Tadbhava

Tadbhava (IPA: [t̪əd̪bʱəʋə]) is the Sanskrit word for one of three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of Middle Indo-Aryan languages. A "tadbhava" is a word with an Indo-Aryan origin and related to Sanskrit but which had been changed to fit the phonology of the Prakrit or Apabhraṃśa in question. Tadbhavas were distinguished from tatsamas, a term applied to borrowed words which retained their Sanskrit form, and deśi ("native"), a term applied to words that were not borrowings. In the modern context, the terms tadbhava and tatsama are applied to Sanskrit loanwords not only in Indo-Aryan languages, but also in Dravidian, Munda and other South Asian languages.

Tadbhavas in Indo-Aryan languages

Modern Indo-Aryan languages have two classes of tadbhava words. The first covers words which have come to these languages from Old Indo-Aryan through Prakrit and Apabhraṃśa; these are also called deśi "native". A second class of tadbhava words in modern Indo-Aryan languages covers words which have their origin in Classical Sanskrit and which were originally borrowed into Prakrit or Apabhraṃśa as tatsamas but which, over the course of time, changed in form to fit the phonology of the recipient language. Words that were borrowed into a modern Indo-Aryan language itself as tatsamas, but which have since changed in form are often called ardhatatsamas or semi-tatsamas by modern linguists.