Why are there optional rules?mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1557

Nowadays, people speaking certain English dialects say "I have learned", and other people say "I have learnt".

The same thing has been happening for centuries, so English grammarians came to agree that both ways are good.

Grammarians might any time agree to teach that one of those is good and the other is bad. But that would cause several problems. The people that are now using the "bad" one would not be happy. And all schoolteachers should be made to teach the kids to not use the bad one. And the dictionaries should be fixed to say that the bad one is an old form of the good one.

As doing all that is too much trouble, and having two forms does not really harm anyone, grammarians have taken the lazy option and say that both are good. Maybe they will rethink that view at some point in the future. But do not hold your breath, because English grammarians have not yet said that "thou" is bad English.

Old Sanskrit grammarians, too, were lazy sometimes, and didn't want to waste time debating if nRNAm was better or worse than nRRNAm, so they made rule nRca to tell everybody "both nRNAm and nRRNAm are okay".

chandas and laukikammmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1558

The laukika is the variety of language that was considered "best" by language teachers in times of pANini. We can guess that it was the register used by the upper classes and by educated people, and that the speech of most of the population was quite near it, but sort of drifting away from it.

The chandas ("songs", "verses") are the veda. The language of the vedas was not too far away from the laukika of those times, but far away enough that it deserved some teaching. I mean, priests had to be taught details like "thou means you" or "wrought means made".

The pANinIya has a double purpose: teaching correct spoken language, and helping to understand and preserve the vedas.

wikipedia on Register (sociolinguistics)

About vedic rulesmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1559

The vedic rules are only useful for people that study the veda. They warn the student of the veda about the grammar differences betwen the ancient language of the vedas and the laukika, so that he may rest assured they are not grammar mistakes nor misrememberings.

Example. Rule 11013 ze just teaches that in a certain passage of the veda, namely, asme::indrAbRhaspatI, the fact that asme did not change into asma by ecoya is not a mistake -- that's a quirk of the old language, and that's how it must be sung.

When I say that a rule is vedic, you may safely ignore it. This website is made for people that are not interested in learning the veda, by a teacher also uninterested.

About the veda.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1560

The veda are some very ancient collections of holy songs. Roughly explained, they are a bit like the Bible. They are supposed to be very holy and very magic, and all knowledge comes from them, directly or indirectly.

The veda is divided in four parts, the biggest of which is the Rgveda.

The language of the veda is Sanskrit, but slightly different because it is very old. The difference however does not amount to much. It would be, I guess, comparable to the difference between Shakespeare's English and 21st century English -- there are differences, but we can understand most of it. This is way less than the difference between, say, Shakespeare and the Beowulf.

There are pAnini rules that explain the differences between the everyday language described by pANini (the laukika) and the language of the veda. These are called vedic rules.

Ancient Sanskrit Online at UTexas

Strong affixes.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1561

The affixes that are added to a nounbase can be strong or weak.

If the nounbase is neuter, only zi is strong (by zisa).

Otherwise, su au jas am au are strong (by suDa).

All other nounbase affixes are weak.

Being strong or not strong makes rules like rAjAnam and alloponaH work or not work.

Summary of replacing one letter or many.mmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C+ 1562

Summary of rules alontyasya, AdeHparasya, anekAlzit, Gicca --

one-letter replacements replace one letter

See examples at alontyasya and AdeHparasya

many-letter replacements replace the whole

See examples at anekAl

BUT

one-letter replacements that have z label replace the whole

See examples at anekAl

many-letter replacements that have G label replace one letter

See examples at Gicca

Back to alo 'ntyasya.

Back to anekAl zit sarvasya.

Back to AdeHparasya.

Back to Gic ca.