@letter

According to the /pANini system of grammar, words are ade by assembling together smaller pieces. A word like "azvaH अश्वः" is a sound that one makes by moving the tongue, diaphragm, vocal cors, lips, jaw etc., and it is made of five shorter sounds said one after another —

an uh sound
a sh sound
a w sound
another uh sound
and a hiss sound.

I call those five pieces "letters", which is a term that will horrify most Sanskrit-savvy users. Many people will rather call the z श् sound a "phoneme", according to modern Western Grammarian jargon, and other people will rather call the z श् sound an "alphabet", according to modern Indian English usage.

I apologize to all of them. I just cannot keep everybody happy.