03-15-2004, 03:36 AM
Four letters from Sanskrit alphabet have proven to be especially troublesome as far as correct pronunciation goes. These are:
<b>Troublesome vowels:</b> Ri(or Ru), Li (similar to Ri but hardly ever used), ai, Visarga
<b>Troublesome consonat:</b> Murdhanya Sha
My thoughts on these are given below. But before that lets clarify what is a vowel and a consonant:
<b>Vowel:</b> Open your mouth and put it in a certain configuration. A configuration involves amount of opening of the mouth, shape of the lips (normal, rounded or stretched sideways), position of tounge inside the mouth etc. Make sure the configuration is static, that is no parts of your mouth are moving. Then release a sound through your vocal cords. The sustained sound that you hear is a vowel. Vowels like a,aa,i.ii, e, o etc are simple.
<b>Consonants: </b> Consonants involve touching part of your palate, toungue, lips and teeth together and then releasing a sound. The sound becomes a vowel when it is sustained. But just the initial sound which is dominated by the initial location of the blockage is the consonant. A consonant can be pronounced only with a vowel. Depending upon where the toungue touches the mouth (or where the intial blockage is created) we get the five major consonant classes:
ka-varga: toungue touching the root of the mouth
cha-varga: tounge touching lower palate
ta(murdhanya) varga: toungue touching the upper palate
ta(dantya) varga: toungue touching the base of the teeth
Pa-varga: lips touching each other
Each varga has 5 consonants. In each varga the first consonant is unvoiced-unaspirated, second is unvoiced-aspirated, third is voiced-unaspirated, fourth is voiced-aspirated and fifth is nasalized.
ka is unvoiced while ga is its voiced counterpart. The difference between voiced and unvoiced is that vocal cords are vibrating from the very beginning for a voiced consonant. Try to speak ka and ga. You will notice that toungue touches the same location but in the case of ga there is extra "resonance" felt at the throat due to vocal cords vibrating from the very beginning.
An aspirated consonant is one which has an associated "ha" sound attached to it like kha and gha. Kha is unvoiced and gha is its voiced counterpart.
Other consonants like ya, ra , la, va are intermediate consonants along with sha (talavya), sha(murdhanya) , sa (dantya) and ha. Ha is the last true consonant. Ksha, tra, jna are composite consonants.
<b>Vowel Ri or Ru </b>
The way it is written in english it seems to be a consonat "r" combined with a vowel "i" or "u". But in Sanskrit it is supposed to be a vowe!! Lets keep this in mind. IMHO the correct way to pronounce this vowel is to keep your tounge in the same position as when pronouncing "r" but not touching the palate and then make a guttural sound. Even better, start with a sustained sound of "a" and then slowly curl up your toungue up while trying to keep your vocal cords vibrating the same way. When the toungue is in an upward position but not touching the palate, then sustained sound that you hear is the vowel "Ri" or "Ru". To justify this remember that Maha+Rishi=Maharshi after sandhi. The "r" in Maharshi comes close to the sound of the vowel "Ri" or "Ru".
<b>Vowel Li </b>
Just as in the case of Ri but don't curl up the toungue as much as in pronouncing "r" but little less as in pronouncing "l". This vowel is hardly ever used.
<b>Vowel ai </b>
This vowel is often butchered by many people. It is a single vowel, but is often pronounced as two vowels "a" followed by "i". This not what is meant by a vowel! While pronouncing a vowel, the configuration of the mouth should not change. But for most people intially the mouth is in the configuration for pronouncing "a" and then changes to "i". Why have a vowel for "ai" then if two separate vowels can do the task? Try to speak english word Hat. Letter "a" as pronounce in the english word "hat" comes close to the vowel "ai". You will noticed that mouth can be put in a steady configuration while pronouncing this vowel. And it is clearly different from vowel "e" (similar to letter a in english word ape)
<b>Visarga </b>
This is another big casualty. Most people emit a heavy "ha" sound when pronouncing a visarga. You will mostly hear "Ramaha gacchati" etc. If the consonant "ha" could do the task why invent a vowel for it? The reason is lost on most people. It is so bad that most school teachers insist on a heavy "ha" or "aha" pronunciation for the visarga which IMHO is completely wrong.
The literal meaning of visarga is an ending. The dissolution of universe at the end of time can also be called a visarga. The word "Visarjana" in the sense of discarding or ending comes from the same root.
Word Rama with the vowel "a" at the end has a smooth traling off sound as the vowel ends. The smooth trailing nature of the vowel is not mandated for the vowel. The vowel can possibly end in a different way. Suppose that insted of ending the vowel "a" smoothly, you end it abruptly, sharply cutting off the sound. In my opinion Visarga is just that. Sharply cutting off the sound of the vowel rather than letting it smoothly trail off to zero sound level.
If you try it yourself, this sharp ending will sound almost like a "h" sound. But it is not a full "ha" sound. And if you are careful you can end the vowel sharply without actually giving a hint of the letter "h" in it. I have heard some british clipped accent where many words are ended sharply like that. It may have been a common Indo-European trait in languages.
<b>Murdhanya Sha </b>
Talavya "sha" as in english word sharp and sanskrit word shankar and dantya sa as in satya are easy to pronounce. It is the third "sh" also called murdhanya sh that thows most people off balance. It occurs in words like "Dhanusha" or "Purusha" etc. But this one is simpler. The sequence talavya, murdhanya and dantya is a give away to the correct pronunciation. In Talavya sha the toungue almost touches the lower palate, while in the dntya sa it comes close to the teeth. Murdhanya sha must be in between. Murdhnya ta (or retroflex ta) is pronounced with the toungue curling upwards. If you do the same with the toungue curled upwards and almost touching the upper palate and release a sha kind of sound that will be murdhanya sha.
<b>Troublesome vowels:</b> Ri(or Ru), Li (similar to Ri but hardly ever used), ai, Visarga
<b>Troublesome consonat:</b> Murdhanya Sha
My thoughts on these are given below. But before that lets clarify what is a vowel and a consonant:
<b>Vowel:</b> Open your mouth and put it in a certain configuration. A configuration involves amount of opening of the mouth, shape of the lips (normal, rounded or stretched sideways), position of tounge inside the mouth etc. Make sure the configuration is static, that is no parts of your mouth are moving. Then release a sound through your vocal cords. The sustained sound that you hear is a vowel. Vowels like a,aa,i.ii, e, o etc are simple.
<b>Consonants: </b> Consonants involve touching part of your palate, toungue, lips and teeth together and then releasing a sound. The sound becomes a vowel when it is sustained. But just the initial sound which is dominated by the initial location of the blockage is the consonant. A consonant can be pronounced only with a vowel. Depending upon where the toungue touches the mouth (or where the intial blockage is created) we get the five major consonant classes:
ka-varga: toungue touching the root of the mouth
cha-varga: tounge touching lower palate
ta(murdhanya) varga: toungue touching the upper palate
ta(dantya) varga: toungue touching the base of the teeth
Pa-varga: lips touching each other
Each varga has 5 consonants. In each varga the first consonant is unvoiced-unaspirated, second is unvoiced-aspirated, third is voiced-unaspirated, fourth is voiced-aspirated and fifth is nasalized.
ka is unvoiced while ga is its voiced counterpart. The difference between voiced and unvoiced is that vocal cords are vibrating from the very beginning for a voiced consonant. Try to speak ka and ga. You will notice that toungue touches the same location but in the case of ga there is extra "resonance" felt at the throat due to vocal cords vibrating from the very beginning.
An aspirated consonant is one which has an associated "ha" sound attached to it like kha and gha. Kha is unvoiced and gha is its voiced counterpart.
Other consonants like ya, ra , la, va are intermediate consonants along with sha (talavya), sha(murdhanya) , sa (dantya) and ha. Ha is the last true consonant. Ksha, tra, jna are composite consonants.
<b>Vowel Ri or Ru </b>
The way it is written in english it seems to be a consonat "r" combined with a vowel "i" or "u". But in Sanskrit it is supposed to be a vowe!! Lets keep this in mind. IMHO the correct way to pronounce this vowel is to keep your tounge in the same position as when pronouncing "r" but not touching the palate and then make a guttural sound. Even better, start with a sustained sound of "a" and then slowly curl up your toungue up while trying to keep your vocal cords vibrating the same way. When the toungue is in an upward position but not touching the palate, then sustained sound that you hear is the vowel "Ri" or "Ru". To justify this remember that Maha+Rishi=Maharshi after sandhi. The "r" in Maharshi comes close to the sound of the vowel "Ri" or "Ru".
<b>Vowel Li </b>
Just as in the case of Ri but don't curl up the toungue as much as in pronouncing "r" but little less as in pronouncing "l". This vowel is hardly ever used.
<b>Vowel ai </b>
This vowel is often butchered by many people. It is a single vowel, but is often pronounced as two vowels "a" followed by "i". This not what is meant by a vowel! While pronouncing a vowel, the configuration of the mouth should not change. But for most people intially the mouth is in the configuration for pronouncing "a" and then changes to "i". Why have a vowel for "ai" then if two separate vowels can do the task? Try to speak english word Hat. Letter "a" as pronounce in the english word "hat" comes close to the vowel "ai". You will noticed that mouth can be put in a steady configuration while pronouncing this vowel. And it is clearly different from vowel "e" (similar to letter a in english word ape)
<b>Visarga </b>
This is another big casualty. Most people emit a heavy "ha" sound when pronouncing a visarga. You will mostly hear "Ramaha gacchati" etc. If the consonant "ha" could do the task why invent a vowel for it? The reason is lost on most people. It is so bad that most school teachers insist on a heavy "ha" or "aha" pronunciation for the visarga which IMHO is completely wrong.
The literal meaning of visarga is an ending. The dissolution of universe at the end of time can also be called a visarga. The word "Visarjana" in the sense of discarding or ending comes from the same root.
Word Rama with the vowel "a" at the end has a smooth traling off sound as the vowel ends. The smooth trailing nature of the vowel is not mandated for the vowel. The vowel can possibly end in a different way. Suppose that insted of ending the vowel "a" smoothly, you end it abruptly, sharply cutting off the sound. In my opinion Visarga is just that. Sharply cutting off the sound of the vowel rather than letting it smoothly trail off to zero sound level.
If you try it yourself, this sharp ending will sound almost like a "h" sound. But it is not a full "ha" sound. And if you are careful you can end the vowel sharply without actually giving a hint of the letter "h" in it. I have heard some british clipped accent where many words are ended sharply like that. It may have been a common Indo-European trait in languages.
<b>Murdhanya Sha </b>
Talavya "sha" as in english word sharp and sanskrit word shankar and dantya sa as in satya are easy to pronounce. It is the third "sh" also called murdhanya sh that thows most people off balance. It occurs in words like "Dhanusha" or "Purusha" etc. But this one is simpler. The sequence talavya, murdhanya and dantya is a give away to the correct pronunciation. In Talavya sha the toungue almost touches the lower palate, while in the dntya sa it comes close to the teeth. Murdhanya sha must be in between. Murdhnya ta (or retroflex ta) is pronounced with the toungue curling upwards. If you do the same with the toungue curled upwards and almost touching the upper palate and release a sha kind of sound that will be murdhanya sha.