Sanskrit language is the oldest formal written language of India and the basis of many modern Indian languages, including Hindi and Urdu. Its earliest dialect form, Vedic, dates back to at least 2000 B.C. It was spoken by the Aryans, a people who invaded India from central Asia about 1500 B.C.
Sanskrit died out as a living language by about 100 B.C. However, Sanskrit continued, like Latin in the West, as a language of courtly poetry and drama. It also served as the learned language for science, philosophy, and religious texts. Even today, some scholars in India teach, speak, and write in Sanskrit.
The name Sanskrit means refined or polished. The term contrasts with the designation Prakrit, meaning common or vulgar, which is applied to the popular languages that developed from Sanskrit over a period of several hundred years. These languages, in turn, are the source of such modern languages of India as Bengali, Hindi, and Punjabi.
Sanskrit contains a rich selection of sounds. The language has 10 simple vowels and 4 diphthongs (paired vowel sounds pronounced as a single syllable). It also has 25 basic consonants, 4 semivowels (letters, such as y, that sound like vowels but take the place of consonants), and 3 sibilants, which produce hissing sounds. In addition, it has two breathing sounds, and a nasalizing sound. Sanskrit has a complex grammar. For example, nouns and adjectives have three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). They are inflected for three grammatical numbers (singular, dual, and plural). They also have eight cases (nominative, accusative, instrumental, dative, ablative, genitive, locative, and vocative). The verbal system is equally complex. Sanskrit belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European language family.
