96: pronunciation guide anusvAra visarga

h plus echo.mmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1822

The letter H (a.k.a. dotdot), according to pANini, when it is before k kh p ph or pause, must be pronounced as a visarga sound, which is the same as the English H sound .

Yet, most people pronounce it, instead, as an h sound (NOT an H sound) followed by a repetition of the vowel that is before the H.

The repetition is long if the vowel is short, and conversely.

I call that style of talking the ahA. It is way more common than the kosher pronunciation of the H letter as a visarga sound, so you should use it, just to go with the herd.

So, what is written aH is pronounced ahA --

aH → ahA

iH → ihI

uH → uhU

If the vowel is long, the echo is short --

AH → Aha

IH → Ihi

UH → Uhu

eH → ehe (the second e sound is short)

oH → oho (the second o sound is short)

aiH → aihi

gauH → gauhu

mAtRRH → mAtrIhi (not mAtRRhR)

pANini never teaches us to do this, but nowadays most Sanskrit teachers train their students to do it.

The pANinically correct pronunciation of H as the sound visarga is seldom heard if at all.

So, do this if you like, no one will ever complain.

The ahA replacement is compulsory at the end of verses when reciting the veda, and also compulsory in practice when chanting anything else. See h plus echo in chanting below.

h plus echo in chantingmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1823

When chanting or singing verses or sUtras, the H sound that is before a pause MUST be replaced with an h plus echo .

This is against pANini, who said that an H sound before pause must be like an English H sound . Yet, if you obey pANini in this point, you are crazy as a bat. We have been taught to chant the veda that way since forever, and we'll continue doing that, TYVM, and damn the apANinIyanM na prayujyeta thing.

Particularly, not doing this when chanting anything from the veda is sacrilegous. So if you see this in writing --

oM zAntizH zAntizH zAntiH

you MUST chant it as --

oMzAntizzAntizzAntihIIII

Transgressors will be summarily prosecuted, found guilty, and executed.

This applies only to the H sound that is before pause. You are NOT allowed to replace the first z of onM namazH zivAya (which is a mantra) with h plus echo .

anusvAra soundmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1824

Nowadays, the anusvAra sound, aka M sound, is mostly pronounced as a slightly lengthened m, said with the lips completely closed.

In modern Sanskrit this sound only happens before yaN and zal letters (when the M letter is before other consonants, rule anusvA changes its sound into something else).

Examples before yaN --

saMyamya "restrained and" = sammyamya

saMvatsaraH "year" = sammvatsaraH

saMraktaH "reddened" = sammraktaH

saMlihan "licking" = sammlihan

Before y v l, the M sound may be replaced with nasalized y~ v~ l~ --

say~yamya

sav~vatsaraH

sal~lihan

Examples before zal --

saMzayaH "doubt" = sammzayaH

daMSTrAH "fang" = dammSTraH

saMskRtam "polished" = sammskRtam

siMhaH "lion" = simmhaH

Historical note: the ancient pronunciation of M is widely debated and not completely clear to us, and we know only two things for sure: first, it was NOT the same as a normal m (if it were, rule morAji would be useless), and second, it is a nasalized sound. So, it might look to us as the hm of brahma and the Mh of siMha are the same sound, but for pANini, there was some difference. There are good reasons to suspect that the M might have been just a "weakened m", that is, a nasalized sound with no lip contact and a tongue position near the previous vowel or near the next consonant or in between. The seventh chapter of the dazakumAracarita has no sound where the lips touch each other, but it has several anusvAra sounds before zal and yaN, which clearly shows that, in the seventh century AD, some were not using the modern pronunciation of the anusvAra as a slightly lengthened m.

Warning. In the pANini rules, the word anusvAra means a particular sound, while most people nowadays take the word anusvAra to mean "any sound that is spelled with the letter topdot, no matter if in Sanskrit or Hindi". This misunderstanding causes lots of confusion, pain, and bad chanting.

chunk 96: pronunciation guide anusvAra visarga

h plus echo.mmmmmmmmm ^ C- 1822

h plus echo in chantingmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1823

anusvAra soundmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1824

chunk 96: pronunciation guide anusvAra visarga