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Sanskrit
El sánscrito pertenece a la rama índica de la gran familia de las lenguas indoeuropeas. Se trata, probablemente, de la tradición lingüística más antigua que ha conocido la historia. Asimismo, se caracteriza por su estabilidad y vocación científica: todas las ciencias de la antigüedad india fueron redactadas en sánscrito.
El sánscrito permite el descubrimiento y conocimiento de esta antigua y sagrada lengua que ha formado parte del universo de formas y significados de la civilización India. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat combina con destreza la rigurosidad y cuidado de su exhaustivo estudio del sánscrito con un estilo comunicativo claro y ameno. Así, esta obra sirve no solo como libro de referencia para los lingüistas y especialistas en religión y cultura India, sino también como puerta de entrada para todos aquellos atraídos por las humanidades y la cultura en general.
El sánscrito permite el descubrimiento y conocimiento de esta antigua y sagrada lengua que ha formado parte del universo de formas y significados de la civilización India. Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat combina con destreza la rigurosidad y cuidado de su exhaustivo estudio del sánscrito con un estilo comunicativo claro y ameno. Así, esta obra sirve no solo como libro de referencia para los lingüistas y especialistas en religión y cultura India, sino también como puerta de entrada para todos aquellos atraídos por las humanidades y la cultura en general.
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128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1971
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November 25, 2019
The French scholar Pierre-Sylvain Filliozat's The Sanskrit Language: An Overview is a brief (135-page) introduction to the use of Sanskrit in India from the Vedas to the work of modern pandits. Originally published in French, it has been translated into English, the edition that I am familiar with.
It is emphatically not an introduction to Sanskrit in a comparative Indo-European context. The author seeks to represent traditional Indian thought on the matter, and so doesn't spend time mentioning an origin outside of India. Even in dating early Vedic material by using the Mitanni horse-training text, he doesn't represent the general consensus that the language was spoken by a migrating tribe prior to arrival in the Indian subcontinent. While representing the traditional Indian beliefs is all well and good, neglecting to give the findings of international scholarship is rather dishonest.
Filliozat's presentation of the history of Sanskrit isn't at all a listing of the literature written in Sanskrit. There's no description of the contents of the Vedas or the Mahabharata here. Instead, he speaks of the grammatical tradition developed by the pandits and the religious motivations for analysing the language. His description of Sanskrit as used by the nobility in court and in diplomacy, and the language's distance from the spoken language, was fairly engaging. I learned a little bit here.
For those with some knowledge of Sanskrit in a comparative Indo-European context who want to know how the language that has been of so much use to historical linguists was actually used, Filliozat's book may be worth flipping through. I was disappointed, however, by his neglect of international consensus, as well as in the rather amateur typesetting and translation by T. K. Gopalan.
It is emphatically not an introduction to Sanskrit in a comparative Indo-European context. The author seeks to represent traditional Indian thought on the matter, and so doesn't spend time mentioning an origin outside of India. Even in dating early Vedic material by using the Mitanni horse-training text, he doesn't represent the general consensus that the language was spoken by a migrating tribe prior to arrival in the Indian subcontinent. While representing the traditional Indian beliefs is all well and good, neglecting to give the findings of international scholarship is rather dishonest.
Filliozat's presentation of the history of Sanskrit isn't at all a listing of the literature written in Sanskrit. There's no description of the contents of the Vedas or the Mahabharata here. Instead, he speaks of the grammatical tradition developed by the pandits and the religious motivations for analysing the language. His description of Sanskrit as used by the nobility in court and in diplomacy, and the language's distance from the spoken language, was fairly engaging. I learned a little bit here.
For those with some knowledge of Sanskrit in a comparative Indo-European context who want to know how the language that has been of so much use to historical linguists was actually used, Filliozat's book may be worth flipping through. I was disappointed, however, by his neglect of international consensus, as well as in the rather amateur typesetting and translation by T. K. Gopalan.
Displaying 1 of 1 review