印度语言:梵语

　　Sanskrit is an Indo-European classical language of India and a liturgical language of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. It has a position in India and Southeast Asia similar to that of Latin and Greek in Europe, and is a central part of Hindu tradition. Sanskrit is one of the 22 official languages of India. Sanskrit is taught in schools and households throughout India, as a second language. Some identify it as their mother tongue. According to recent reports, it is being revived as a vernacular in the village of Mattur near Shimoga in Karnataka.

　　梵语是印度的古典印欧语系语言，是印度教、佛教和耆那教的祭礼语言。就像欧洲的拉丁和希腊语一样，梵语在印度和东南亚有重要位置，是印度传统文化的核心部分。梵语是印度22种官方语言之一。在印度，梵语作为第二语言，在学校和家庭都有教导。一些人还把它鉴别为他们的母语。根据一些新近的报导，它在卡纳塔克邦(印度邦名，旧称迈索尔邦)悉摩迦附近的地方马特的一些村庄里作为本国语言而复兴起来。

　　Sanskrit is mostly used as a ceremonial language in Hindu religious rituals in the forms of hymns and mantras. Its pre-classical form of Vedic Sanskrit, the liturgical language of the Vedic religion, is one of the earliest attested members of the Indo-European language family, its most ancient text being the Rigveda.

　　梵语主要作为印度宗教仪式的语言而使用，以诗歌和咒语的形式出现。吠陀梵语的古典前期形式，吠陀宗教的礼拜语言，是经验证无误的最早印欧语系家族成员之一，最古老的梵语文献就是梨俱吠陀。

　　The scope of this article is that of Classical Sanskrit as laid out in the grammar of Panini, roughly around 500 BC. Most Sanskrit texts available today were transmitted orally for several centuries before they were written down in medieval India.

　　这篇古典梵语文献主要地是以帕尼尼(公元前四世纪的印度法语学家)的文法方式写成，粗略估计是在公元前500年之间。很多今天仍在使用的梵语在中印度成书之前的几个世纪以来都在口头流传着。

　　吠陀梵语未

　　Sanskrit as defined by Panini had evolved out of the earlier \"Vedic\" form, and scholars often distinguish Vedic Sanskrit and Classical or \"Paninian\" Sanskrit as separate dialects. However, they are extremely similar in many ways and differ mostly in a few points of phonology, vocabulary, and grammar.

　　梵语也被帕尼尼定义和发展成早期的吠陀形式，学者经常辨别吠陀梵语和古典，或者古代印度梵语作为划分语调。然而，它们却是极端地相似，在音韵、词汇和语法上相差无几。

　　Classical Sanskrit can therefore be considered a seamless evolution of the earlier Vedic language. Vedic Sanskrit is the language of the Vedas, a large collection of hymns, incantations, and religio-philosophical discussions which form the earliest religious texts in India and the basis for much of the Hindu religion.

　　从而，古典的吠陀梵语就被认为是较早期的吠陀语言。吠陀梵语是吠陀经的语言，收集了大量赞美诗，咒语和宗教哲学的讨论，形成了早期印度宗教文献和印度宗教信仰的大多数基础。

　　Modern linguists consider the metrical hymns of the Rigveda Samhita to be the earliest, composed by many authors over centuries of oral tradition.

　　现代语言学家认为梨俱吠陀的《吠陀本集》韵律般的诗是更早期的，是由很多作者经过上百年来的口头传统集结而成。

　　The terminus ad quem of the Vedic period is marked by the composition of the Upanishads, which form the concluding part of the Vedic corpus in the traditional compilations.

　　吠陀时期的终结集结在《奥义书》上，形成了传统编辑的吠陀文集的结束部分。

　　The current hypothesis is that the Vedic form of Sanskrit survived until the middle of the first millennium BC. It is around this time that Sanskrit began the transition from a first language to a second language of religion and learning, marking the beginning of the Classical period.

　　当前的假说就是梵语形式的吠陀经保存了下来，直到公元前一千年中叶为止。大概这个时期左右，梵语开始从宗教和知识、标记的第一语言转变成第二语言，标志着古典时期的开始。

　　It is interesting to note that orthodox Hinduism believes that the language of the Vedas is eternal and revealed in its wording and word order. Evidence for this belief is found in the Vedas itself, where in the Upanishads they are described as the very \"breath of God\" (nihsvasitam brahma).

　　有趣的是，要注意一下传统的印度教相信吠陀经是永恒和提示出它的词语和词序。迹象表明这种信仰也可以在吠陀本身找到，在《奥义书》，它们被完全描述为神的呼吸。

　　The Vedas are therefore considered \"the language of reality\", so to speak, and are unauthored, even by God, the rishis or seers ascribed to them being merely individuals gifted with a special insight into reality with the power of perceiving these eternal sounds.

　　吠陀经因此被认为是真实的语言，可以说，是没有真正的作者，即使是由神所写，圣人或先知把它们的存在归咎于各个个体用感知的力量对内在真实的特别洞察，觉察这些永恒的声音。

　　At the beginning of every cycle of creation, God himself \"remembers\" the order of the Vedic words and propagates them through the rishis. Orthodox Hindus, while accepting the linguistic development of Sanskrit as such, do not admit any historical stratification within the Vedic corpus itself.

　　在每个创世周期的开始之际，神自己记起吠陀梵语词语的顺序，通过圣哲去传播它们。正统的印度教徒，认可这些梵语的语言发展同时，并不承认吠陀文集里面任何历史性的阶层形成。

　　This belief is of significant consequence in Indian religious history, as the very sacredness and eternality of the language encouraged exact memorization and transmission and discouraged textual learning via written propagation.

　　当每一种神圣和永恒的语言被鼓励去强记，传播和经由书写文本而记下来的时候，这种信仰在印度宗教史上有着重大的作用。

　　Each word is believed to have innate and eternal meaning and, when properly pronounced, mystic expressive power. Erroneous learning of repetition of the Veda was considered a grave sin with potentially immediate negative consequences. Consequently, Vedic learning by rote was encouraged and prized, particularly among Brahmins, where learning of one's own Vedic texts was a mandated duty.

　　每一个单词都被认为是拥有先天和永恒的意思，当适当地说出来的时候，就会神秘地传播着力量。对吠陀复制本的错误学习被认为是一种严重的罪，潜在地产生直接的消极效果。因此，机械地学习吠陀是受到鼓励和赞扬，尤其是在婆罗门中间，学习吠陀文献是一个受委托的责任。

　　On the social side, the need to preserve the error-free nature of the Veda served as a justification to prevent teaching and propagation of the text to those considered unworthy of receiving it, by virtue of caste and gender.

　　在社会方面，需要保持有错误但自由本性的吠陀作为正当的理由去防止把文献教导和传播给那些被认为是不值得听的人，那是由于印度的世袭阶级和种姓。

　　There is a strong relationship between the various forms of Sanskrit and the Middle Indo-Aryan \"Prakrits\", or vernacular languages (in which, among other things, most early Jain and Buddhist texts are written), and the modern Indo-Aryan languages.

　　形形式式的梵语同中古时代印度雅利安人的古印度语，或者说本国语言(大多数耆那教和佛教文献也用这种语言书写)，以及现代印度雅利安语有紧密的联系。

　　The Prakrits are probably descended from Vedic, and there is mutual interchange between later forms of Sanskrit and various Prakrits. There has also been reciprocal influence between Sanskrit and the Dravidian languages.

　　古代印度语很可能是从吠陀梵语而来，相互影响着后期形式的梵语和各种古印度语。梵语和德拉威语也是相互影响。

　　A significant form of post-Vedic but pre-Paninian Sanskrit is found in the Sanskrit of the Hindu Epics, the Ramayana and Mahabharata. This dialect includes many archaic and unusual forms which deviate from Panini and are denoted by traditional Sanskrit scholars as aarsha or \"of the rishis\", the traditional title for the ancient authors. In some contexts there are also more \"prakritisms\" (borrowings from common speech) than Classical Sanskrit proper. Finally, there is also a language dubbed \"Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit\" by scholars, which is actually a prakrit ornamented with Sanskritized elements, perhaps for purposes of ostentation (see also termination of spoken Sanskrit).

　　帕尼尼梵语之前的吠陀前期有重大意义的梵语可以在印度史诗《罗摩衍那》和《摩诃婆罗多》找到。这种语调包括了很多古老和不寻常的形式，偏离了帕尼尼梵语，被传统的梵语学者认定是阿萨哈或者是(印度教)圣人，这是给予古代作者的传统头衔。在一些上下文里也有很多的古代印度语(从通俗语言借鉴而来)，比固有的古典梵语更加多。最后，学者还给了佛教的混合梵语的语言称号，实际上是古印度语的梵语化，很可能是为了夸耀。(也可参见口头梵语的终止)

　　Sanskrit historically has had no single script associated with it. Since the late 19th century, the Devanagari (meaning \"as used in the city of the gods\") script has become the most widely used and associated with Sanskrit, yet this was by no means the case earlier. Each region adapted the script of the local vernacular, whether Indo-Aryan or Dravidian. In the north, there are inscriptions dating from the early centuries B.C. in the Brahmi script, also used by the king Ashoka in his famous Prakrit pillar inscriptions. Roughly contemporary with the Brahmi, the Kharosthi script was used. Later (ca. 4th to 8th centuries AD) the Gupta script, derived from Brahmi, became prevalent. From ca. the 8th century, the Sharada script evolved out of the Gupta script, and was mostly displaced in its turn by Devanagari from ca. the 12th century, with intermediary stages such as the Siddham script. The Bengali and other scripts were also used in their respective regions.

　　梵语，从历史上看，没有单一的手稿与它联合起来。自从十九世纪后期，梵文字母(意思是作为众神使用的城市)手稿变得最为广泛使用和与梵语联合在一起，然而这决不是更早期的情形。每种宗教都使用本国当地的文献，不管印度雅利安人还是德拉威人。在北部，还有公元前数个世纪留下的婆罗米语手稿里面的题字，也由阿索卡国王留下的著名古印度语题字的柱子。粗略地说，Kharosthi手稿使用着同时代的婆罗米语。随后(ca. 四世纪到公元八世纪)的Gupta手稿，源自婆罗米语，变得流行起来。从ca. 八世纪开始，Sharada手稿从Gupta发展起来，主要地从ca.十二世纪开始依次被梵语所取代, 连同着中间状态的Siddham手稿。孟加拉语和其他手稿也使用它们各自的宗教。

　　In the south where Dravidian languages predominate, scripts used include Grantha in Tamil speaking regions, Telugu in Telugu and Tamil speaking regions, Kannada, and Malayalam. Grantha, though modeled on the Tamil script, was used exclusively for Sanskrit and is rarely seen today. A recent development has been to use Tamil characters with numeric subscripts indicating voicing and aspiration.

　　在德拉威语占优势的南方，手稿的使用包括讲述泰米尔语的宗教的锡克教《圣典》，印度东部的泰卢固语和使用泰米尔语的宗教，埃纳德语和印度西南部德拉威语的一种方言以及锡克教《圣典》，尽管它们是模仿泰米尔手稿，却专有地使用梵语，在今天很少看到。近期已经发展成使用泰米尔字母，连带有写在下放的数字，标志着表达和欲望。