> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Stephen Mulraney" <ataltanie@...>
> To: <CONLANG@...>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 4:19 PM
> Subject: Re: NATLANG/Learning : Sanskrit
>
>
>
>>Jean-François Colson wrote:
>>
>>>----- Original Message -----
>>>From: "Jean-François Colson" <bn130627@...>
>>>To: <CONLANG@...>
>>>Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 12:47 AM
>>>Subject: Re: NATLANG/Learning : Sanskrit
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>If you're interested, there's a free online Sanskrit course there:
>>>>
http://acharya.iitm.ac.in/sanskrit/lessons/Devan/intro.html.
>>>
>>>
>>>Err... That's rather a course about the Devanagari script. Nothing seems
>>>available there about Sanskrit grammar and vocabulary.
>>
>>Interesting nonetheless.
>>It's rather... involved, is it not? the script, that it. After working
>
> though
>
>>all the vowels and consonant-series, you're told that there are a few
>
> thousand
>
>>ligatures that are used too. If that many are needed, I'd judge the memory
>>load of this script to be greater than the famed "5000 hanzi" needed for
>>reading some level of Chinese. At least the hanzi are iconic.
>
>
> I wouldn't say that. It takes about a week to be able to read it(if
> somewhat slowly), and a little longer to be able to write it. I think the
> rule of thumb for the ligatures is that generally the second letter in a
> cluster goes underneath the first, attached to the vertical line. If there
> is no vertical line, the first will merely be placed to the left of the
> second. Except for clusters |jña| and |ks.a|, which have their own forms.
> Oh, and |r| has two different forms in consonant clusters, as does |t|.