The " puff" after stops ( mahAprANa and alpaprANa).mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1814

When saying a stop consonant, the tongue or lips obstruct completely the pass of air for a short time. In many languages, while that happens, the pressure of air behind the obstruction increases, and when the obstruction is released, that trapped pressured air comes out suddenly, making a hissy sound that I call a puff. Technically, that hissy sound is called an "aspiration" (if the consonant and the hiss are unvoiced) or a "murmur" (if they are unvoiced). Sanskrit grammarians call that hiss a prANa "air". See also Wikipedia on Aspirated consonant, which explains how to test the strength of your puffs with a candle flame. These videos by Geoff Lindsay will help too --

ENGLISH ASPIRATION (this video shows how to test the strength of your puffs using a piece of paper.)

ENGLISH ASPIRATION Part Two

Speech is really SBEECH!

Some languages, like Spanish, French, Japanese and Italian, have no puffs at all. Most English dialects use them, but the presence of absence of a puff never affects the meaning. Yet, in Sanskrit and other Indian languages, the strength of a puff will change meaning --

sukhaH "pleasant"

sukaH "parrot"

Here what I wrote as kh is a "k" sound followed by a strong puff ( mahAprANa), and the k is a "k" sound followed by a weak puff or no puff at all. In the Indian alphabets kh is spelled with its own letter, and is not a cluster of k plus h.

Ancient grammarians said that the consonants

k g c j T D t d p b

are " alpaprANa", that is to say, "have little air". While saying these 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". These letters have a bigger increase of pressure, so that at release, the puff comes out stronger and longer.

You'll hear these small puffs and big puffs in modern Sanskrit spoken with a Bengali accent. People with a Hindi accent pronounce k g c j T D t d p b with no puff at all. This technically sux, but feel free to do it yourself if you want. I doubt anyone will notice.

position is the part of the mouth that obstructs the air most.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1815

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+ 1816

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- 1817

" 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+ 1818

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+ 1819

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

When saying the curledback letters, the tongue hits the palate in the middle, that is, way backward from the teeth. Some people hit the the palate with the underside of the tip of the tongue, others with the forward side of the tip, and others the top part of the tip, but as long as the tip hits backwards enough, people will hear T Th D Dh N S. If the tip of the tongue hits near the upper teeth or the teeth themselves, they will hear t th d dh n z.

Usually English speakers have no problems with this sound. The ordinary English T hits backward enough and will be misheard as a Th most of the time. The problem for English speakers is remembering to move the tongue forward when saying t etc.

Note for Polish speakers: the Polish sounds "cz" (as in czas) and "sz" (as in szum) move the tongue throastwards to the position of Sanskrit T S. So T is a "t" sound made with the tongue tip touching the cz point. While "t" is made with the tongue near the teeth, like in Polish "tom".

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. Bengali speakers must take particular attention to lower the tongue right inmediately after saying N.

dental means tongue tip hits teeth.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1820

" 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+ 1821

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.