A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Religion, Geography, History, and Literature c4.s3.2

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.’