends, I'm wondering if I might be directed towards any objective
>> discussion specifically related to Sanskrit and computers.To give some more
>> context, this is an evolving component of my Imagining Sanskritland
>> project. It links in with assertions like Sanskrit is the "language of the
>> rural masses." The idea that Sanskrit is the best language for computing
>> holds particular currency. I'm keen to look into it more. I'm guessing most
>> are likely aware of the factoids circulating, which are ultimately based on
>> the infamously disembedded NASA article by Rick Brigg's from 1985. It is
>> consistently recycled as a means to justify several cultural nationalist
>> assertions, one being that Sanskrit is the most "computerable" language. To
>> illustrate, here is a very recent assertion,
>>
>> The language deserves to be treated much better than it has been so far,
>> more so when it has been called the best ‘computerable’ language.
>> Sanskrit’s credentials to be a language of future India are definitely
>> better and greater than we have realised so far. Its revival will not
>> only renew and revive the pride in our own cultural heritage, but will also
>> bring about spiritualism and the concept of a meaningful society and
>> polity, thereby bringing order and peace all across the country, a
>> desideratum for any developed society.
>>
>> Since I'm not in any way a computer scientist, I'm curious to learn from
>> members of the list. I have found many articles from obscure online
>> journals and countless blogs that repeat the same things, quite often copy
>> and pasted...just like the "Sanskrit-speaking" village rumors.
>>
>> I'm not, necessarily, curious about the intricacies of using technology
>> to understand Sanskrit's grammar or digitize the humanities, but, rather,
>> the aspiration to apply it to other machine learning/AI projects that
>> compete with other conlangs specific to the task of coding. However, what
>> I'm ultimately looking for is cogent discussion of the sociological side of
>> this phenomenon, if it exists.
>>
>> Any advice is appreciated. :-)
>>
>> All the best,
>>
>> パトリック マッカートニー
>> Patrick McCartney, PhD
>> Research Affiliate - Organization for Identity and Cultural Development
>> (OICD), Kyoto
>> Research Associate - Nanzan University Anthropological Institute, Nagoya,
>> Japan
>> Visiting Fellow - South and South-east Asian Studies Department, Australian
>> National University
>> Member - South Asia Research Institute (SARI), Australian National
>> University
>>
>> Skype / Zoom - psdmccartney
>> Phone + Whatsapp + Line:  +61410644259
>> Twitter - @psdmccartney @yogascapesinjap
>>  Yogascapes in Japan <http://yogascapes.weebly.com/> Academia
>> <https://patrickmccartney.academia.edu/> Linkedin
>> <https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=241756978&trk=nav_responsive_tab_profile>
>>  Modern Yoga Research <http://www.modernyogaresearch.org/events/>
>>
>> *bodhapūrvam calema* ;-)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>    -
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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