Jackson Langfeld Misc blog Sanskrit

 A buddy of mine and I had randomly gotten into a conversation about the Sanskrit language. I mentioned that I had heard it was a language that was written and not spoken. Neither of us were actually sure, so when we looked it up we found that that wasn't the case at all. Sanskrit is a spoken language, but it is rarely heard in conversation compared to modern Indian languages like Hindi or Tamil. Looking back on what we have been studying, obviously a language would have to start as oral before it can ever become written. It makes sense why a younger me would not have thought twice about it possible to have a written language without a spoken one but I cant believe it took me so long to question that belief and have a bit of cognitive dissonance. Sanskrit has a huge oral tradition with it being used in religious texts, getting memorized and chanted for generations before it was ever written. So for someone to say, "it wasn't really spoken" is a load of bull, its more so that it has shifted from being spoken to mostly only used in religious and ceremonial contexts. I find it interesting that a Sanskrit holds such a big cultural weight without anyone really speaking it and it makes me wonder about what happens when a language dies. Does a culture lose it entirely or is it just transferred to another form? And how can a language really be alive if it is only used in specific contexts? Sanskrit is a good reminder that language and its ties to cultural identity are intricate and not something that can so easily be categorized into living and dead. And it will definetly remind me to bring things into question more.

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