about the sandhi machinemmmmmmmmm ^ 1475

The sandhi rules, also called "sound change rules", are a bunch of rules that change letters before letters, or letters after letters, no matter where the letters are.

Example: rule ikoyaNaci teaches, among other things, that we must replace i with y when the i is before a. As this applies to all i and all a, this is a sound-change rule.

Counterexample: rule gotoNit teaches that we must replace go with gau when it is before su au or jas. As this applies only to the word go- meaning "cow" and not to all o, and only before su and a few other affixes and not before all s, this is NOT a sound-change rule.

Sound change rules must be learned early because they are used everywhere. Yet, trying to study all rules first and then learn to apply them is an extremely bad strategy. That's because learning to apply the rules is way less important than learning to "unapply" them.

Example. There is a rule that says that when a word ends in a and the next word starts with i, both letters must be replaced with one e. For instance --

siMhasya + iva →AdguNaH siMhasyeva

However, in practice, it is unlikely that anyone will ask you, "please say what will happen when siMhasya is before iva". What will happen most often is that we hear a verse such as

zabdena tasya vIrasya siMhasyevetare mRgAH

and then we have to figure out that hasyeva comes from hasya + iva.

So the rule "a plus i makes e" does not just mean that someone will ask us in a test to join a plus i and we have to give answer e. It also means that whenever we hear an e, we must suspect that it MIGHT be a plus i. Until we learn to do that, we can't know when a word ends and the next begins. Afterwards, we can start to split sentences in our minds --

siMhasyevetare mRgAH → siMhasya + iva + itare mRgAH "like other animals by the lion's roar"

This splitting is very easy to do if you know the words and the rules, and impossible if you know neither. So, before we start learning the rules, it is important to learn how to cheat, and how to split sentences into words with inria reader.

splitting a sentencemmmmmmmmm ^ 1476

Go to inria reader, set it to HK and paste

siMhasyevetare

then hit the "read" button. Inria will tell us that it might come from siMhasya + iva + itare.

In this case we were very lucky, because inria found only one way to split.

examples and exercises of sandhi rules threemmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1480

bhobhago ru to y after a A before az

azvas + iti →sasaju azva + ru + iti →bhobhago azva + y + iti →lopazzA azva_iti

If rule lopazzA is optional then azvayiti too is correct.

bhobhago ru to y after A before vowel or haz

azvAs + dravanti →sasaju azvA + ru + dravanti →bhobhago azvA + y + dravanti →halisarveSAm azvA + dravanti

bhobhago after A + ru before vowel

azvAs + iti →sasaju azvA + ru + iti →bhobhago azvA + y + iti →lopazzA azvA_iti

If rule lopazzA is optional then azvAyiti too is correct.

Examples for practice --

phalam ajas + icchati "he-goat wants fruit"

punar + icchati "wants again"

ajAs + gacchanti "the goats go"

ajA + gacchati "the she-goat goes"

ajAs + anayat "he led the she-goats"

It follows from this rule that when we hear A right before a haz, as in bhavatyA nAma, this A could have come from A or from As, only context can tell.

bhavatyA nAma kim "what's your name?" (here bhavatyAs is bhavatI- + Gas and lost the s before haz)

kimM bhavatyA nAma zrutam "did you hear the name?" (here bhavatyA had no s to start with, as it is bhavatI- + TA)

monusvAraH

Rule monus works on wordfinal m only, and before all consonants --

aham + dravAmi →monus ahanM dravAmi →anus ahan dravAmi

If the consonant is a yaN or a zal, rule monus still works, but anus doesn't --

aham + vadAmi →monus ahaM vadAmi

Important. Even though rule anus is compulsory when speaking, when it works after monus, it is customary to spell as if anus had not worked. So the example aham + dravAmi is mostly pronounced as ahandravAmi (applying monus and anus), but the correct spelling is nevertheless ahaMdravAmi, with a topdot above the ha. In this website I use often ahanMdravami -- the colored n means that you must say n but spell it as if it were M.

Examples for practice --

mAm + haniSyanti "they will kill me"

tam + pazyAmi "I see him"

kharam + gajam + uSTram + vyAghram + siMham + ca pazyAmi "I see a donkey, an elephant, a camel, a tiger, and a lion"

nazcA

nazcA replaces non- wordfinal m and n with M. This M will change afterwards by anus if it is before Jay --

yuj + znam + jhi →midaco yunaj + jhi → yunaj + anti''' →znasor yunj + anti →nazcA juJMj + anti →anus yuJjanti "they join"

mahat + zi →napuMsakasya mahant + i →sAntamaha mahAnt + i →nazcA mahAnMti →anus mahAnti "big ones"

Otherwise, the M will stay --

manas- + zi →napuMsakasya manans + i →sAntamaha manAns + i →nazcA manAMsi "minds"

Examples for practice --

dhanus + zi "bows" dhanUnsi

kRt + za + jhi →zemucAdI kRnt + a + jhi → krnta + anti''' →atoguNe kRntanti "they cut"

bhuj + znam + te''' →midaco bhunaj + te →coHkuH bhunak + te →znasora bhunk + te "he eats"

some things that pANini did not teach, but I teach to my students anywaymmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1483

The following advice comes from my personal method of teaching and I might be wrong. Be careful.

(1) Rule vAzari is optional according to pANini. Yet I make sure that my students use it compulsorily when they talk and never use it when they write.

(2) Rule anus is optional according to pANini. Yet I make sure my students get the habit of making it compulsory when speaking. In writing I should tell them to apply it only to wordfinal M, but frankly, I don't enforce that too strongly, because I myself often use M for non- wordfinal Gg Gk nt mp etc (when I use devanAgarI).

(3) It can be deduced from the rules ( checa and others) that, for pANini, ch and cch represented different sounds. Yet I make sure that my students pronounce both of ch and cch just like Bengali cch.