What is "vrddhi"

n. 1 (context linguistics English) The strongest ablaut-grade in a series of vowels alternations in certain Indo-European languages, most notably Sanskrit, as well as in Proto-Indo-European. 2 In Sanskrit grammar terminology, a technical term for a group of long vowels.

(, ) is a Sanskrit word meaning 'growth' (from ).

In Pāṇini's Sanskrit grammar, it is a technical term for long vowels produced by ablaut (vowel gradation), as for example in:

• 'carried' ("base form", nowadays called zero grade)

• 'burden' ( guṇa, full grade)

• 'to be carried' (vṛddhi, lengthened grade)

In modern Indo-European linguistics it is used in Pāṇini's sense, but not restricted to Sanskrit but applicable to the Indo-European languages in general as well as to the Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language from which this feature was inherited:

• (zero grade of the reconstructed verb meaning 'to carry')

• (full grade)

• (vṛddhi, lengthened grade)