Sanskritroot

Sanskritroot is a proposed open-access digital resource intended to compile and annotate the core verbal and nominal roots of Sanskrit, known in traditional grammar as dhatu. The project aims to support scholars, educators, and developers by providing a centralized, machine-readable repository of roots, their meanings, semantic fields, and derivational patterns.

Content and structure: Each entry would catalog the root in Devanagari and IAST, along with glosses, verbal classes, related derivatives, and example formations in common compounds. The data model would link related roots, include cognates in related languages, and incorporate notes on frequency, usage, and historical context. The resource may also offer pronunciation guidance and links to primary sources from Panini and later grammarians.

Scope and usage: The database would cover classical Sanskrit, including roots used in Vedic and post-Vedic literature, with attention to dialectal variation. It would support search by root, meaning, or derivational pattern and facilitate linguistic analysis, lexicography, and natural language processing applications. By organizing roots and their derivatives, Sanskritroot could assist students in understanding verb conjugations, noun formations, and semantic fields.

Development status: As of now Sanskritroot exists as a concept or community project. Ongoing work would focus on data curation, standardization of identifiers, licensing under open terms, and collaboration with academic institutions. The project emphasizes interoperability with other linguistic resources and adherence to scholarly conventions for glosses and references.

See also: Dhatu, Sanskrit grammar, Panini and the Ashtadhayi, Sanskrit linguistics, historical linguistics, natural language processing.