भाष्

Origin uncertain. Theories include:

• From Proto-Indo-European *bʰel-, *bʰel-s- (“to sound; (noun) sound, voice”); compare Lithuanian balsas (“voice”) and Latvian balss (“voice”). The retroflexion is in this case due to Fortunatov's Law.
• From Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂-, *bʰeh₂-s- (“to speak; (noun) speech”); compare Latin fās (“divine law”). The retroflex ṣ could either be onomatopoeic or to avoid homonymy with root भास् (bhās, “to shine”) (compare originally fully homonymous English flower and flour or German küssen and Kissen).

It is unclear whether this root is denominal from an s-stem noun or deverbal from a suffixed verb, but the former is etymologically easier.

• (Vedic) IPA^(key): /bʱɑːʂ/
• (Classical Sanskrit) IPA^(key): /bʱɑːʂ/

भाष् • (bhāṣ)

1. to speak, talk, say, tell
2. to announce, declare
3. to call, name, describe

• Monier Williams (1899), “भाष्”, in A Sanskrit–English Dictionary, […], new edition, Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 755, columns 2-3.
• Arthur Anthony Macdonell (1893), “भाष्”, in A practical Sanskrit dictionary with transliteration, accentuation, and etymological analysis throughout, London: Oxford University Press
• William Dwight Whitney (1885), The Roots, Verb-forms, and Primary Derivatives of the Sanskrit Language, Leipzig: Breitkopf and Härtel, page 110

• Otto Böhtlingk; Richard Schmidt (1879-1928), “भाष्”, in Walter Slaje, Jürgen Hanneder, Paul Molitor, Jörg Ritter, editors, Nachtragswörterbuch des Sanskrit [Dictionary of Sanskrit with supplements] (in German), Halle-Wittenberg: Martin-Luther-Universität, published 2016
• Mayrhofer, Manfred (1996), “BHĀṢ”, in Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen [Etymological Dictionary of Old Indo-Aryan]‎^[1] (in German), volume 2, Heidelberg: Carl Winter Universitätsverlag, pages 261-2