Vedic Sanskrit grammar

Vedic Sanskrit is the name given by modern scholarship to the oldest attested descendant of the Proto-Indo-Aryan language. Sanskrit is the language that is found in the four Vedas, in particular, the Rigveda, the oldest of them, dated to have been composed roughly over the period from 1500 to 1000 BCE. Before its standardization as Sanskrit, the Vedic language was a purely spoken language during that period used before the introduction of writing in the language.[1][2][3]

The Vedic language has inherited from its ultimate-parent (the Proto-Indo-European language) an elaborate system of morphology, more of which has been preserved in Sanskrit as a whole than in other kindred languages such as Ancient Greek or Latin.[4][5] Its grammar differs greatly from the later Classical Sanskrit in many regards, one being that this complex inherited morphology simplified over time.

  1. ^ Fortson, §10.20–10.28.
  2. ^ Macdonnell, §1.2.
  3. ^ Reich, p. 122.
  4. ^ Fortson, §10.41.
  5. ^ Whitney p. 100 ch. 8.