The " puff" after stops ( mahAprANa and alpaprANa).mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1416

The twenty stops of Sanskrit are pronounced with some puff of air. Technically explained: during stop consonants like t th p ph ph k kh, the tongue or lips stop completely the pass of air. While the obstruction lasts, the pressure behind the obstruction rises, and when the obstruction is released some air goes out in a burst. The hissing sound made by that air I call a " puff". In Wikipedia on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspirated consonant aspirated consonants, you can read how to test for the presence of a puff using a candle flame.

Ancient Sanskrit grammarians call that puff a prANa ("air"). They say there are two sorts of stops. The ones with "small air" are called alpaprANa, they are --

k g c j T D t d p b

And the ones with "big air" are called mahAprANa --

kh gh ch jh Th Dh th dh ph bh

The k g etc are pronounced in exactly the same way as the kh gh etc, the only difference being that the ones written with fake h accumulate more presure, so that when the obstruction is released, the puff is noisier.

See also hints to learn to pronounce the puff .

position is the part of the mouth that obstructs the air most.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1417

The position of a sound is called asya at rule tulyAsya.

Sanskrit sounds are grouped into five positions, according to the position of tongue or lips. Counting from the back of the mouth to the front they are --

velar -- back of tongue near back of palate -- ku G K u U o au

palatal -- middle of tongue near roof of palate -- cu J z i I e ai

curledback -- tip of tongue near roof of palate -- Tu N S

dental -- tip of tongue near teeth -- tu n s l L

labial -- lips near each other -- pu M v F

Rule tulyAsya mentions the word position.

Openness is the distance between the parts of the mouth that most obstruct the air.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1418

Example. The letters t, s and i all are made by moving the tongue tip somewhat near the teeth. In all three, tongue and teeth obstruct or disturb the pass of air. Therefore their position is the same, dental.

Yet, in t the pass of air is fully closed and no sound gets out, in s it is almost closed and there is hissing, and in i the pass is open. Therefore these sounds have different openness.

pANini says that t s i have different prayatna, "effort". The idea here is that saying t needs more tongue pressure than saying s, and s more pressure than i.

Similarly, all of b F v u are labial, but the lips have different degrees of openness: closed, almost closed, a bit open, open.

" Velar " means back of tongue near back of palatemmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C- 1419

" Velar" is the position of ku G K.

Same position as in "keep", "great", ng of "singer".

" palatal " means middle of tongue near roof of palatemmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1420

The sounds cu J z have palatal position.

Many people mispronounce J as a nasalized y~. That has way too much openness. The J is a nasal like m n N G, and the tongue has to obstruct completely the pass of air thru the mouth.

curledback means "tongue curled back".mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1421

" curledback" is the position of the tongue when saying S and the five Tu. When saying the curledback letters, the tongue curls backward. These letters are also known by many other funny names such as retroflexes and cerebrals; in Sanskrit they are called mUrdhanya "made with the top". The word is used in the rule a-padAntasya mUrdhanyaH "replace non wordfinal with curledback".

Even though the letters R RR r S do not curl so far back as Tu, they do curl somehow, so grammarians toss those into the curledback group anyway. There is, however, a very important difference between the Tu and the S R RR r --

When saying T Th D Dh N the tongue hits the palate and comes inmediately back down,

but after S R RR r, the tongue stays half-raised after hitting, and will stay somehow raised until some other letter makes it go back down.

Bengali speakers beware: the tongue does NOT stay raised after you say N. Instead, it works exactly like Bengali D. Practise that by chanting --

kaJM cit kAlaM sa dharmAtmA sItayA lakSmaNena ca

In the N, the tongue moves down instantly. It is lakSmaNena, not lakSmaNeNa !

Dental means tongue tip hits teeth.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1422

" Dental" is the position of tu n s. The tip of the tongue touches the upper teeth and the very tip is between upper and lower teeth.

" labial" means lips approach each othermmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1423

The labial sounds are those in which the lips approach or touch each other.

The five pu letters are labials. So are M, v and F.