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This book uses modern pedagogical methods and tools that allow students to grasp straightforward original Sanskrit texts within weeks.
List of contents
Acknowledgements; Studying Sanskrit; List of abbreviations; Notes for the reader; 1. Writing Sanskrit; 2. The system of Sanskrit sounds; 2a. Word stress: heavy and light syllables; 3. Road maps: verbs; 4. The present tense; 5. Road map: nominals; 6. a-stems; 7. Vowel gradation and why we need to know about it; 8. Absolutives, ta-participle and infinitives; introduction to internal sandhi; 9. ¿-stems; 10. Prepositions and preverbs; 11. Introduction to external sandhi I: consonant sandhi; 12. Imperfect indicative and present potential; 13. ¿- and ¿-stems; sandhi II: visarga sandhi; 14. Compound nouns; 15. Consonant stems I; 16. Sandhi III: vowel sandhi; 17. Noun formation; 18. Athematic verbs I; 19. Athematic verbs II; 20. Introduction to pronouns; pronouns I; 21. The future tense; middle and passive voice; 22. More participles; pronouns II; 23. Relative and correlative clauses; 24. Consonant stems II; imperatives; 25. Noun stems gradation; consonant stems III; 26. i- and u-stems; 27. The perfect tense I: regular perfect formation; 28. The perfect tense II: irregular and unexpected forms; 29. ¿-stems, n-stems; the periphrastic future; 30. Secondary middle endings I: thematic verbs; 31. Secondary middle endings II: athematic verbs; 32. Pronouns III: 1st- and 2nd-person pronouns; 33. Desideratives and gerundives; 34. The periphrastic perfect; ta-participles ending in -na; 35. Perfect participles; more comparatives; 36. Absolute constructions; pronouns IV; 37. Numerals; 38. Aorists; 39. Pronouns V: asau/adas-; 40. Some irregular nouns; Appendices: Appendix 1. Devan¿gar¿ practice handouts; Appendix 2. Background; Appendix 3. Reference; Index.
About the author
A. M. Ruppel was the Townsend Senior Lecturer in the Greek, Latin and Sanskrit Languages at Cornell University, New York for nine years, and is currently Head of Sanskrit at St James Senior Boys' School in Ashford, UK. Ruppel has received the Stephen and Margery Russell Distinguished Teaching Award as well as a grant from the Cornell Center for Teaching Excellence, and is the author of Absolute Constructions in Early Indo-European (Cambridge, 2012).
Summary
This textbook uses modern approaches and tools to teach Sanskrit, introducing readers early on to annotated original passages. It requires no prior knowledge of linguistics or ancient languages, and clearly explains underlying structures and systems to facilitate memorisation. A dedicated website provides numerous resources for further practise.
