Sanskrit Conversation

Unit-1
M. R. Dwarakanath

What distinguishes conversational Sanskrit

would say @;a izi]ka or #y< izi]ka .
from classical Sanskrit lies in the greater use
of participles instead of finite verbs. As the Conversational Sanskritists often take liberty
conjugation of finite verbs take on many with such fine points of grammar and usage.
forms, seemingly difficult, spoken Sanskrit
tends to employ participles which are It will be helpful to remember that use of the
nominal (nouns and adjectives.) These passive participle will result in a sentence in
participles are declined which does not the passive voice while use of the active
appear to be an improvement over participle will result in active voice. Spoken
conjugation, as there are 8 cases instead of Sanskrit also has freely adapted new words
just 3 persons. The advantage of using that are essential in modern life. Without
participles lies in the similarity of pattern in further ado let us develop some basic
all declensions. The commonly used vocabulary. In the following, m, f and n in
participles are the past passive, past active parantheses refer to the 3 genders and (r)
and occasionally the present participle. The refers to respectful usage.
past passive participles end in A and thus Basic Vocabulary
they are declined as in ram, rma or )l
English s<Sk«tm! English s<Sk«tm!
depending on the gender. The past active
participles are declined as pct! or ndI in I How?
Ahm! kwm!
masculine or feminine genders. In addition we Man
vym! pué;>
to these declensions, one should have some
familiarity with the declensions of the most mine Woman
mm ôI
common pronouns.
our Boy
Conversational Sanskrit when used ASmakm! balk>
colloquially, may sometimes not adhere to
You Girl
subtle grammatical and linguistic rules. For Tvm! bailka
example, there are 3 different words in You Teacher
Évan! iz]k>
Sanskrit for the word ‘This.’ These are @tdœ , (r,m)
You (r,f) Student
#dm! , and Ads! . Mind you, each of these ÉvtI ma[vk>
You (p) Mother
words take on different forms in the 3 yUym! mata
genders! What differentiates these 3 words
Your (s) Father
are the relative proximity of ‘this’ to the tv ipta
speaker. @tdœ Is the closest while Ads! is Your
Évt>
Sister
ÉignI
(r,m)
furthest from the speaker. Then, there is the
Your Brother
ÉvTya> æata
word tdœ (s>, sa, tt!) which stands for (r,f)
He Friend
‘That.’ That is regarded as being out of s> imÇm!
sight (Aprae] ) – far off. When we say sa His Village
tSy ¢am>
izi]ka, technically the teacher is out of She Town
sa ngrm!
sight. To introduce a teacher in person we
 Her Cat Good Morning
tSya> majaRr> suàÉatm!
It Dog Good Night
tt! k…Šr… > zuÉraÇI
Its Cow How are you?
tSy gaE> k…zl< va - ikm!
My Elephant How are you?
mm gj> kwmiSt Évan!
In me Monkey How are you?
miy kip> kwmiSt ÉvtI
In you Horse Yes, I am well
Tviy Añ> Aam! k…zlm!
By / Water I am well (m)
mya jlm! k…zlI AiSm
with me
I am well (f)
By /
Tvya
Milk
]Irm! k…zilnI AiSm
with you
Thank you
By / Curd xNyvad>
ten dix
with it Pardon me
They(m) Buttermil ]Mytam!
te t³m!
k Do not worry
icNta ma AStu
They(f) Book
ta> puStkm!
All is well
sv¡ smIcInm!
They(n) Pen
tain leonI What is your name?
tv nam ikm! (AiSt)
Their House
te;am! g&hm! What is your name(r)?
(m,n) Évt> nam ikm!
Their(f) School
tasam! zala What is your name(f)?
ÉvTya> nam ikm!
This (m) Name
Aym! nam My name is Rama
mm nam ram>
This (f) Is
#ym! As! My name is Sita
mm nam sIta
This (n) Read
#dm! pQœ This is my house
#d< mm g&hm!
That Write
tt! ilo! This is my father
Ay< mm ipta
Who(m) Eat
k> oadœ This is my mother
? #y< mm mata
Who(f)? See
ka †z! This is my friend
#d< mm imÇm!
What? Hear
ikm! ïu What is that?
tt! ikm!
Where? Drink
k…Ç pa That is buttermilk (far)
tt! t³miSt
That is buttermilk
Ad> t³miSt
Greetings and Simple conversation Who is she?
sa ka . #y< ka
English She is a teacher
s<Sk«tm! sa izi]ka . #y<
Hello izi]ka
hir> Aaem!
Greetings / Saultation Who is our student?
nmSkar> ASmak< ma[vk> k>
Where is your house Hari’s book
Évt> g&h< k…Ç AiSt hre> puStkm!
Our house is in India No. Who is the author?
ASmak< g&h< ÉrtvzeR n, ken iliotm!

AiSt No. Who is the author?

n, k> iliotvan!
He saw an elephant Work of PaNini
s> gj< †òvan! pai[inna iliotm!
She saw a cat Very nice
sa majaRr< †òvtI suóu
What did you see? What else?
Tv< ik< †òvan! Aip ikm!
A school was seen by Let us meet again
mya zala †òa pun> imlam>
me
Good night!
What was heard by
Tvya ik< ïutm! zuÉraÇI
you?
gItA was heard by me
mya gIta ïuta
In the foregoing, siNxkayRm! has been left out
Book was read by him
ten puStk< piQtm! to highlight and clarify the individual
Whose book? words.
kSy puStkm!