The " puff" after stops ( mahAprANa and alpaprANa).mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1573

In many languages, while saying a stop consonant, while the tongue or lips are obstructing completely the pass of air, we raise the pressure of air behind them. When the obstruction is released, the extra air comes out suddenly, making a hissy sound that I call a puff.

You can read about that sound at Wikipedia on Aspirated consonant. That page also explains how to test the strength of your puffs by using a candle flame.

Some languages, like Spanish, French, Japanese and Italian, do not use puffs at all. English does use them, but not all dialects do that, and the presence of absence of a puff never affects the meaning.

English speakers are encouraged to watch this video by Geoff Lindsay --

Speech is really SBEECH!

In Sanskrit and other indian languages, the presence or absence of a puff will change meaning --

skandaH "the god kArttikeya"

skandhaH "shoulder"

palam "twenty-four seconds"

phalam "result"

The ph is a single consonant, same as the p. In the Indian alphabets each has its own letter. The ph is not a cluster of p plus h. pa and pha take the same time to say.

The ONLY difference in sound between p and ph is the puff. According to the description of ancient grammarians, the consonants

k g c j T D t d p b

are " alpaprANa", that is to say, "have little air". This means that when saying the letters, we don't increase the air pressure much, and after them we can hear a weak, quick puff. But the letters

kh gh ch jh Th Dh th dh ph bh

are mahAprANa, i.e., "have big air". So there is more increase of pressure, and the puff comes out stronger and longer.

This description, soem with small puff and some with big puff, is accurate for ancient Sanskrit and for modern Sanskrit spoken with a Bengali accent. People with other accents will pronounce k g c j T D t d p b with no puff at all. This technically sux, because it is again the descriptions of ancient phoneticists. But doing so does not cause any problems, is widely tolerated, and you won't have any problems if you do it yourself. In fact, I doubt anyone will ever notice.

position is the part of the mouth that obstructs the air most.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1574

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+ 1575

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- 1576

" 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+ 1577

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 stop like m n N G, and when saying it correctly the tongue has to obstruct completely the pass of air through the mouth.

curledback means "tongue curled back".mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1578

" curledback" is the position of the tongue when saying S and the five Tu.

These six letters are technically called Wikipedia on Retroflex consonants. "Retro" is Latin for "back", and "flex" is Latin for "curling".

When saying the curledback letters, the tongue hits the palate in the middle, I mean, way backward from the teeth. Some say that the palate must be hit with the underside of the tip of the tongue, but in practice some use the forward side of the tip, and others the top part of the tip. No matter what part of the tip you use, if the tip hits backwards enough, people will hear a T Th D Dh N S and not a t th d dh n z.

In fact your ordinary English t will be misheard as a Th most of the time.

The tongue position of Polish "cz" (as in czas) and "sz" (as in szum) are quite near those of Sanskrit T and S. But "cz" is ch-ish and Sanskrit T is not, it's just a "t" that touches near the cz point. "tom" and "sum" move the tongue near the teeth, "czas" and "zsum" more near the throat.

After saying the Sanskrit T Th D Dh N, the tongue goes back down inmediately. But after saying S, the tongue stays sort of raised.

dental means tongue tip hits teeth.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1579

" 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+ 1580

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.