Appetitive: It's Been a While...and Sanskrit

It's been quite a while. Now I'm back and I'm going to try to stay sane enough to post fairly regularly. Perhaps it will keep me sane.

One of the things I learned this last quarter is that Sanskrit is really hard, and, no one seems to like any of the books out on the market right now. I liked Sanskrit, but I'm not going to continue to take it because it takes up too much time for something that is not in my area of interest. However, I realized that the reason it took up so much time is that I basically had to rewrite the book for myself and gather information from other resources to supplement it.

My guides are far from complete, but I realized that if I put them up online, people could benefit from the many, many, many hours I spent making them and it might make Sanskrit an easier process for beginners or people trying to teach themselves. I realize this sounds presumptuous-- because it is; it is somewhat unreasonable that I, with only one quarter of Sanskrit, would be able to help other people. I do not pretend I know anything-- I just thought I would reorganize the information already out there into a more easily digestible form. I also would be more than happy for help/corrections/etc.

It's going to take a while to convert my notes into a distributable format. I've started doing this, but it will be a little while before I am able to post it.

 

I used Perry's Sanskrit Primer, both because it was my textbook for class, and because it is both cheap (book form) and free (PDF form). I did a lot of my supplementary reading out of Complete Sanskrit, but I also occasionally used William Dwight Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar (PDF).

More classically related things soon. Happy holidays, everyone.

Appetitive: Procrastination

We translated this (simplified) sentace from the Bhadavad Gita[1] today and I just needed to put it up (and I'm avoiding reading 10 OCT pages of Cicero's letters for tomorrow):

प्रसक्ताः काम-भोगेषु पतन्ति नरके (The ones attached to the satisfaction of desire fall into hell: XVI.16)

I may have this not entirely right because I'm typing it from a transliteration and I don't know if words represented with a hyphen in transliteration have a hyphen in Devanagari script. I, however, cannot type the transliteration because I can't put the dot under letters. Anyway, this sentence just amused me, especially because I am, at the moment, satisfying my desire to do my Sanskrit homework instead of my Latin homework which is more immanent. However, this is probably not the kind of desire spoken about in this passage.

Footnotes:

1. Can someone with a Windows computer tell me how to make unicode macrons? Also how to make the little dots under retroflex consonants and the tilde-n. That would be awesome.

Reasoning: Sanskrit-- A More Reasonable Approach

vs.

I tried to learn Sanskrit earlier this year, but I unwisely tried to learn from a reference grammar, William Dwight Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar. More recently, Catullus II and I have tried to begin working through Complete Sanskrit, which is providing a more systematic (although still difficult introduction to the topic). Does anyone have any hints for memorizing the Sanskrit script? I am finding it very difficult.

Appetitive: Learning Sanskrit

 

I have talked a lot about learning Sanskrit in previous blogposts (#1, #2). I actually started training myself in the language Tuesday in preparation for my first meeting with my friend Catullus II Wednesday morning. It's really hard! We read and discussed the first chapter of William Dwight Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar (concerning the alphabet) and attempted to puzzle through pronunciation and how to approach a primarily syllabic alphabet. It should be a fun challenge. Our second meeting is this Wednesday and we will be looking at the second chapter (pronunciation).

Learning a new language is always difficult. Sanskrit is the fourth language I am currently actively studying (alongside French, Latin, and Greek) and I will hopefully be adding German to the list sometime in the next few weeks. Tips for learning Sanskrit or (especially) book recommendations would be very welcome.

Note: It's been a hectic week. Normal posting should resume soon.

Appetitve/Spirited: To Learn Sanskrit (and German)?

One of my friends just decided we should learn Sanskrit together. Our plan is to work through William Dwight Whitney's Sanskrit Grammar[1], which Propertius II used two summers ago and possibly the supplement that goes with it (Roots, Verb-forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language) that I discovered as a free Google edition.

We will probably begin in late January. If anyone has any tips for books or on how to work through a Sanskrit grammar, let me know.

Endnotes

1. Free Google edition of the Grammar. To get to it, "buy" the book (it's free), click "read it now" then find the "i" (about this book) icon and click on it. Click "read on your device," scroll to the bottom and download the PDF.

Appetitive: New Year's Resolutions

I am going to spend some time cleaning up my (very tired) post from last night on Greek Oaths. Meanwhile, I shall celebrate the New Year.

Tomorrow begins a New Year. In this year I will have to apply to graduate school and try to dive back into the world of classics in academia. I thought I would post a few resolutions related to this to remain in the spirit of the holiday (in no particular order):

• Read at least 33% of the books on my reading (and rereading) list and review them on this blog.
• Revise a chapter of my thesis into a writing sample for graduate school.
• Go over Greek and/or Latin flashcards for at least 15 minutes per day.
• Post translations for Sulpicia's poetic cycle.
• Lean some Sanskrit.
• Finish the rest of the Platonic Dialogues in English (I have a few more to go). I will possibly be reading the Parmenides with Ovid II.
• Post a classically-related blogpost daily.
• Improve my Greek and Latin pronunciation and my understanding of meter.

I do not know whether the Greek or the Romans had any kind of New Year's resolutions. I thought, since I could not find an apt quotation, that I would simply, like other writers before me, ask for guidance from the muses (in the words of another):

"δεῦτέ νυν ἄβραι Χάριτες καλλίκομοί τε Μοῖσαι [Come hither now delicate Graces and beautiful-haired Muses]" (Sappho 128)

and I would add "and guide me on my quest to graduate school."  Happy New Year, everyone!

Reasoning: Sanskrit Library

I have spent most of the day working on a time line for the art history in the second chapter of my thesis. I am trying to do some revision to see if I can get anyone interested in my thesis, and I also to use it for a writing sample.

Some of the programs that I am looking at, e.g. Brown, require Sanskrit. Ever since I was in high school and my first Greek teacher talked about the relationship between Greek and Sanskrit, I have been interested in learning Sanskrit. My interest was stoked further by a beautiful green leather book I discovered in one of my friends rooms when hanging out one day. The book was beautiful, thick with cream pages, and became much more so when I realized that the book was in fact a Sanskrit Grammar. A few summers ago, two friends of mine decided to teach themselves Sanskrit (one of whom was Propertius). I was going to do it with them, but it became complicated, although I believe they did manage to pick up some amount of the language. In the process, I received my own copy of the Sanskrit Grammar. I have planned on looking into it this summer, but I have not gotten around to it yet. You can download it for free online on the Internet Archive.


While I was searching around, I found a Sanskrit Library. It appears to have Sanskrit texts and materials of some kind, although I haven to looked into much of it yet. I hope that I would manage to teach myself a little at some point.