How to read Sanskrit.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1519

When reading Sanskrit aloud, each letter must be pronounced with its own sound, with three exceptions --

(A) Always read Mp Md Mkh etc as mp nd Gkh etc. Even if there is a space in the middle.

tAM tarati = tAnMtarati "crosses it"

(B) Always read Hz HS Hs as zz SS ss. Even if there is a space in the middle.

zAntiH zAntiH = zAntizHzAntiH "peace peace"

(C) Most people in the South of India, and in Hindi-speaking places, always replace the H that is before a pause with an h plus echo sound. That echo is actually not kosher, but you will hear it everywhere. So many people have been taught to use echo when praying in the last centuries, that they think it is the only correct way of pronouncing the letter h. This includes most highschool Sanskrit teachers.

For more info, read --

about the dotdot letter

about the topdot letter

h plus echo in chanting

About Sanskrit punctuationmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1520

The most commonly found punctuation signs in Sanskrit spelling are --

stick -- If you find a stick in writing you must make a pause at that point. (Sometimes you must make a pause where no stick is written, but this is uncommon.)

space -- In modern printed Sanskrit, spaces are added after certain words, but not after others. Old manuscripts don't have spaces.

avagraha -- Sometimes an avagraha sign is written in the place where an a sound disappeared because of rule eGaHpa. Notice that you cannot trust the LACK of an avagraha sign to mean that no a disappeared.

compounds never have any hyphens or spaces between their parts. Why would one ever want to type something like "insurance companies that provide legal protection" when "Rechtsschutzversicherungsgesellschaften" looks so much cooler?

In my website I use lots of hyphens, but that's me.

In some situations I write a hyphen at the end of what looks like a word, for instance rAma-. The hyphen means that this is NOT a word, because we still have to add something at the end to make it into a full word. That usually will be a sup affix, sometimes a feminine affix and a sup affix..

stickmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1521

In the manuscripts, there are no steadfast rules about punctuation. Yet, as general guidelines --

In verse --

The stick shows the end of a verse.

The double stick shows the end of a stanza.

In prose --

The stick always shows a pause.

Usually it appears at the end of sentences.

The double stick shows the end of a paragraph.

There are exceptions to this. For instance, in some manuscripts, the stick at the end of a verse is replaced by a space. Also, in grammar manuscripts, sometimes a stick appears mid-sentence, where we would write a comma.

When stanzas are numbered, the number of the stanza is written after it. Usually sandwitched between two double sticks.

spacemmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1522

Traditional Sanskrit spelling uses no spaces at all. You can see some examples of the traditional spelling in this manuscript --

Bhagavad Gita 19th century, at the British Library website

In modern Sanskrit books, if they are printed in devanAgarI, spaces are used after the words that end in a consonant, topdot, or dotdot, and are not a former.

When transliterated into Roman letters, spaces are used after all words.

avagrahammmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1523

An avagraha, which I nicknamed as flycrap, is a symbol of several indian alphabets that looks somehow like a fish hook, or our uppercase "S" (actually, it is the left half of a short a letter, badly written). It is represented in Roman lettering as an apostrophe (').

In the modern spelling of Sanskrit, an avagraha should be written wherever a short a disappeared by rule eGaHpa --

azva + atra → azvo 'tra

vana + atra → vane 'tra vyAghrA bhramanti

UNLESS the eG and the a belong to the same compound --

rakSas- + adhipatis → rakSodhipatis "demon-king" ( no avagraha written here, even though eGaHpa did work )

And when I say "should", I mean "theoretically it should", because you'll find the incorrect spellings azvotra and vanetra pretty much everywhere.

It's a bit like the apostrophe in the English "don't" -- necessary in books, but most peeps type "dont" over the internet, just for convenience.

Notice that you must use the (') in inria, even inside a compound. inria will choke on rakSodhipatiH, so please type into inria rakSo'dhipatiH with no space, and apostrophe (if that's a compound), or rakSo 'dhipatiH with space and apostrophe (if those are two words).