This presentation discusses about the influence of Sanskrit over English - linguistic similarities between English, Greek and Latin. A lecture delivered at Academic Staff College 2015

1. Linguistic Interactions of East &Linguistic Interactions of East &
West – The Case of Sanskrit andWest – The Case of Sanskrit and
EnglishEnglish
Dr. J.S.R.A. Prasad
Dept. of Sanskrit Studies,
University of Hyderabad

2. Mighty Sanskrit
The Sanscrit language, whatever be its
antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more
perfect than the Greek, more copious than
the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than
either, yet bearing to both of them a
stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs
and the forms of grammar, than could
possibly have been produced by accident;

3. so strong indeed, that no philologer could
examine them all three, without believing
them to have sprung from some common
source, which, perhaps, no longer exists;
there is a similar reason, though not quite
so forcible, for supposing that both the
Gothic and the Celtic, though blended with
a very different idiom, had the same origin
with the Sanscrit; and the old Persian might
be added to the same family – William
Jones (1786).

4. What the western scholars say?

"At one time Sanskrit was the one language spoken all over the world." - The Great Sanskrit
scholar Franz Bopp (1791-1867) wrote in his Edinborough Review (Volume 33, page 43)

"The Brahmans are the teachers of Pythagoras, the instructors of Greece, and through her the
whole of Europe. figured that the earliest humans had to have been located on the banks of
the Ganges. - French astronomer Bailly 1777

I am convinced that everything–astronomy, astrology, metempsychosis, etc.– comes to us
from the banks of the Ganges. Voltair 1777

The French naturalist and traveler Pierre de Sonnerat (1782) believed that - all knowledge
came from India, which he considered the cradle of the human race.

Schelling (1807), Friedrich von Schlegel (1808), Eichhoff (1845), Vans Kennedy (1828),
Lord A. Curzon (1855)

Marcus Zuerius van Boxhorn (1612 – 1653) was the first scholar to explore the common link
between many languages, including Sanskrit.

5. Are We Primitive?
Edward Pokoke (1604-1691): The Greek language is a derivation
from Sanskrit, therefore Sanskrit speaking people, i.e Indians
must have dwelt in Greece, and the dwelling must have
preceded the settlement of those tribes which helped to produce
the corruption of the old language; or in other words, the
people who spoke that language - i.e., the Indians, must have
been the primitive settlers, or at least, they must have colonized
the country so early, and dwelt their so long, as to have effaced
all dialectic traces of any other inhabitants...".

6. "The history and origin of ancient Greece were not clearly
written down by the Greeks themselves, but ancient
Indian writings such as the Puranas, the Mahabharata,
and the Rajput genealogies may hold keys to solving
some of these questions." - Mysteries of Ancient Greece,
Coen Vonk (2005)

7. British scholar Thomas Maurice (1754 - 1824), editor of the
seven volumes of Indian Antiquities, mentions in Volume
IV that Nathaniel Halhead (1751-1830), the first European
Sanskrit scholar, "seems to hint that it (Sanskrit) was the
original language of the earth. All Western scholars who
readily apply their mind to the problem will find
themselves concurring with Halhead that Sanskrit is the
oldest language and that it was spoken all over the world.
Other world languages are shattered and twisted bits of
Sanskrit."
(Halhead authored 'The Code of Gentoo Law'.)

8. "One of ancient India’s greatest achievements is her remarkable
alphabet, commencing with the vowels and followed by the
consonants, all classified very scientifically according to their
mode of production, in sharp contrast to the haphazard and
inadequate Roman alphabet, which has developed organically
for three millennia. It was only on the discovery of Sanskrit by
the West that a science of phonetics arose in Europe." - Prof.
A.L. Basham, The Wonder That Was India (page 390).

9. History of Indology started with the following western scholars:

Heinrich Roth (1620 – 1668) – Sanskrit Grammar (in Latin)

Bartholomäus Ziegenbalg (1682 – 1719) – Religion and Tamil
Literature

A.H. Francke (1707) – Antiques of Indian Tibet

Frederic Von Schlegel (1722-1829) – On the Language and
Wisdom of India

10. Contd...

William Jones (1746-1794) – Abhijnana Sakuntalam,
Hitopadesa, Rtusamhara

Charles Wilkins (1749 – 1836) – Grammar of the Sanskrita
Language

Franz Bopp (1791-1867) – Comparative Grammar of Sanskrit,
Zend (Avestan), Greek, Latin, Lithuanian, Old Slavonic, Gothic
and German

Max Muller (1823 – 1900) – The Vedas, Sacred Books of the
East etc.

11. Cultural Voyage through
Translations

Sakuntalam (1789)

Hitopadesa (1787)

Srimad-Bhagavad-Gita (1785)

Rtusamhara (1792)

Manusmriti (1794)

12. PIE
By the 19th century,
linguists knew that
all modern Indo-
European
languages
descended from a
single tongue.
Called Proto-Indo-
European, or PIE,
it was spoken by
a people who
lived from roughly
4500 to 2500
B.C., and left no
written texts. (
http://www.archaeology.org
)

13. Sanskrit and PIE
It is believed that Sanskrit is the oldest language
in the PIE hierarchy. Though it has influenced
Greek, Latin, Persian, Avestan, Germanic
languages, up to a great extent, there was
disagreement with regard to its common
ancestor, other than Sanskrit.

14. Vocabulary
Sanskrit - Latin
- Vehit
- Vomit
- Nidus
- Serpens
- Dies
- Vidua
- Juvenis
- Medius
- Ros
- Vir
- Dentes
- Series
- Ignis
- Potens
- Murmer
- Tumultus
- Puer

15. PIE Structures
 Like in Sanskrit, Greek
has dual number
 Numerals and pronouns
are similar to each other
 Similar verbal forms - 'To
be'
 Negative prefix – 'a' –
ajnanta → á-gnōstos
 'unknown' in English

16. 
'अ' in Sanskrit always represents an 'é' in
Greek.
Ex: janaH → génos
- sapta → septem (also L.)→ heptá;
- nabhas → népho s

17. Numerals
Sanskrit Greek Latin
heĩs ūnus
dúō duo
treĩs trēs
téssares quattuor
pénte quīnque
Source: Comparative Indo-European Linguistics (p. 239)

18. héks sex
heptá septem
oktō´ octō
ennéa novem
déka decem

19. Verbal Forms - Sanskrit&Greek
Sanskrit form Greek form
Root – '' (to be)
- He is (3.1)
- You are (2.1)
- I am (1.1)
- we are (1.3)
– you are (2.3)
- they are (3.3)
'es' – to be
esti - He is (es-t)
essi - You are (es)
esmi - I am (s-um)
s-umus - we are (1.3)
es-tis - you are (2.3)
s-unt - they are (3.3)

20. Vocabulary
Sanskrit - Latin
Vehit
Vomit
Nidus
Serpens
Dies
Vidua
Juvenis
Medius
Ros
Vir
Dentes
Series
Ignis
Potens
Murmer
Tumultus
Puer

21. Cognate Forms
Sanskrit Latin Greek English
meaning
Nomen Onoma Name
Me(-) Eme (') Me
Pater Pater Father
tres treῖs Three
Per Peri Far

22. Contd...
Sanskrit Latin Greek English meaning
r xē
Vasiliás Regal
Saccharon skkharo sugar
() Nardus Nrtho Indian spikenard
Sandalum Santhlyon/Santh
leeon
Sandal
Orenge Orenge Orange

23. Contd...
Sanskrit Latin Greek English
meaning
Interim Interim
() Bovi/Bovis vódi (in) Cow (7.1)
Os Osteön Bone
Aqua Neró Water
Anima Atme Soul
Tremo Treo (-) Tremor
Deus theós Theoso-phy

24. Contd...
Sanskrit Latin Greek English
meaning
Super
húper Above (adv.)
intus
entó s
From here
(adv.)
m sū m sū
Mouse
dus-menás
Evil minded
(compound)

25. Phonetic Changes
Jacob Grimms (1785-1863) drew attention to
similarity of consonants between Sanskrit,
Greek and Latin and certain Germanic
languages, which is know as 'Grimm's Law.'
For instance, he showed that:
- the 'p' in PIE become 'f' in the Germanic
- 't' become 'th' – tres → three
- short vowels becoming long vowels Ex: ae → ai

26. The ending of the instrumental plural in Sanskrit is –
'bhis.' In Greek we find this ending in the form –
'phi', cf. Sanskrit náu-bhis (), Gr. 'naũ-phi' = ‘with
the ships.’
Although in principle it is not impossible that the -s
was removed in Greek (it should have remained
according to sound law), it is much more probable
that the -s in Sanskrit was added.
Contd...

27. That would have occurred on the basis of the
nominative and accusative endings -as and the
dative -bhyas. The -as is thus seen as characteristic
of the plural.
(Robert SP Beekes, Comparative Indo-Europen
Linguistics – An Introduction, p. 77)

28. Declension Forms
case suffix Skt. Dec. Greek Latin
nom. ē´r patē´r pater
voc. er páter pater
acc. ér-m patéra patrem
dat. r-éi patrí patrī
gen. r-ós patrós patris
loc. ér-i patre

29. Cases – Old English
In old English (1066) there used to be five cases:

Nom., Acc., Inst., Dat. and Gen., like in
Germanic languages.

Dual forms were maintained in personal
pronouns. Genders were attributed for all
nouns.

Three genders agreed, but arbitrary fixation of
genders.

30. Contd...
Ex: 'Girl' in Anglo Saxon was in neuter gender.
Woman (Wifmann) was in masculine and child
(cild) was in neuter.
(English language and literary criticism, A.S.
Kharbe, p. 23)

31. Syntax

SVO-OSV-VSO:
'The man killed the lion.'
'(1.1) (2.1) (v.3.1)'
'(2.1) (1.1) (v.3.1)'
'(v.3.1) (1.1) (2.1) '
'(1.1) (v.3.1) (2.1) '
'(2.1) (v.3.1) (1.1) '
'(v.3.1) (2.1) (1.1) '

32. Synatactic Structure in OE
'my name is' (ME) - 'min nama is,' 'nama min
is...' (OE) all are same in meaning like in the
inflectional process in Sanskrit. This trend was
in vogue which happened until 1150 AD.
But lateral English, due to the old influence,
shares still some similarities with Sanskrit
syntax.

33. For instance: the “'s” as genitive.
This is a book of my brother's →
With possessive pronouns:
'He's a friend of Mine' →
'It is no business of theirs' →

34. Contd...
Also, middle English got rid of the arbitrary
gender system. Thereafter, the French
influence was so high that about 10,000 words
were introduced in to Old English changing its
structure to be known as Middle English.
case positions – nom, acc, inst. Dat., abl., gen.,
loc. vis-a-vis propositions
Sanskrit and Latin have no articles as in PIE.
Homer used no articles in archaic Greek.

35. Nomenclature
The Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-
1778) is regarded as the father of taxonomy,
as he developed a system known as Linnaean
classification for categorization of organisms
and binomial nomenclature for naming
organisms.
William Jones had improved the Linneous
nomenclature.
The following plant names are derived from
Sanskrit.

36. Plant Taxonomy
Carissa L. < K a (phala)ṛṣṇ Datura L. < Dhattūra Piper Longum L. < Pippalī
Saccharum officinarum L.
<Śarkarā ←ik uṣ
Santalum album L.
< Candanam
Vitex negundo L.
Nirgu īṇḍ

37. Contd...
Putranjiva Roxburhii
Putrajīva
Saraca asoca
Aśoka
Salmalia Indica
Śālmalī
Madhuca longifolia
Madhuka
Saccharum Munja L.
Muñjā

38. Metaphor

Use of metaphor in literature – East & West
“the roofs of Paris” vis-à-vis “gangAyAM
ghoshaH (village in the river)”

The 'prakaraNam' vis-à-vis 'context' in
Ogden&Richards (The Meaning of Meaning)

Ex: 'I am not feeling well.'

39. Comparative Aesthatics

“...the next greatest philosophical poem to the
Divine Comedy within my experience.” T. S. Eliot
on Bhagavadgita (Dante, Selected Essays
1917-1932, New York, 1932, p. 219)

40. References

From Philology to English studies – Language
and Culture in the Nineteenth Century

English Language and Literary Criticism, A.S.
Kharbe (2009)*

I.A. Richards and Indian Theory of Rasa

http://vediccafe.blogspot.in/2014/01/hindu-ancesto

http://www.stephen-knapp.com/sanskrit_its_impor

41. THANK YOU!!