Saturday, October 2, 2010

Sanskrit and English Words – A Common Link

Sir William Jones was the first to show that there are many common cognate words shared by Sanskrit and European languages. Speaking to the Asiatic Society in Calcutta on February 2, 1786, Jones made a statement which was soon to become quite famous:

…the Sanskrit language, whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the Latin, and more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing to both of them a stronger affinity, both in the roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong, indeed, that no philosopher could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists. -- Quoted in the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, ed. William Morris (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1969), article by Calvert Watkins, p. XIX.

Common Words Shared By English and Sanskrit

Advocate

Adhivaktr

Bind

Bandhi

Bright

Bharajat

Brother

Bhatr

Candle

Chandra

Cardio

Hrd

Come

Gam

Deity

Devata

Eight

Ashta

End

Anta

Genus

Janus

Gnosis

Gnana

Idea

Vidya

Identity

Idamta

Immortal

Amtra

Kalon

Kalyana

Mega

Maha

Man

Manu

Mind

Manas

Mortal

Mrta

Mother

Matr

Same

Sama

Three

Tri

Vivi

Jiva

Voice

Vaca

Wind

Vata

Yoke

Yoga

Young

Yuvan


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