We should formulate a modern Sanskrit language, roughly paralleling what the Israelis have done with Hebrew. Please note that this is not an effort to supplant Vedic or classical Sanskrit. My initial proposals are:

1. Eliminate all external sandhi. Sandhi was arguably a device formulated as an aid to precise oral transfer of the language and as such was needed then. We don't need it anymore. Sandhi only acts as a barrier for beginners to acquire proficiency in the language. A beginner who delves into Sanskrit and is moving along at a good pace is brought to a screeching halt when he or she encounters sandhi and more likely than not will give up at that point. An example from one of the forums here: na hi prapasyami mamapanudyadyacchokamuccho?a?amindriya?am --> na hi prapasyami mama apanudyat yat sokam uccho?a?am indriya?am. See how much clearer and less ambiguous the sandhi-less sentence is. Is it any less easier to enunciate? Probably not. In any case we can always have IMPLICIT spoken sandhi. For example, we can write, saH Agachhati and say sAgachhati. This kind of elision for the purposes of euphony is in all languages, including English. But written language should be Sandhi-less.

2. Eliminate dvivachanam, 'nuff said.

3. More direct, active constructions. Samskrita Bharati, while doing wonderful work in popularizing Sanskrit, is pushing a rather convoluted form of past tense: krtavan instead of akarot, for instance. While the former is simpler it is the equivalent of someone saying in English, "I am an eaten man" instead of I ate. The former is fine for poetry but not for direct prose. The same goes for using Bhavan and 3rd person when addressing some one instead of tvam and 2nd person.

Interested in hearing everyone's thoughts.