Use of foreign words in Sanskrit
Foreign words may be easily used in Sanskrit without coining new words and phrases to represent them. For example, by using the following approach (as indicated for telephone or phone below), noun and verb forms in Sanskrit for a foreign word (phone) can be found and used in Sanskrit compositions.
(i) Case formations for (tele)phone,
as the neuter noun (‘akaarant’ or ‘n’ ending as in ‘jnaana’ or ‘gyaan’):
(case #) singular, dual, plural
(1) phonam , phone , phonani
(2) phonam , phone , phonani
(3) phonen , phonabhyam , phonaih
(4) phonaya , phonabhyam , phonebhyah
(5) phonat , phonabhyam , phonebhyah
(6) phonasya , phonayoh , phonanam
(7) phone , phonayoh , phonesu
(8) he phona! , he phone! , he phonani!
Note: In the above case formations, a at the end of a word represents the sound as in ‘intra’; and e at the end of a word represents sound as that corresponding to e in intellect.
(ii) Phone as a verb,
in the present-tense (to telephone):
(person) singular , dual , plural
(3rd) phonati , phonatah , phonanti
(2nd) phonasi , phonathah , phonatha
(1st) phonaami , phonaavah , phonaamah
Notes:
(1) in the above verb formations, single a (e.g. in phonati) represents short 'a' sound (e.g. in coral); and double a (aa, as in phonaami) represents the long 'a' sound as in intra.
(2) Other tense formations (past and future etc.) for phone can be constructed in the similar way.
(iii) Examples of 'phone' as noun and verb (in Sanskrit):
(noun form) I use the telephone …. Aham phonam upavujaami (or upayogayaami)
(verb form) I telephone … Aham phonaami
- Seva (Subhash C. Sharma)