[INDOLOGY] Sanskrit in ChatGPT

[Harry Spier]

Madhav wrote:

> I hear that students are already beginning to use Google-Translator to do
> their Sanskrit homework.
>
> I just did a little experiment.  Taking a few of the english translations
in Apte's  "The Student's Guide to Sanskrit Composition" and comparing what
Google Translator gave as a sanskrit translation of these, and comparing to
the original sanskrit quotes .  A couple of surprising things stood out.
Surprising because these are fundamental things nothing subtle.  Google
translator seems to use sanskrit past active participle to translate
english simple past.  It doesn't seem to apply visarga sandhi, a completely
mechanical process.

In these examples, the yellow highlighted sanskrit is the citation from
Apte, the blue highlighted sanskrit is the google sanskrit translation of
Apte's english translation given below.

 Rama saw govinda

rāmo govindamapaśyat

rāmaḥ govindaṁ dṛṣṭavān


I Salute the parents of the universe, Parvati and Paramesvara.

jagataḥ pitarau vande pārvatīparameśvarau

viśvasya mātāpitarau pārvatīṁ parameśvaraṁ ca namāmi


He washed his hands and feet.

hastau pādau cākṣālayat

saḥ hastapādau prakṣālitavān।


She shut her eyes

sā locane nyamīlayat |

sā netrāṇi nimīlitavatī


So says the revered Shankara

iti śrīśaṁkārācāryāḥ |

tathā vadati pūjyaḥ śaṅkaraḥ।


Thou art, therefore, a friend.

tasmāt sakhā tvam asi

tena tvaṁ mitram asi
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