A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c4.s3: Consonants
A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c4.s3
- Language
- English
Consonants
c4.s3.1
| Guttural | k | kh | g | gh | ṅ |
| Palatal | ch | chh | j | jh | ñ |
| Cerebral | ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ |
| Dental | t | th | d | dh | n |
| Labial | p | ph | b | bh | m |
| Semi-vowels | y | r | l | v, w | |
| Sibilants | ś | ṣ, s | Aspirate h | Visarga ḥ | Anuswāra ṃ |
c4.s3.2
To the uninitiated Englishman the chief difficulty lies in the short ‘a,’ the primary inherent vowel of the Sanskrit, pronounced as in the word ‘America.’ The English alphabet has no distinct letter for this sound, but uses every one of its vowels in turn, and some even of its double vowels to represent it; so it is the ‘a’ and ‘e’ in ‘servant,’ the ‘i’ in ‘bird,’ the ‘o’ in ‘word,’ the ‘u’ in ‘curd,’ the ‘y’ in ‘myrtle,’ and the ‘ea’ in ‘heard.’ The Sanskrit short ‘a’ has this sound invariably, and unaffected by any combination of consonants; so Sanskrit ‘barn’ must be pronounced not as the English ‘barn’ but as ‘burn.’ The pronunciation of the other vowels is sufficiently obvious. The vowel ‘ri’ is represented in italics to distinguish it from the consonants ‘r’ and ‘i.’
c4.s3.3
Of the consonants, the cerebral letters ‘t,’ ‘th,’ ‘d,’ ‘dh,’ and ‘n,’ the palatal sibilant ‘s,’ and the visarga ‘h,’ are represented in italics. Practically these are the only distinctions necessary. The guttural nasal is used only in combination with a guttural letter (‘nk’ or ‘ng’); the palatal nasal is used only with palatals (‘nch’ and ‘nj’), and no other nasal can be combined with these letters. The anuswāra, and the anuswāra only, is used before the sibilants and ‘h,’ so in ‘ns,’ ‘nsh,’ ‘ns,’ and ‘nh,’ the nasal is the anuswāra. The letter m before a semi-vowel may be represented either by m or anuswāra. In all these instances the combinations distinctly indicate the proper nasal, and no discriminative sign is necessary.
c4.s3.4
Of the pronunciation of the nasals it is only necessary to notice the anuswāra. This, with a sibilant, is a simple n, but before h it is like ng or the French n in *bon*; so the Sanskrit *Sinha*, in the modern derivative tongues, is written and pronounced Singh.
c4.s3.5
The aspirates are simple aspirations of their respective consonants, and make no other change of their sounds; so ‘th’ is to be pronounced as in the words ‘at home,’ and ‘ph’ as in ‘up-hill,’ never as in ‘thine’ and ‘physic.’ The letter ‘g’ is always hard as in ‘gift.’ The palatals are the simple English sounds of ‘ch’ and ‘j’ as in ‘church’ and ‘just.’ The cerebrals and the dentals are similar letters, but the former are drawn from the roof of the mouth and the latter from the tips of the teeth. In ‘train’ and ‘drain’ we have cerebrals; in ‘tin’ and ‘due’ we have dentals, or an approach to them. The ordinary English ‘t’ and ‘d’ are more cerebral than dental, and the natives of India in transcribing English names use the cerebrals for our ‘t’ and ‘d.’ The palatal sibilant ‘s’ has a sound intermediate between ‘s’ and ‘sh,’ resembling the double ‘ss’ in ‘session.’ The visarga, the final ‘h,’ has no distinct enunciation, but it is nevertheless a real letter, and changes in certain positions into ‘s’ and ‘r.’ Thus the name Sunahsephas is sometimes written Sunassephas.
c4.s3.6
[In French the palatal ‘ch’ is represented by ‘tch’ and the ‘j’ by ‘dj.’ In German the ‘ch’ is expressed by ‘tsch’ and the ‘j’ by ‘dsch.’ These very awkward combinations have induced Max Müller and others to use an italic ‘k’ and ‘g’ instead of them.]
c4.s3.7
Some words will be found with varying terminations, as ‘Hanumat’ and ‘Hanumān,’ ‘Sikhandin’ and ‘Sikhandī.’ The explanation of this is that Sanskrit nouns have what is called a crude form or stem independent of case termination, and the nominative case very frequently differs from it. So ‘Hanumat’ and ‘Sikhandin’ are crude forms; ‘Hanumān’ and ‘Sikhandī’ are their nominative cases. There are other such variations which need not be noticed.
c4.s3.8
The letters b and v are often interchanged, so words not found under the one letter should be sought for under the other.