From: Piotr Gasiorowski
Message: 20537
Date: 2003-03-29
----- Original Message -----
From: <CeiSerith@...>
To: <cybalist@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2003 8:06 PM
Subject: [tied] Sanskrit
> Was the Sanskrit we see in the Vedas ever an everyday spoken language, or is it an artificial literary form?
Classical Sanskrit (definitely an artificially standardised language) is not what we see in the Vedas. Vedic was presumably closer to spoken Old Indic (for one thing, its irregularities make it look like a living language), though of course it was also a "literary" variety, as is any form of speech adapted to the needs of high poetry.
Piotr