Similarities between German and Sanskrit
After studying German grammer and while studying Sanskrit grammer, I came across some very interesting similarities between the two. Perhaps this is one of the reason why the "Aryan" theory came into existence after Europeans discovered the linguistic similarities of the ancient Indians with Europeans. The similarity is the underlying base for the Indo-Germanic languages. However to my mind the root cause of this similarity is not because European sprache spread across the globe towards the East along with Aryans (the theory has now been established as a bunkum except being tenaciously held by some racists and Marxists), but rather Sanskrit spread towards Europe which was at that point of time a mainly barabarian regime devoid of any capability of constructing a civilized form of language. Sanskrit was probably then as popular as English is today and thus early Europeans eagerly and zealously adopted the syntax as their base.
Coming to the similarities that I observed -
1. Declension of adjectives - In German adjectives are declined based on gender, number and cases. In sanskrit the adjectives are declined based on number, gender and cases. Declension of adjectives in Sanskrit follow their resp. nouns which they modify.
2. In German nouns differ on the basis of gender, i.e. each noun can be classified into masculine, feminine and neuter gender much like that in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, in addition nouns follow declension on the basis of cases and numbers, apart from genders (Shabdaroop).
3. Declension of pronouns in number, gender and cases - ihm, ihn, er, sie, ich, du, mich, mir, dich, dir etc. Similarly Sanskrit has declension of pronouns in number, gender and cases (ayam, aham, tvam, mama, tava, te, me, vayam etc.)
4. The prefixes which add to the verbs to form new verbs in German like emp, be, ent etc,. are similar to Upasargas in Sanskrit which add to the verbs in the beginning to form new verbs. There are 20 such Upasargas or prefixes - like pra para, apa, sam, ni etc.
5. Short form of language constructs - German language has short forms like da, im, am. Sanskrit has short forms like te, me, nau, nah, vah
6. Avyayas in Sanskrit which does not change in cases, genders or numbers but drive cases in a sentence formation are similar to adverbs like mit, gegen, on, an, in, bei which drive the case formation (e.g.dative with mit)
7. The 7 cases in Sanskrit can be mapped against the 4 cases in German (Nominative - prathama, Accusative - dwitia, tritiya, saptami, Possessive - sasthi and Dative - chaturthi, panchami
8. There are in several word formations - e.g Nacht - Nakta (both means night), tochter - duhita (Persian -dukhtar as intermediate, means daughter), hansa-hamsa, stern-tara (star) etc.
9. Compound words - German language has these monstrous compound words (combination of two or three words) and Sanskrit has the "sandhi" words which are equally monstrous
More in the latest post
9. Compound words - German language has these monstrous compound words (combination of two or three words) and Sanskrit has the "sandhi" words which are equally monstrous
More in the latest post
Both are derived from the same Indo-European language tree. (Ref: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/IndoEuropeanTree.svg)
ReplyDelete-Naresh
Both German and Sanskrit are derivatives of the Indo European language tree. (Ref: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/IndoEuropeanTree.svg)
ReplyDeleteI think tritiya(karan) would fall under Dative and not Accusative.
ReplyDeleteFor example, "I write with a pencil." will be
Ich schreibe mit einem Bleistift.
"einem" is Dative, fulfilling the condition of karan(se, ke dwara).
Accusative would be "einen".
Great article, regardless. Very thorough. I'm learning German and this has been very helpful.
I think tritiya(karan) would be Dative and not Accusative.
ReplyDeleteFor example, "I write with a pencil." will be
Ich schreibe mit einem Bleistift.
"einem" is Dative, fulfilling the condition of karan(se, ke dwara).
Accusative would be "einen".
Great article, regardless. Very thorough. I'm learning German and this has been very helpful.
i think 'navel' is roported as 'nabhi' in both german and sanskrit language....
ReplyDeleteHello Shantanu,
ReplyDeleteI am Sanskrit Teacher in school. And I am doing one activity -Contemporary Language of India and Europe. The activity is based on studying and understanding the script and language of India and Germany. The aim of this project is to enable the students to know the similarity and difference of both the languages.
I went through the knowlegeble information you have given about German and Sanskrit similarities. And as I don't know German language I would be very thankful to you if u can help in my this activity. My email ID pr1_rele@yahoo.co.in
Awaiting for your reply
Thanking you.
Hello Shantanu,
ReplyDeleteI am Sanskrit Teacher in school. And I am doing one activity -Contemporary Language of India and Europe. The activity is based on studying and understanding the script and language of India and Germany. The aim of this project is to enable the students to know the similarity and difference of both the languages.
I went through the knowlegeble information you have given about German and Sanskrit similarities. And as I don't know German language I would be very thankful to you if u can help in my this activity. My email ID pr1_rele@yahoo.co.in
Awaiting for your reply
Thanking you.
@Naresh - The term Indo European was coined by the European scholars of 19th century. They had a definite agenda behind the nomenclature. There is no proof whatsoever that there was ever such a "language tree" except for the claims of some European scholars and so called German Indologists. They were amazed by the intricacies and richness of the Sanskrit and wanted to establish some connection with their languages and found solace in the hypothesis that Sanskrit and other European languages were derived from the same source. In reality, the antiquity of Rig Vedic age is now proven beyond doubt to be older than 1000-1500 BC, with the discoveries around Indus Saraswati civilization. The invasion or migration theory of which the European scholars were so sure of, have largely been debunked. So when Sanskrit was formulated, Germans and other Europeans were either living in the forest caves or at best were a tribal lot without any culture or heritage.
ReplyDeleteEuropean languages can at best be called daughters of Sanskrit, that too rather poorer in talent. If you have read Sanskrit and any other European language and compared their grammar you would have automatically known the difference. Sanskrit grammar is vastly superior. In fact, if we read Panini, we'll find it amazing to discover the vastness of the Sanskrit in terms of developing an intricate maze of rules covering almost every thoughts and speeches that human beings are capable of producing.
@Shramona - You are correct. Dative in Anglo Saxon parlance is sometimes (though not always) instrumentive/Tritiya in Sanskrit.
ReplyDeleteHello Mr.Shantanu,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to be vastly knowledgeable in Sanskrit (which I don't know by the way) and my guess is that your German must be equally good, I too am from India. I appreciate your comparative linguistic study between German and Sanskrit. Pardon my ignorance but I only know a handful of European languages including German and Italian. I specialise in French which is simpler in comparison, I have got some knowledge of Classical Latin and am also aware that there are many similarities between Classical Latin, Ancient Greek and Vedic Sanskrit. Latin has 6 cases (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive, ablative and vocative) as opposed to the 7 cases in Sanskrit. Sometimes there is a "locative" case which denotes a location where an event occurs which may be taken as the 7th case in Latin.
However, I must agree to disagree on the point that Sanskrit is the root of all Indo-European languages regardless of how old it is (at the end of the day, history points to the fact that the Aryans migrated to India from the West through the Khyber and Bolan passes), many people who learn Sanskrit in our country think the same way but I am led to believe that people in our country are mistaken. Yes, Sanskrit is an old language and is special in its own way but to think that Sanskrit gave rise to all European languages reflects our ignorance and prejudicious nature, we need to be more open to the aspect of learning other languages but not think of other countries and languages as inferior.
There are similarities for e.g.: "astra" in Sanskrit and "astrum" in Latin which both mean "star", "agni" in Sanskrit and "ignis" in Latin for "fire", "naus" in Sanksrit, "ναυς" (naus)in Greek and "navis" in Latin which mean "ship"- I would agree that there are many more similarities. However, it has been proven that all of these three languages did originate from a common ancestor called "Proto-Indo European" because of these similarities. And if you do some research in ethnology, all Indo-European peoples originated from a person called "Japheth" (mentioned in the book of "Genesis" in the Holy Bible- son of a man named "Noah" (there was a worldwide flood during his time and history backs it up) whose descendants migrated towards Europe (Latin (still spoken at the Vatican), Greek (whose modern form is still used in Greece) and a host of other European languages which are no longer spoken) and to the East- from which we have Sanskrit. So, Sorry but I would not quite agree with the popular notion of most Sanskrit learners in our country that it (Sanskrit) gave rise to all Indo-European languages.
Hello Mr. Jabdakhata,
ReplyDeleteIn case you feel that my previous comment is unfit to be posted or published here, could you please send a copy of it to my email id: arulmozhi1987@gmail.com , I would like to go through it once again, could you please do me this favour, thank you!. :)
German is the most language that is spoken by almost 2 billion peoples around the world. Learning this language would give one self confidence to look the world in a different perspective. You have made me to realize that in a moment on reading this article. Thanks for sharing this in here. By the way you are running a great blog. German Training Institute in Chennai | German Training
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"European languages can at best be called daughters of Sanskrit, that too rather poorer in talent. " Such ignorance, much wow!
ReplyDeleteHello Arul Varman, you are willing to believe the Bible story of Noah and Jepheth to be the originator of Indo- European languages, but not the out of India theory of Sanskrit! Strange! Ham and Shem are the names of the other sons of Noah. Ham laughed at the nudity of his drunk father and the insulted father cursed him and his descendants to be subservient to the descendants of the other two. Europeans have constructed the theory that the black race of Africa and the browns of India to be descendants of Ham. This Biblical story was used to subjugate black African slaves in the USA in the 17th and 18th centuries. This story only illustrates the white supremacy. Indians fall in the less fortunate Hamitic descendants and how can their language Sanskrit be considered as that of Jepheth? This absurd Bible story was used by the Europeans to feel superior to other races.
ReplyDeleteConsider this in the light of emerging new data: 1. The first universities in the world were in India- Takshashila and Nalanda. India must have been great in education to have created the first universities! Needless to say India must have been good in Languages too. Considering the medium of language in theses universities were Sanskrit, Sanskrit in India must have developed to very high levels in 700 BCE. The trimunis, Panini, Katyayana and Patanjali lived around that time and wrote their bashyas on Sanskrit grammar. Students from Asia, Midle East and Europe would have flocked these universities and what prevents them from taking Sanskrit with them?
2. Angus Madison the British economist studied the economy of the world from Jesus' time till the present and concluded that India was the richest country with a GDP of 35% from 0 CE to 1500 CE and thereafter China was catching up with India to produce a combined GDP of 60%. This shows India must have been a place of trade, science, language and technology, which must have been continuation of Saraswathi river, oops Indus valley civilization. Such an advanced country might have had advanced language too. Don't you think?
Hello Arul Varman, you are willing to believe the Bible story of Noah and Jepheth to be the originator of Indo- European languages, but not the out of India theory of Sanskrit! Strange! Ham and Shem are the names of the other sons of Noah. Ham laughed at the nudity of his drunk father and the insulted father cursed him and his descendants to be subservient to the descendants of the other two. Europeans have constructed the theory that the black race of Africa and the browns of India to be descendants of Ham. This Biblical story was used to subjugate black African slaves in the USA in the 17th and 18th centuries. This story only illustrates the white supremacy. Indians fall in the less fortunate Hamitic descendants and how can their language Sanskrit be considered as that of Jepheth? This absurd Bible story was used by the Europeans to feel superior to other races.
ReplyDeleteConsider this in the light of emerging new data: 1. The first universities in the world were in India- Takshashila and Nalanda. India must have been great in education to have created the first universities! Needless to say India must have been good in Languages too. Considering the medium of language in theses universities were Sanskrit, Sanskrit in India must have developed to very high levels in 700 BCE. The trimunis, Panini, Katyayana and Patanjali lived around that time and wrote their bashyas on Sanskrit grammar. Students from Asia, Midle East and Europe would have flocked these universities and what prevents them from taking Sanskrit with them?
2. Angus Madison the British economist studied the economy of the world from Jesus' time till the present and concluded that India was the richest country with a GDP of 35% from 0 CE to 1500 CE and thereafter China was catching up with India to produce a combined GDP of 60%. This shows India must have been a place of trade, science, language and technology, which must have been continuation of Saraswathi river, oops Indus valley civilization. Such an advanced country might have had advanced language too. Don't you think?
Thanks for an insightful post.
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