“A lament for lost contexts of Sanskrit”, New Indian Express, September 16, 2023:

“All languages were initially spoken; writing came much later. As a language, Sanskrit flows freely. It doesn’t like stops. Hence, words tend to combine with each other and merge. Svagatam does mean welcome.

But it is actually Su+agatam, which means, ‘Your arrival is good/welcome.’ Spoken fast, this becomes Svagatam. There are grammatical rules for combining words, i.e., sandhi and samasa. The word sandhi means combination or union. The word samasa is a bit like abbreviating.

Without boring the reader with Sanskrit grammar, when there is sandhi, the two words combined don’t lose their innate meanings. With samasa, the meaning of the combined word may be completely different from the meanings of the two original words…..”

Read the full article at Newindianexpress.com