List of lettergroups.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1869

A lettergroup, or pratyAhAra, is an abbreviation for a group of letters of the zivasUtra, made by joining the first letter with the label that is after the last letter (see Adirantyena).

ac or vowel

aic

ak

al or letter

aN''

chav

ec

eG

hal or consonant

ik

iN

jaz

jhal or serious

jhaz

yam or funny

yaN

zal

zar

khar

aN'' are a A i I u U.mmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C+ 1870

(See aN disambiguation .)

The letter N is used twice as a label in the zivasUtra, at the end of sUtra a i uN and at the end of sUtra laN. Therefore, aN'' can have two meanings --

(1) aN'' usually means the six letters a A i I u U. That's because rule Adirantyena says that aN can mean a i u, and rule aNuditsa says that their long versions A I U also count.

(2) The aN at the start of rule aNuditsa, however, means all vowels, plus h, plus the yaN.

(Do not confuse this aN'' lettergroup with the taddhita affix aN.)

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The iN letters are ic, h, yaN.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1871

By Adirantyena, the iN letters are all from i uN to laN --

i uN R Lk e o G ai auc ha ya va raT laN,

and of course I U RR are iN letters too, by aNuditsa.

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Technical note. As the letter N appears twice as a label in the zivasUtra, rule Adirantyena also allows iN to mean i u I U. So iN, like aN'', might have two meanings. Yet, pANini never uses iN to mean i I u U, not even in yUstry or aciznu. In the rules iN always means i uN R Lk e o G ai auc ha ya va raT laN.

jhar are the serious except h.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1872

Or, in other words, the jhar are the jhay ( stops) and the zar (sibilants).

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am' are ac, h, yaN and Jam.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1873

The am' letters are --

a A i I u U R RR L e o ai auc

ha ya va raT laN

Ja ma Ga Na nam

What is not an am' is a jhar.

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yaN are ya va raT laN.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1874

Some people call these letters "semivowels". I like yaN better, it's shorter.

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jhaS are jha bhaJ gha Dha dhaS.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1875

These are mentioned at --

jhaSas ta;thor dho 'dhaH and

ekAco bazo bhaS jhaS-antasya s;dhvoH.

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yar are all consonants except h.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1876

The ya-r start at ya and end at sar --

ya va raT | laN | Ja ma Ga Na nam | jha bhaJ | gha Dha dhaS | ja ba ga Da daz | kha pha cha Tha tha ca Ta tav | ka pay | za Sa sar |

These are mentioned at yaro 'nunAsike 'nunAsiko vA ff.

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hal are all letters but the vowels.mmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C+ 1877

The hal, a.k.a. consonants, are --

ha ya va raT | laN | Ja ma Ga Na nam | jha bhaJ | gha Dha dhaS | ja ba ga Da daz | kha pha cha Tha tha ca Ta tav | ka pay | za Sa sar | hal ||

The sounds H and M are not in this list, but they are hal anyway by sthAnivad, because they always replace one of n m r s.

The word halanta means "what ends in a hal".

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chav are cha Tha tha ca Ta tav.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1878

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Jam are Ja ma Ga Na nam.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1879

The five letters Ja ma Ga Na nam are called Jam letters or nasals. They are similar to ja ba ga Da daz, the jaz. The only difference is that the Jam are nasalized and the jaz aren't.

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car are ca Ta tav za Sa sar.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1880

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az are vowels and haz.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1881

In other words, all letters are az except the thirteen khar.

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uk are uN R Lk and their similars U RR.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1882

The compound ugit is a longhorn, and means "what has an uk as a label". It is used at ugidacA.

Rule zryukaH affects affixes that follow an uk letter.

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The ac are the vowels, namely a i uN R Lk e oG ai auc, plus their similars A I U RR.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1883

The zivasUtra, together with Adirantyena, say that these are ac --

a i uN R Lk e oG ai auc

and rule aNuditsa says that the a i u R in the zivasUtra include A I U RR too.

See also ac disambiguation .

This video isquite good --

Devanagari (Sanskrit) Pronunciation and Transliteration

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Letters are the things in the zivasUtra list, and the longs A I U RRmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1884

The word al (" letter", "sound") is a technical term of grammar. It refers to the sounds in the zivasUtra list, from a i uN to hal. There are exactly forty-six al sounds, of which thirteen are ac ( vowels) and thirty-three are hal ( consonants).

The thirteen ac are --

a A i I u U | R RR L | e o ai au

and the thirty-tree hal are --

h y v r l |

J m G N n |

jh bh | gh Dh dh |

j b g D d |

kh ph ch Th th

c T t | k p |

z S s |

Notice that M and H are not in the list of letters. They do not need to be mentioned here. The M is just a sound that replaces m n sometimes, and the H a sound that replaces s, and by rule sthAnivadA, whatever replaces a letter is also a letter.

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Indian readers should be aware that the word "al" does not mean "akSara". According to the old grammarians, a word such as "kham" is made of three al, namely the sound kh, the sound a, and the sound m. They never say that the word is made by joining an akshara ka, an akshara ma and a virAma.

Non-Indian readers should be aware that kh bh etc count as one letter each. So when rule saMyogAntasya says that we must delete the last of two final consonants, the dh of yudh is not affected, because dh is just one letter, it is not d + h. Also when rule saMyogeguru says that a short before two consonants is heavy, the u of yudhA is not heavy, because it is before one consonant.

ik are i uN R Lk and their similars I U RR.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1886

The ik vowels are

i I u U R RR L.

(of those,

i u R L are ik because rule Adirantyena says so,

and I U, RR are ik too because rule aNudit says that any i u R in a sUtra also means the similars of i u R.)

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khar are kha pha cha Tha tha ca Ta tav ka pay za Sa sar.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1887

You may call these thirteen " unvoiced consonants" if you like, but " khar" is shorter.

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ak are a A i I u U R RR L.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1888

The ak vowels are all vowels except the ec.

There are nine of them. They are

The five short vowels, namely

a i u R L,

and the four long vowels

A I U RR.

The zivasUtra says that the ak letters are a i uN R Lk, namely, a i u R L (see Adirantyena). But because of rule ugidacA, when the zivasUtra say a i u R L, they mean a A i I u U R RR L.

A curiosity. No words of the real language have the sound of lengthened L, so I didn't bother to add it to the alphabet I use in these pages. But you will find a letter for that sound in the devanAgarI alphabet. It even in has two UNICODE code positions, namely U+0961 and U+0963. They are used (A) by cabbalists, and (B) by grammarians that write sentences such as "there is no such thing as an LL sound" (C) with a three figure written after it, to write the extralong version of L, which, according to grammarians, is allowed by some extralong rules, or so I'm told.

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ic are all vowels but A a.mmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C+ 1889

The ic letters are i uN R Lk e oG ai auc and their long versions I U RR (see aNuditsa).

They make kric work.

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eG are e oGmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1890

See also ec.

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aic are ai aucmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1891

See also ec.

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Rk are R RR Lmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1892

The Rk vowels are R, RR and L.

See also --

pronunciation of R

pronunciation of RR

pronunciation of L .

The L vowel is often misspelled as lR, even when using Indian letters. You will often see kLptam misspelled as klRptam and mispronounced as klriptam. Writings about pANini never use that misspelling, so rules like luG;laG;lRGkSv aD udAttaH get the correct spelling lRG and rules like Rd-upadhAc c' .A-kLpi-cRteH get the correct spelling kLp.

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Back to pronunciation of vowels .

ec are e oG ai aucmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1893

e o ai au are long vowels. Meaning, they have the same duration as A I U RR, two mAtrA, which is twice that of a i u R L.

Some people call these four "diphthongs". That's a real bad idea, because e and o are not diphthongs (gliding vowels). Do not call these four "diphthongs", call them " ec".

eG means e o. These are not diphthongs.

aic means ai au. These are diphthongs.

ec means e o ai au

Pronouncing Sanskrit e o as short vowels is an extremely common mistake, because many modern Indian languages have short e o sounds and no long e o sounds. If you mistakenly pronounce them short in Sanskrit, people will still understand you, but your verses will not sound like verses.

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Stops are the Jay that are not nasals.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1894

There are twenty stops. In alphabetical order they are --

k kh g gh

c ch j jh

T Th D Dh

t th d dh

p ph b bh

They are called stops because they stop the flow of air completely.

They are also called jhay because they appear in the zivasUtra as --

jha bhaJ

gha Dha dhaS

ja ba ga Da daz

kha pha cha Tha tha ca Ta tav

ka pay.

Jay are the nasals and the stopsmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1895

Or expressed in another way, the Jay are the ku, cu, Tu, tu and pu.

In the zivasUtra, the twentyfive Jay start at Ja and end at pay --

Ja ma Ga Na nam |

jha bhaJ |

gha Dha dhaS |

ja ba ga Da daz |

kha pha cha Tha tha ca Ta tav |

ka pay |

In alphabetical order they are arranged from the back of the mouth to the lips --

ka kha ga gha Ga -- ku

ca cha ja jha Ja -- cu

Ta Tha Da Dha Na -- Tu

ta tha da dha na -- tu

pa pha ba bha ma -- pu

alphabetical ordermmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1896

The alphabetical order used in dictionaries starts with the vowels --

a A i I u U

R RR L

e ai

o au

which is same as the zivasUtra except that ai and o are swapped.

After that we have

M H

then the twentyfive Jay in order from back of the mouth to the front --

ka kha ga gha Ga -- ku

ca cha ja jha Ja -- cu

Ta Tha Da Dha Na -- Tu

ta tha da dha na -- tu

pa pha ba bha ma -- pu

And then the remaining eight consonants --

ya va raT laN

za Sa sar hal

When sorting alphabetically, and the letter M is before a Jay, paper dictionaries place saMdhi where it would belong if the correct spelling were sandhi. This is convenient because everybody applies rule anusvA and says sandhi, but not everybody can remember if the correct spelling is sandhi or saMdhi. Similarly duHSanta is pronounced always with vAzari change, and placed in dictionaries where duSSanta belongs.

You don't need to learn this alphabetical order until you need to use a dictionary arranged according to it. So as long as you keep to online dictionaries , yer cool, but the moment you want to use MMW's book on nala, u better learn it ASAP.

serious are all hal except the funny.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1897 lettergroup

The twenty-four jhal letters (also called serious letters) are the twenty stops, from jha to pay, --

jha bhaJ | gha Dha dhaS |

ja ba ga Da daz |

kha pha cha Tha tha

ca Ta tav | ka pay |

and the four zal, from za to hal --

za Sa sar | hal

I call them serious because they are not funny.

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funny are ya va raT laN Ja ma Ga Na nammmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1898 lettergroup

These nine consonants are properly called yam (by Adirantyena), but I like to call them funny, because they are sort of fluffy and vowellike (ya is not too far away from i + a, and m can be hummed as "mmmmmmmmmmmm", as if it were a vowel).

The consonants that are not funny are serious.

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valAdi is what starts with val.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1899

In other words, a valAdi starts with a consonant that is not y.

What is not a valAdi starts with y or ac, that is, starts with a yac letter.

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val lettersmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1900 lettergroup

The val are all the hal except y (see Adirantyena).

What is not a val is a yac (either y or a vowel).

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ral lettersmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1901 lettergroup

The ral letters are all the hal except y v.

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zar are za Sa sarmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1902 lettergroup

The zar are the three sounds z S s.

These three are also called sibilants. Which is HiFaLatin for "whistlies" or "hissies".

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zal are za Sa sar halmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1903 lettergroup

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jaz are ja ba ga Da daz.mmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C+ 1904 lettergroup

You might call these "voiced unaspirated stops". But jaz is shorter. Well, come to think of it, even ja ba ga Da daz is shorter than "voiced unaspirated stops".

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baz are ba ga Da daz.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1905 lettergroup

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bhaS are bhaJ gha Dha dhaS.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1907 lettergroup

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jhaz are jha bhaJ gha Dha dhaS ja ba ga Da daz.mmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1908 lettergroup

These ten letters are also called " voiced stops".

Of them, the jhaS are mahAprANa --

jha bhaJ gha Dha dhaS

and the jaz are alpaprANa --

ja ba ga Da daz.

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khay are kha pha cha Tha tha ca Ta tav ka pay .mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1909

These are also called " unvoiced stops".

Of them, kha pha cha Tha tha are mahAprANa, and ca Ta tav ka pay are alpaprANa.

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haz are all consonants except the khar.mmmmmmmmm ^ M+ C+ 1910 lettergroup

These haz come in three groups --

(A) The ha

(B) The nine funny (aka yam)

ya va raT laN | Ja ma Ga Na nam

(C) The ten jhaz (aka voiced stops")

jha bhaJ | gha Dha dhaS | ja ba ga Da daz |

The haz are also called " voiced consonants".

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taG are tAtAJjha thAsAthAndhvam iDvahimahiG.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1911

The taG are the nine affixes of list tiptas from ta to G, namely --

tAtAJjha

thAsAthAndhvam

iDvahimahiG

shorts are a i u R Lmmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1912 lettergroup

There are five short vowels --

a i u R L

and eight long vowels --

A I U RR e o ai au

See UkAlojjhra.

Tradition says that longs take twice as much time to say as the shorts. See mAtrA.

longs are A I U RR e o ai aummmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1913

There are five short vowels --

a i u R L

and eight long vowels --

A I U RR e o ai au

See UkAlojjhra.

Tradition says that longs take twice as much time to say as the shorts. See mAtrA.

lengthen, shorten mean replace with long, short.mmmmmmmmm ^ C+ 1914

Sometimes I use the words " lengthen" and " shorten" in the translation of a rule, to translate the "replace with long" or "replace with short" of the original rule.

As "shorten" means "replace with short", shortening U makes u, and shortening u makes u too.

These words only affect vowels.

Examples --

shortening pU makes pu ( pvAdInAMhrasvaH)

shortening rai makes ri (by eca::igghra)

shortening the ju of juhoti (as per rule hrasvaH) makes juhoti