A Sanskrit Grammar: Including Both the Classical Language, and the Older Dialects, of Veda and Brahmana

by William Dwight Whitney

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Genres: Language, Linguistics, Reference

596 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1889

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

[Panthea · Rating 5 out of 5]

گرامر سانسکریت تا حد زیادی شبیه به گرامر اوستایی ـه؛ تفاوتهای تقریبن قابل توجهی توی واجها و تحولات آوایی از هندی-اروپایی بین این دوتا وجود داره اما حتی جکسون توی کتاب گرامر اوستایی ش بارها و بارها به همین کتاب و همین نویسنده ارجاع داده و از سانسکریت برای رمزگشایی و درک بهتر زبان اوستایی استفاده کرده؛ حتی توی مثالهایی که از افعال یا نام ها برای صرف و نحو میزنه حتمن سانسکریت ر لحاظ میکنه.
برای درک کامل دستور زبان اوستایی به نظرم لازمه که حتمن با دستور زبان سانسکریت هم لااقل آشنایی داشته باشید.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The phonological material is exhaustive but the syntactical material is a mess. No clear distinction between the Vedic and the Classical.

Not for the faint of heart.

[Belle F · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I didn't have to know the complete Sanskrit grammar, this really helped me to fall back on when I need a more clear explanation of things. Extremely handy when learning the language.

[Aswini Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is actually good to gain knowledge in sanskrit and sanskrit grammar is the way to gain knowledge.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely thorough, but not for the uninitiated. A serious background in languages and linguistics is needed, as well as a basic familiarity with Indo-European tongues.