93: PRONUNCIATION OF ANUSVARA AND VISARGA ------------------

pronunciation of M and Hmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1793

All the other letters in the alphabet have always the same sound, excepting the letters M ( topdot) and H ( dotdot). These cause no end of confusion because they have different sounds depending on which letters follow them.

If you don't know better, pronounce M as English M and H as English H. Doing this sux, but you will likely be understood.

To know better, read these --

Pronunciations of the letter M

Pronunciations of the letter H

Pronunciations of the letter Mmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1794

Pronounce M --

as an anusvAra sound before yaN or zal,

as G sound before ku,

J before cu,

N before Tu,

n before tu,

and as normal m before pu, pause, or vowel.

The letter M should never be before pause and vowel. If you see it there, it stands for normal m and should have been spelled m. You will find that old spelling in manuscripts, mostly before pause.

Pronunciations of the letter Hmmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1795

Pronounce H

as a visarga sound ( H sound ), before k kh p ph ts and pause

before k kh (but not before kS) you may instead pronounce H as K

before p ph you may pronounce H as F

as z S s, before z S s.

An H letter found anywhere else is a mistake and should have been replaced by the correct sound. For instance, if you see kaH nRtyati written somewhere, that's likely a mistake, and likely must be pronounced and written ko nRtyati "who's dancing?".

Examples

In khadataH phalAni "both eat fruit", pronounce the H as English H or as F.

In pazyataH kumbham "both see the pot", pronounce the H as English H or as K.

In pazyataH kSetram "both see the field", pronounce the H as English H always.

In namazH zivAya "bow to ziva", pronounce namazzivAya always.

When the H letter is before pause, or a word that ends in H is pronounced alone, you may (or maybe even _should_) replace the H sound with the ahA thing. I don't allow my students to use that replacement on the H that is before k kh p ph ts because doing so screws up verses, but you will hear that too.

H soundmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1796

The sound of the Sanskrit letter H (uppercased) is the same sound of English H. It is not the same as the Sanskrit h sound , so keep an eye open to tell apart H from h.

pANini calls this sound visarjaNIya, and other grammarians call it visarga. According to the descriptions of ancient grammarians, it is an unvoiced sound. It is technically described here --

unvoiced glottal fricative -- Wikipedia

and described way better here --

How to pronounce English /h/ (aitch)

Yet, in modern India, it is rarely pronounced that way. Most often, it sounds like h plus echo . Sometimes like K, or like h.

In Indian alphabets, the sound H is written with a dotdot.

Even though the H sound exists in English, it is quite hard to learn to say it correctly in Sanskrit, because in English H only happens before a vowel and in Sanskrit it only appears after a vowel and before a consonant. So Sanskrit taH must sound exactly like english "hat" said backwards, which is quite the tonguetwister.

jihvAmUlIya soundmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1797

The jihvAmUlIya ("tonguerootish") sound, aka K sound, is a variant of the H sound. It is allowed by rule kupvoKkaFpauca before k and kh that are not followed by S.

It is a "velar fricative", and it is voiceless, which is to say, it is a hissy sound made by forcing air between the tongue put in k-position, and the palate. See Wikipedia on Voiceless velar fricative for details.

The sound is near the "ch" of the German word "Ich", the "ch" of Scottish "loch", the Russian letter X, and most variants of the Spanish "j", excluding however the North Spain variant, which is much too gargly.

I write the K sound as K in this website, but no one else does that. It is invariably written with the letter H -- except in editions of pANini, where it is written with some special letter in the rule kupvoKkaFpauca. That makes sense because it is a "free variant" -- meaning, you can always replace the K sound with a visarga sound.

upadhmAnIya soundmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1798

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 p and ph.

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 H, and it is before p ph, you may pronounce that H letter either as H or as F, your choice. Personally I use F because I find it easier to say.

You can hear a F in this verse, just before the word pArtha --

sacchabdaFpArthayucyate

If you just hear a small pause at that point, that's fine. I can hear the F sound, but it is real weak hiss, and some people can't hear it. The kid has been well taught, and so has Obi Wan.