[INDOLOGY] sanskrit and computers?

[Dominik Wujastyk]

I agree with what I said in 1993 :-)  It's better than what I said in
2020.  Oh dear.


On Mon, 13 Apr 2020 at 17:39, Harry Spier <vasishtha.spier at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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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