The Roots, Verb-Forms and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language

by William Dwight Whitney

This work is intended especially as a supplement to the author's Sanskrit Grammar giving a fullness of detail that was not there practicable, nor admissible as part of the grammar itself. All the quotable roots of the language, with the tense and conjugation-systems made from them, and with the noun and adjective (infinitival and participial) formation that attach themselves most closely to the verb; and further with the other derivative noun and adjective-stems usually classed as primary. Everything given is dated with such accuracy as the information thus far in hand allows. In the indexes of stems given at the end of the volume, a classification is adopted which is intended to facilitate the historical comprehension of the language, by distinguishing what belongs respectively to its older and to its later periods from that which forms a part of it through the whole history.

Genres: Language

250 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

About the author

William Dwight Whitney was an American linguist, philologist, and lexicographer known for his work on Sanskrit grammar and Vedic philology as well as his influential view of language as a social institution. He was the first president of the American Philological Association and editor-in-chief of The Century Dictionary.

Whitney revised definitions for the 1864 edition of Webster's American Dictionary, and in 1869 became a founder and first president of the American Philological Association. In the same year he also became Yale's professor of comparative philology. Whitney also gave instruction in French and German in the college until 1867, and in the Sheffield scientific school until 1886. He wrote metrical translations of the Vedas, and numerous papers on the Vedas and linguistics, many of which were collected in the Oriental and Linguistic Studies series (1872–74). He wrote several books on language, and grammar textbooks of English, French, German, and Sanskrit.

His Sanskrit Grammar (1879) is notable in part for the criticism it contains of the Ashtadhyayi, the Sanskrit grammar attributed to Panini. Whitney describes the Ashtadhyayi as "containing the facts of the language cast into the highly artful and difficult form of about four thousand algebraic-like rules (in the statement and arrangement of which brevity alone is had in view at the cost of distinctness and unambiguousness)."

Reviews

[Abdul · Rating 5 out of 5]

This work is excellent for those who are confronting several new roots. It provides the forms, primary conjugations, secondary derivations and some derivatives and connect them with the era of Vedas, Upanishads,Sutras,Jatakas. This is undoubtedly a must have for Sanskrit language lovers.

[Ramesh Abhiraman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Dhaatupatha. No devanagari script, you have to read English transliterated text with diacritical marks. Under each root, the present, perfect, aorist, etc. forms are given, with their English sense. Useful book to reach for to refresh your mind about both the root form to use (compact enough to flip through) and then to read the small paragraph long entry for the correct sanskrit (lut, lot, lat, lung) conjugation or participle.
These Yale Orientology chaps wrote good Sanskrit references.