About the topdot letter.mmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1458

.. this needs a reread

The topdot, a.k.a " M letter", is one of two letters that have different sounds (the other one is the dotdot, a.k.a " H letter").

I call it topdot because, in some alphabets, it looks like a dot written on top of a letter. In Bengali script it looks like a small circle with a backslash under it, and it is written after another letter.

The topdot always follows a vowel.

(1) If the M letter appears before of any of the twenty-five Jay, it represents the sound of the most-alike nasal letter. So you must always pronounce --

zaMkaraH as zaGkaraH

saMdhiH as sandhiH

kuMbhaH as kumbhaH

saMgaH as saGgaH

paMca as paJca

pAMDuH as pANDuH

The last four (kuMbhaH etc) are nowadays considered misspellings, because their M is not wordfinal. They must be spelled kumbhaH etc. But you will find them everywhere spelled both ways.

When there is a space in between, you still do the same thing --

tamM pazyAmi as tampazyAmi

tanM dadAti as tandadAti

ayaGM karoti as ayaGkaroti

zatruMdveSTi as zatrundveSTi

That only works if the M is in saMhitA. If you decide to make a pause in the middle of tanM dadAti, then the M turns into an m sound. So if you find taM pazyAmi written somewhere, you can read that

either in one breath as

tandadAti,

or as --

tam pause dadAti,

(2) If the M letter is before a yaN or a zal, pronounce it as an anusvAra sound.

An anusvAra sound can be a sort of mm, or a nasalized version of the previous vowel.

For instance, saMskRtam stands for either

sa + a~ + skRtam

or

sammskRtam

(3) All other topdot letters are before a vowel or a pause, and are misspellings for an m sound. So if someone wrote dadAti taM before a stick, you read that as dadAti tam, and then you pause.

Nowadays, many people believe that the only correct way of pronouncing what is printed as topdot is a lengthened mm sound. That belief is not too bad if the only thing you do with Sanskrit is praying while you read aloud from a well-printed sheet; in fact as far as I know it is likely to be kosher. But my students are warned that they'll get an F in the oral exam if they do that.

CRAZY SPELLING RULEmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1462

The CRAZY SPELLING RULE says this --

" Spell the sound nd

(1) as topdot + d, if the n sound used to be a wordfinal m and later turned into an n sound because of monusvA and anusvA.

(2) as nd, otherwise. "

This rule has been used by editors of printed Sanskrit books since 1850 or so, give or take a century. Not being a pANini rule, you don't have to follow it; it is merely a general agreement of professors and proof editors.

In the age of the manuscripts, there was another rule in general use, which I encourage my students to use, even though it will get them an F in highschool Sanskrit tests --

"Spell the sound nd however you feel like."

In this website I spell the n sounds that, according to the CRAZY SPELLING RULE, must written as n, this way --

tAn dRSTvA "after seeing them"

candraH "moon"

and spell those that are written as topdot this way --

tAnM dRSTvA "after seeing her"

sanMdhiH "junction"

So you have to remember that the blue n is spelled as a topdot, and that the blue n and the black n are both pronounced as n (when in saMhitA). If the blue n happens to be before a pause, pronounce it like m.

Of course, what I just said about nd also applies to the other twenty-four Clusters of nasal plus similar .

See also why I think this rule is crazy below.

why I think this rule is crazymmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1463

The CRAZY SPELLING RULE is easy to state and to remember, but so complicated to apply in practice, that not even fluent speakers with a firm grasp of the grammar can apply it correctly in all cases.

Also, in these times of kaliyuga, most Sanskrit users are neither fluent, nor grammar-aware, nor willing to waste their time looking up zaGkara in a dictionary to find out if the correct spelling is zaGkaraH with G or zaGMkaraH with topdot. That is why we find misspellings everywhere. Even in printed books.

To add insult to injury, when I write words in my whiteboard, spelling them correctly with Roman letters, such as "zaMkaraH", and ask my students to read them aloud, there is always someone that says "shammkarahaaa" with a doubled m sound. Of course, at the end of the year, they can use devanAgarI correctly and can pronounce zaGMkaraH correctly with a G sound. But if I use the "incorrect" spelling "zaGkaraH" at the start, they suffer less and learn faster.

I frankly can't see what is wrong with the rule used in manuscripts, which was --

" Always pronounce Gk, spell that sound as Gk or Mk as you wish, and always read aloud Gk and Mk as Gk."

That rule makes a lot of sense if you are using an Indian alphabet.

I teach my students that they must always pronounce Mk as Gk, that they should not worry about correct spelling, and that in the unlikely event that they are ever caught mispelling sandhiH or saGMgaH by some pedant, they should say "oopsie sorry", or apologize, or come out with some excuse. Worrying about spelling is a Westyern thing; worrying about correct pronunciation of Sanskrit is an ÇIndian thing, and much, much,. more important.

Final warning: nothing of what I just said applies to the veda. To learn vedic recitation, you need a qualified teacher, not me.

An exercise for the diligent student:

Explain in writing why it follows from the CRAZY SPELLING RULE that the G sound of zaGMkaraH and saGMgamya must be spelled with a topdot, not with G, but saGgaH must be spelled with G.