Issues in Combinatorial Analysis of Vedic Verbal and Nominal Forms

Algorithmically determining differential features of Rgvedic verbs and nouns presents a series of issues that brings a fresh perspective on Vedic grammatical structures. Inflectional categories of the Vedic language are signaled within verbs and nouns by so-called cumulative morphs (sets of markers, each set carrying several grammatical meanings occurring predominantly at the end of word forms). To discover grammatical categories of word forms, they are to be analyzed from right to left and focusing on the parts of words carrying only grammatical information. An analysis of RV. 1.11 shows minimal final parts of words signaling verbs as distinct from nouns. When homonymous sound combinations occur in verbs and nouns, our technique is to proceed more to the left focusing on subsidiary signs (submorphs with no autonomous grammatical meaning) in combination with inflectional endings. Two issues in Vedic philology are briefly discussed: transfer of stems in Vedic nouns, and Vedic accentual patterns.