PRONUNCIATION ------------------------------------- ←

chunk 92: PRONUNCIATION OF VOWELS -------------------------------------

→ PRONUNCIATION OF ANUSVARA AND VISARGA ------------------

pronunciation of vowels
aN'' vowels
Rk vowels
pronunciation of R
pronunciation of RR
pronunciation of L
wrong pronunciations of R RR L
ec vowels

(pronunciationofvowels) (vowels)

pronunciation of vowelsmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1785

aN'' vowels

ec vowels

Rk vowels

This video here gets most of the above thirteen vowels right --

The First Sanskrit Lesson- Mastery of Sound

Caveat lector: this guy's description of how the L should be pronounced is correct, but don't trust his pronunciation. He's saying lR instead, which is a common thing to do, but sux. He's also wrong when he says that a and A differ only in length (see rule a_a).

Back to pronunciation guide .

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1777 correct pronunciation of Sanskrit letters

1788 pronunciation of !R

1789 pronunciation of !RR

1857 /Rk are {R q L}

(aNvowels) (aN')

aN'' vowelsmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1786

long A I U --

A like A of "fAther". Dropping your jaw as low as possible.

I like EE of "sEEd". But without a glide.

U like OO of "fOOd". But without a glide.

short a i u --

i like Sanskrit I, but shorter.

u like Sanskrit U, but shorter.

the a is NOT a shorter A. It is short, but it is not the same sort of sound as A. The a is a "schwa", that is, the sound of "a" of "about", or of the "u" of "cup". The jaw is not dropped and the tongue is about middle height. See Wikipedia on Schwa.

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(Rkvowels) (Rk)

Rk vowelsmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1787

pronunciation of R

pronunciation of RR

pronunciation of L .

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(pronunciationofR) (R)

pronunciation of Rmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1788

The R sound is quite near the r sound. It sounds mostly like a Wikipedia on Close central rounded vowel aka Japanese "u", or like a Wikipedia on Close central rounded vowel aka Polish "y". There is however one difference: near the start of that vowel, the tongue does a tapped-r movement.

You can hear the correct R sound four times in this video --

bhg 11 32 sri sri

The R sound is mispronounced more often than not. North Indians almost always replace it with ri, and South Indians with ru. Doing that is incorrect according to the ancient writers on phonetics, but if you do that, everybody will understand you anyway.

pronunciation of RRmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1789

The RR vowel sounds like the R, but with the vowel part lengthened. The tap is still near the beginning.

You can hear the correct RR sound two times in this video --

bhg 1 26 sri sri

In the same video, the suhRdazcaiva is mispronounced as suhrudazcaiva. That is a mistake. The R should have been pronounced there like in the video you can find at pronunciation of R .

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303 letters. -- 37900pronuguide.bse 1491 -- popularity 3

1787 /Rk vowels

1857 /Rk are {R q L}

(/L) (/L)

pronunciation of Lmmmmmmmmm       

       ^  C+ 1790  
The sound L appears only in a few derivatives of the root  kLp, such as kLpta-.
This video explains how the ancient grammarians explained the pronunciation of L. The vowel L, they say, must be pronounced just like R, but the tongue is a bit forward and touches the teeth. Please listen to only six seconds of the video, from 3:35 from 3:41 --
Mastery of sound. 
Right after explaining the correct way of pronouncing the L, this guy mispronounces it as an l consonant followed by a regular R vowel that does not touch the teeth. For some reason, mostly everybody in India appears to do that, with some exceptions among  veda reciters. 
Many people misspell the L vowel as a la consonant with an R vowel below it. Experts scoff at the practice, but most typewriters just don't have an L key. Computers do have a combination of keys that will make an L, but most people don't bother to google for it.
In  inria you must spell kLpta, but in the  auroville dictionary you must spell klRpta.

754 letters. -- 37900pronuguide.bse 1500 -- popularity 4

1047 (@Stammer of) !nij !vij !viS to /guNa before /zlu.

1787 /Rk vowels

1815 @position is the part of the mouth that obstructs the air most.

1857 /Rk are {R q L}

(wrongpronunciationsofR) (wrongprsR)

wrong pronunciations of R RR Lmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1791

Because of reasons that are very reasonable, but also boring to explain, in North India most Sanskrit speakers replace the vowels R RR L with

ri rI lri

and, in South India, with

ru rU lru

This replacement technically sux. Yet, in these times of kaliyuga, so many Sanskrit teachers teach it, that most people that got some Sanskrit teaching in high school will mock you if you use the correct sounds. See what does correct mean .

Back to Rk vowels .

355 letters. -- 37900pronuguide.bse 1520 -- popularity 1

(ecvowels) (ec)