Centrala begrepp
By leveraging Pānini's system of sounds and finite state machines, this paper proposes a formal approach to analyze and represent word relationships across languages, enabling a more comprehensive understanding of linguistic evolution and connections.
Sammanfattning
The paper introduces the concept of m-alphabet and m-language to analyze words across languages. The m-alphabet represents the core set of sounds used to construct a word, while the m-language represents a group of related words that are phonetically, semantically, grammatically, and ontologically connected.
The authors first provide an overview of linguistics, highlighting the contributions of Pānini and the evolution of comparative linguistics. They then analyze words from Sanskrit, European, and Dravidian languages using Pānini's system of sounds, identifying sound shifts, replacements, and losses that occur as words transform across languages.
The authors propose the use of Morphological Finite Automata (MFA) to formally represent the m-languages. Each m-language has a core m-alphabet and an extended m-alphabet, allowing for the systematic analysis of word relationships and the identification of candidate words that may belong to the same word group.
The paper also discusses the limitations of the mainstream view on the relationship between Sanskrit and other Indo-European languages, proposing an "Ecosystem Model for Linguistic Development" with Sanskrit at the core, in contrast to the widely accepted family tree model.
Statistik
"Sanskrit, being the most comprehensive and ancient language, has served as the donor language of words that represent abstract concepts as well as mundane reality across Indian languages."
"Dravidian languages have a significant number of Tadbhava words that are derived from Sanskrit, contrary to the widely held belief that they are disjoint from Aryan languages."
"The transformation of Sanskrit words in European languages can be considered as manifestations of the same phenomena that happened as the words got carried over, similar to the transformations observed in Indian languages."
Citat
"Pānini's method of analyzing words consists of observing the repeated occurrences of letters or groups of letters in different words, observing the repetition of the same meaning in different words, mapping repeating sounds with repeating meanings, and assigning meaning to the components of a word."
"According to Swaminath Aiyar, a large number of Dravidian words, in particular in Tamil that appear to have no affinity with Sanskrit are Tadbhava words from Sanskrit. As Tamil has a highly constrained Alphabet, they went through a lot more transformation and corruption compared to North Indian Vernaculars and appear unrelated."