deriv SD cv (144) ashtadhyayi.com hei.de L 144 ETT STT a 1.4.110 ALPH OLDHOMEPAGE NEWHOMEPAGE

virAmo 'vasAnam

विरामो ऽवसानम् ONPANINI 14110

Stopping is called /avasAna "pause".

A sound is "before pause" (/avasAne) if you stop after saying it. Even if you stop for a very small time. Such as when hesitating or breathing. Whatever letter is not before a pause, is said to be /saMhitAyAm "in connected speech", TITS followed inmediately by another letter with no stopping in between.

An old tradition says that stopping is always grammatical between two /pada, and ungrammatical inside of the same /pada. Example. You may say —

madhu | atra मधु । अत्र where **madhu मधु is before pause.

or

madhvatra मध्वत्र where **madhu मधु is in connected speech.

but stopping in the middle of a /pada is always ungrammatical —

EW*ma | dhva | tra म । ध्व । त्र ← do not say this unless you are really really panting!

Being before a pause or not is important for grammar because different rules apply. As for instance, in madhvatra मध्वत्र, we HAD to apply ikoyaNaci, but in madhu | atra मधु । अत्र, ikoyaNaci is debarred, because ikoyaNaci is under the shadow of rule saMhitAyAm.

hole hmm is it?

old spelling of pauses

The convention for books and manuscripts has always been that, whenever possible, you write words as if there were no pause between them. If you want the reader to make a pause, spell them as they should sound at a pause, and write a stick or double stick.

The convention is different in the Sanskrit wikipedia. There the spelling rule is: "Spell words either as they must sound before pause or as they must sound elsewhere, according to how you feel like at the moment, and no stick is necessary. The reader is smart enough to figure out if you want a pause or not, and will make the correct sound changes if well acquainted with the grammar."