As an example, for someone who is used to converse in English most of the time, which eventually leads to thinking in English, it would be hard to switch to any other language for conversation. For Sanskrit learners who also want to converse, knowing the grammar won't be enough. Adapting a language for conversation also means seeing the world through that language - understanding how the language works. While English has its idiosyncrasies, Sanskrit has its own. Therefore, just a dictionary look up or word-to-word translation many times leads to absurdity. For many English word usages, especially the modern ones, while trying to use in Sanskrit, we should take a different approach.
Sanskrit is based on धातु (dhaatu, abstract root) concept, which is very powerful in generating new words based on what the referring object or action is about. We can find English-to-Sanskrit translations for hundreds of words used in today's world. Most of them are quite adequate, make sense and usable. However, as we come across more and more of words for more recent objects which were not present in olden days, many times we stumble. The guideline here should be not to look up the English-to-Sanskrit dictionary (or follow it literally), but to understand what the action/context is about and then construct a Sanskrit word for it. Let me illustrate with some examples.
Hello = many people use हरिः ॐ/नमस्ते, OK = अस्तु, Yes, yep = आम्, Sorry = क्षम्यताम्, Thank you = धन्यवादः
The above have almost become the standard in usage, which is good. But many people may want to know the equivalent of "You are welcome" - which is used as a reciprocation of "Thank you" in many parts of the world. Literal translation would be तुभ्यं स्वागतम्. But do we want to really say that? While we want to converse in Sanskrit, it would be more prudent to adapt to the ways Sanskrit is/was/should be spoken, not adapting Sanskrit to other cultures. Some other examples:
Good morning = सुप्रभातम् - standard usage, Good evening = शुभसन्ध्या - confused usage, Good afternoon = शुभापराह्नम् - confused usage, Good day = शुभदिनम् - ok Bye = शुभमस्तु - ok
Test (while testing mic) = हरिः ॐ, नमस्ते or परीक्षणम् - again, there is no need for word-translation
Mute (phone) = मूकम् -Most still use "mute करोतु", because many people may not understand मूकं/मूकी करोतु
Car = कारयानम्, Train = रेलयानम् - I think, these words are coined by someone for the lack of standardization, just convenient to use. Many other languages do not use "car" or "rail", but have their own words for them, interpreting what that vehicle does or used for. There could be alternatives like शाकटी, पथगा, वीथिगा, लोहपथी etc. Being such a powerful language, we keep using these foreign words impudently.
Bill - well, if we look up the dictionary it shows चञ्चुक (beak of a bird). But if we are referring to a paper which shows the money to be paid, we can use - देयकम्/देयपत्रम्
E-mail = इ-पत्रम् is commonly used. But it can be even more Sanskritized (refined) to वै-पत्रम्, as in वै stands for the abbreviation of electronic =वैद्युतम्
Slide (play) - spokensanskrit.org shows it as अवसर्पिणी. But for slide (presentation), most of us still continue saying स्लैड्र only, again for convenience. Probably, दर्शिकापत्रम् is suitable because it is showing something.
In this generation of social media, more words need attention.
Post (a message) -no, not a स्तम्भ, but something like संदेशः स्थापितः
Flagged (a post/message) - no, not a ध्वज/पताका, but something like संकेतितः (actually, केतन means flag)
So, other than the proper (given) names (अङ्कितनामानि), like Google, Facebook (some jokingly say मुखपुस्तकम्), Twitter etc., which should be used as is, for other words, we should be able to "think and form" the words using the power of Sanskrit, not just "translate" them.
Anybody for a selfie? 😏
Selfie -स्वयंगृहीतचित्रम्
ReplyDeleteNice :) Additionally, we can consider trying to keep such frequently used words as short as possible, so that people can easily use them in conversation. For example, for telephone, in English we mostly use phone. But in Sanskrit, we are stuck with दूरवाणी and using just वाणी is not an accepted practice. For selfie, probably स्वचित्रम्?
Deleteस्वचित्रं नाम आत्मनः चित्रम्, तत् तेनैव स्वीकर्तव्यम् इति नास्ति नियमः।
ReplyDeleteसत्यं धन्यवादः। कारयानस्य विषये कः अभिप्रायः?
Deleteतद्योग्यं भाति।
ReplyDeleteकथं योग्यम्? का पदनिष्पत्तिः?
ReplyDeleteभवदुक्तं योग्यमिति मदभिप्रायः, न तु कारयानम्।
ReplyDeleteकस्य शब्दय प्रयोगः अपेक्ष्यते ? अहमपि प्रायः तदेव शब्दप्रयोगमनुसरामि |
Deleteपथगा, वीथिगा इत्यादीनां प्रयोगः योग्यः
ReplyDeleteनोचेत् गन्त्री इति वक्तुं शक्यम्, लघुगन्त्री, क्षुद्रगन्त्री इत्यादीनि
ReplyDeleteसुन्दरम्। गन्त्रीति रोचते। यदि जनेषु कस्यचित् पदस्येकस्य प्रयोगः भवति तर्हि सुकरम्।
Deleteअस्मामेकः सम्भाषणगणः वर्तते। सोमवासरेषु दूरवाणीमेलनं भवति। तस्मिन् भवादृशानां सहयोगः गणाय लाभदायकः भवतीति मन्ये । गणमेलनस्य विवरणमस्मिन् जालपुटे उपलब्धम्। समयानुकूलः भवति चेत् स्वागतम्।
Deletehttps://sites.google.com/site/bhashabodha/classrooms/conversationgroup
धन्याहम्, काचिन्नूतना वर्तते भवत्समूहे, तथापि समयाभावात् अशक्ता तत्र प्रवेशने, नान्यथा भाव्यम्, यदि कश्चन वाट्सप् समूहः वर्तते तर्हि ज्ञापनीया।
ReplyDeleteनास्ति चिन्ता । धन्यवादः।
DeleteNamaste Mahodaya , i was thinking the exact same thing just a few days back - that we sanskrit learners speak 'translated sanskrit' from english. I feel there is no'You're welcome' in indian languages. In Indian India When we say'Thank you' we receive a humble smile most of the time. Your above exchange with Ms.Katuri is very interesting, I also learnt some new words. Dhanyavadaah
ReplyDeleteनमस्ते भगिनि ।
DeleteMost of these things are from my own experience which I come across during meetings, conferences, emails, etc. Some people are naive and mistakenly think that Sanskrtizing the proper/given names like Google etc. is cool and keeps the sanctity of the language.
And there are some who simply want to follow the practices of either English or their native languages. Here the idea is to bend Sanskrit to their current cultural learnings which makes it easy to grasp.
The above two aspects, I think are either by ignorance or learning stages. On the other hand, which bothers me most, there are organized efforts to sneak in the foreign words into Sanskrit usage in the name of mass-adoption. This is unacceptable and absolutely unnecessary. And many of us, especially the new learners, have fell for it thinking that those words are THE standard and only way of using them.
I will be using गन्त्री for the car. Thanks to the suggestion above. And will use अयस्पथी for railway.
सादरम्
संजीवः
The subject of discussion is not as simple as it appears. One should thoroughly look in to the guiding principle of Patnjali " catushtayi shabdaanaam pravrittih". For several reasons "car-yaanam" etc is better solution. As far as the issue of 'thank you' and 'you are welcome' we have one Vedic karmakaanda tradition to add letter 'su' before the same word and repeat. For example. 'idaM bhojyaM' In reply 'subhojyaM'. It is millions of years old tradition which is good to revive. so, 'dhanyavadaH' In reply' sudhanyavaadaaH' Coining a new word is not problem. We have to see whether it has the capacity to denote one and only one object. GantrI can not do this obviously. Now only way out is to consider it to be Yogarudha like 'pankaja'. It can not be done by swearing that this is yogarudha. It is on the basis of continuous usage for long long time or by mass usage as in the case of selfie, mobile, satellite, bullet train etc. thousands of words. I agree on the point that some times we are doing disservice to Sanskrit if we simply translate words of other languages. Therefore, safer way is to identify usages which are available in literature on the strength of context and adopt them wherever applicable and strive hard to put them into mass usage. Till such thing is identified we can carry speaking practice by adopting yadruccha sabdas as they are suffixing it with Sanskrit generic word to fecilitate to add case endings.
DeleteOne classic example I give. Sometimes people say 'maarge jaam asti. vilambo bhavitumarhati'. Here, In the Ramayana there is clear usage of word 'sambaadhaH' used several times. We should revive it rather than sammarda etc.
I wrote in a hurry and informal way. Kindly do not mind for typos and other formalities.
Thank you Mahodaya for suggesting and guiding with the revival of words from literature. However, (in Sanskrit) any word, almost always has the capacity to denote multiple meanings, not one and only one object. Yes, it is by continuous and mass usage, a word gets stuck to an object. And introducing words like कारयान (car-yaan) is setting a bad precedent at this juncture when Sanskrit seems to be gaining traction again. Just because a single word derived within Sanskrit (like गन्त्री) is not being accepted by masses, we cannot go on coining new words borrowed from other languages. Selfie, mobile, satellite, bullet train etc, for these words, did the English look at other languages when these new things were invented? They just made up the words from the existing words, what the function is and some fun added. For each invention if we go on borrowing the words into Sanskrit, the role of English and Sanskrit will soon be reversed, for no reason or reason of convenience, which other languages probably did before. I think the complex issue here is that Sanskrit has currently very little number of speakers, that too most of them learners and such foreign words pushed onto them acquire quick consensus, with the danger of passing onto the generations. The sad irony is that for the reason of small population, it becomes difficult for different groups and factions working within the Sanskrit world to agree upon a common native word. Nonetheless, we must try and use a Sanskrit-based word, or as they say "in the bickering between parents, the baby suffers".
Delete