chunk 82: pronunciation guide anusvAra visarga chunk 82: pronunciation guide anusvAra visarga→ videos to learn pronunciation
pronunciation of
effects of
the endverse exception
echo vowel
^ 
Even though according to
Most people will pronounce anything that is spelled as
Doing that is not kosher, but it is very widely tolerated, so feel free to do it if you want. No one will complain.
Until someone complains, of course. If you find someone that complains, count yourself lucky -- you found someone that knows the
^ 
When chanting all kinds of verses or
This is not a
Pauses in verses and sutras are compulsory at the end. If the verse has two equal parts, or is a zloka verse, pausing at mid-verse is theoretically optional, but most people do a full pause at the middle whenever possible.
If we stop after api, the first half has nine syllables and becomes unsingable. So, this sort of verse must be read in one breath. This sort of verses tell us that the custom of always pausing at the middle is modern, and that in the times of the epics, the pause was not always done. Maybe it was never done.
^ Pronunciation of the topdot letter a.k.a. " M letter" --
(1) If the
Do the same thing when the topdot letter and the Jay belong to different words --
That only works if the
usually spelled
sometimes wrongly spelled as
(2) If the
(3) All other
Pronunciation of the dotdot letter a.k.a. " H letter" --
(1) the combinations
(2) All other
(A) According to the
(B) Most Indians nowadays replace such
(C) Peeps with more knowledge of the grammar replace that
(D) Even if you are in the (C) group, you must use ahA when you are chanting and the
^ You will notice the following quirks in the Sanskrit spoken by people from NW india. Not all of them are grammatically incorrect.
(1) Some people replace the
This is common in Hindi, but very bad Sanskrit. Because
(2) Most people will erase the final
This is fine when you speak Hindi, but it's a no-go in Sanskrit, first because it can get you misunderstood, and second because it makes your verses sound like prose.
(3) The
This is not incorrect. It is also not compulsory. Do that if you like, or pronounce that letter like English W everywhere, or like Hindi
(4) Some people mispronounce the Sanskrit
That one is utter blasphemy. If anyone does that in my class, I make them say aloud "eye cow" in English a hundred and eight times.
(5) The
So
No one knows if this is incorrect or not, but you will hear it often. Most veda reciters use the tapped
Anyway, feel free to use a rolled
People from other regions of India have other quirks. For instance, Bengali people will more often than not mispronounce
^ 
Because of an old custom, when chanting or singing verses or sUtras, the
Example. The line
^ 
When for any reason we decide to replace an
This echo vowel must be a repeat of the vowel before the
Examples --
The exceptions to this are
When chanting verses or
When not chanting, this replacement is optional according some oral traditions, compulsory according to some others. It is always forbidden by
^ The arguments about the correct pronunciation of the anusvAra sound have been going on for centuries. So I won't take a side and I'll just tell you what I have heard.
(A) SOFT ANUSVARA. Some people pronounce the anusvAra sound as a nasalized sound that either has the same position as the next consonant, or is a bit less closed than the next consonant.
Example. The
(B) HOLY ANUSVARA. Some people pronounce the anusvAra sound by closing the lips and humming for a slightly longer time than an ordinary consonant would last.
Example.
^ The sound of the Sanskrit letter H (uppercased) is the same sound of English H. It is an unvoiced sound, and is described here --
unvoiced glottal fricative -- Wikipedia
This sound also goes by the nicknames --
English H sound
In the devanAgarI alphabet, it is written with a dotdot (which looks like a colon).
Do not confuse it with the
Many people always replace every written
^ The jihvAmUlIya ("tonguerootish") sound is a variant of the H sound. It is allowed by rule kupvoKkaFpauca before
It is a hissy sound made by forcing air between the tongue put in
It is a "velar fricative", and it is voiceless. This description applies --
The sound is near the "ch" of the German word "Ich", the"ch" of Scottish "loch", and most variants of the Spanish "j", excluding however the North Spain variant, which is much too gargly.
Sometimes, I write the K sound as K in this website, but no one else does that. Being a free variant, it is invariably written with the letter H -- except in editions of
^ The F (or upadhmAnIya "blowing sound"), technically a Wikipedia on Voiceless bilabial fricative, is a variant of the H sound.
It is allowed by rule kupvoKkaFpauca before
It is a hissy sound made by forcing air between the lips (NOT between lower lip and upper teeth, like English F). It sounds sort of like the "f" of the German word "Pferd".
Sometimes I write this sound as F in this website, but no one else does that. It is always written with the letter H. Whenever you see the letter
You can hear a F in this verse, just before the word
chunk 82: pronunciation guide anusvAra visarga