Week 04, 2023

29 Jan 2023

Summary

This week, I learnt my first two sets of noun forms and used one form in speech as possessives.

Progress

We learnt our first set of noun declensions! After working through all of the cases, it was helpful to put some shape/form to the ideas of cases. In fact, with time, I am starting to associate meaning of the endings without actually worrying about what the case is called or what preposition to use. This goes back to the idea of no longer translating a language but instead understanding it inherently.

Looking at the endings themselves, a lot of them sound extremely familiar! For instance, I’ve heard ॐ नमः शिवाय so many times, but now I know that the -आय ending has the sense of for or to (the dative case) and hence we are offering our salutations to Lord Shiva. It was a truly mindblowing moment to feel that click into place. Similar case with देवस्य, something that comes up in the Gayatri Mantram. Perhaps, that’s the case with गणानाम् in गणानाम् त्वा गणपतिम्, which is the starting of so many homams. I was actually also pleased that we started learning the a- stem forms with the word देव. What a nice way to begin!

We got introduced to a bit of internal Sandhi when we did the various forms of (the neuter gendered word for friend) मित्र. Due to the presence of the र्, the following न् endings turn to the retroflected version ण्. Hence, we will have मित्राणि for the plural nominative (and vocative and accusative). It’s pretty interesting how these changes occur to make the pronunciation quite natural.

Like how we have different forms for the nouns based on their gender, there are different forms for adjectives too. However, adjectives take the gender of the noun they describe. In other words, adjectives must agree with the nouns. This rule is clear enough, except when sometimes other nouns are in the same case as the subject simply because we have a verb that equates (like ‘is’, ‘becomes’ or ‘like’). I think that’s a bit unclear to me without context.

After learning about the particle इति, and the lack of quotation marks, it’s becoming clear to me as to why we have a separate vocative case. I think it simplifies the specification of where quotes will begin! :)

We did vowel grades in class, and it went completely over my head. I genuinely believe the classes are only helpful if I’ve already spent time reading the book before. I think the pace is extremely fast if I am not already primed to take in the concepts. I decided I’d skip vowel gradation for now, and get back to it at a different time.

In the Sanskrit discussion group, we learnt how to use possessives. This is a usage of the genitive form of the words: we add an -अस्य for male and neuter nouns, and a -याः for female nouns. It’s funny how my name will have an extended य् sound because it already ends in yi. To say something like ‘Mythreyi’s book’, we say मैत्रेय्याः पुस्तकम्.

Thoughts

I felt a bit lost when we first did translation in the class. I think the main reason was that I fell behind on vocabulary practice, and I didn’t spent time doing the exercises. Somewhere along the way, I suddenly felt a bit sullen about how it would be if I could do all the breaking down and discovering of the root forms only to not know what the root actually means. This is a serious problem in any language, I suppose. I will just have to work my way up to being able to read everything I would like to read. Starting with short stories, that I probably already know, might help. And, as I continue to read, my speed would improve too. This is motivation enough!

Although I never believed that mine would be the first-of-its-kind Sanskrit learning blog, I didn’t actually check if anything existed. I ran into this blog, where the author translates one shloka from the Gita each day. Don’t think they’ve gotten through all of them, but nice to see such efforts!