I’m looking to learn Sanskrit. I’ve had great success in learning Latin from the Lingua Latina series and Greek from a similar series called Athenaze. These books use the “direct method” of teaching; in Lingua Latina, there is only Latin, and in Athenaze, there is mostly only Greek. Both tell somewhat similar stories of families, beginning to teach the language from the ground up.
I would like something similar for Sanskrit. Is anyone familiar with such a text? Or if not, would anyone make any recommendations (including a forum of the Textkitten variety) where I might begin studying the classical Indian tongue?
There are many books on Sanskrit, though I haven’t had an opportunity to check most of them out.
One I have is called Devavanipraveshika (or something to that effect), and it is a great book. But unfortunately, I don’t believe it is readily available anymore. It is difficult to break into, but once you do, you’ll love it!
Another book, Teach Yourself Sanskrit, is horrible, at least it was when I first started trying to learn Sanskrit. The book is written for those who have a firm foundation in either Latin or Greek and are well-acquainted with grammar terms and concepts. When I first started using this book, I wasn’t, so I set it aside and never bothered with it again. But now I meet the qualifications the book demands, so maybe I will find it to be a good book after all. You apparently meet the qualifications as well, so maybe it’s the perfect choice for you. I’m not sure, I should really go back and give that book a second chance sometime. But it is awfully cheap and has many great tables that you will find very useful, especially the sandhi sound change tables.
Sanskrit is an exceedingly difficult language, much more so than Latin and Greek. It is imperative to learn the complex system of sound changes if you are to have any success. Constant repetition and exposure will help you become familiar with them, and everything thereafter should be much easier. If all the sound changes weren’t bad enough, the grammar is seemingly impossible to master! Latin and Greek pale in comparison to Sanskrit in terms of complexity.
May I ask what’s your motivation to learn Sanskrit and undergo all that torture you just described? Is masochism a reason enough for that? Better start climbing a cloud scratcher… I ask this because I play with the thought to start with Latin, but …
I know nothing of Sanskrit, except that there is such a thing, but I’m a bit more curious right now about this expression. Is it a common one? What does it mean? How does one scratch clouds?
One resource for leaning Sanskrit may be for you contact UCLA’s Indo-European Linguistics department. Perhaps you could get a hold of a syllabus from this school or speak with a professor in this regard. I do know that they have excellent degree programs in which you can learn Sanskrit.
Finally, you could also study the works of A.T. Robertson. He spent an extensive amount of time studying Sanskrit, which in the end, led him to believe that Greek actually has eight cases (if the vocative is assumed to be a true case) instead of simply five.
I guess it’s not a common expression, otherwise you would understand it.
A clould scratcher is something very high, be it a tree or building, so high that seemingly touches the clouds, that’s to say it scratches them. Trying to climb it resembles to doing something very tedious and wearisome with the only purpose to torture oneself and get satisfaction from feeling the pain. People often act this way to feel some exhilaration.
Ah, thanks for the explanation. So wolkenkratzer is similar, though more general, than the English skyscraper? More general, I mean, since skyscraper is typically limited to buildings.
i learnt Skt from a linguistic point of view (specifically Vedic), using Macdonnell and Whitney. i have not troubled myself with the minutiae of devanagri.
I must admit that after looking at a textbook on Sanskrit I have now decided to start on classical Arabic! But please keep us posted with your progress, maybe one day I’ll have the time to devote to Sanskrit.
I certainly hope you will have time some day. It’s hard to study Sanskrit, or any language, from a grammar book. I prefer learning material with good portions of exercises, vocabulary and more information on the subject. Good luck with classical Arabic. Keep us posted with your progress too.
