Pronunciation of Sanskrit: some remarks

Sanskrit was spoken in Agartha and Hyperborea. And this whole legacy is coming back. Therefore everyone should know Sanskrit.

Sanskrit is the way of the future. Many greats have had some knowledge of it: Guénon, Evola, Simone Weil...

And as for the pronunciation of Sanskrit, hereby some remarks.

For instance, in the Sanskrit grammar I had as a student, it was stated that the stress should never be on the last syllable of a word. And a Western person speaking Sanskrit should remember this. But the Indians themselves speak with a rather monotonous accent, all syllables having approximately the same stress (this may remind you of the pronunciation of Chinese and Japanese).

Indian pronunciation of Sanskrit differs somewhat from Western school pronunciation. Of course by birthright the Indian way is of some importance, but to imitate it to the letter is not something that a European Indologist needs to do. School pronunciation, and with a Latin accent, is considered alright. However, to additionally listen to Sanskrit texts like the Bhagavad-Gītā chanted on Youtube, by a Hindu, gets a fair image of how it should sound.

Sanskrit has no difficult sounds as I see it. No “ach-laut,” no phonetic absurdities. Sure, “vocalic r” (ṛ) may be a bit difficult, but it sounds something like “ri”. Then we have the retroflexes, like ṭ, ḍ, ṇ. They are, to me, “typically Indian”. See for instance the Peter Sellers sketch “birdie-nam-nam” in the film The Party from 1968. Retroflex pronunciation: this means that the tongue should be bent back (= retro-flex) towards the palate.

As for the pronounciation of consonants in general, they are rather similar to English tongue. K, g, t, and d – no problems there. And the Sanskrit “j” sound is for instance pronounced like the “j” in English judge. And ñ sounds like “ny” in “canyon”. Further, I find the following advice by John D. Smith in his Mahābhārata translation are spot on, giving us some useful guidance:

[N]ote that c is always pronounced like the ch of English chip. The letter h is used in combination with many consonants to indicate aspiration; this [along with retroflex pronounciation, LS] is another feature that few Westerners can master (the Sanskrit consonant gh is not like the sequence found in English hog-house), and they should probably ignore the h in kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, th, dh, ph and bh. Thus th and ph are not pronounced as in English thin and phone, but are similar to t and p.

[Smith p. ix-x]

Regarding sibilants we have this: “[Ṣ] should be pronounced like the sh of ship, not the s of sip. An acute accent on an s (ś) represents a second, slightly different (non-retroflex) sh-sound.” [ibid p. ix]

As for the three wovels coming in a long and short variety, they are a, ā, i, ī, u, and ū. According to Whitney they are, respectively, to be pronounced as in the English words far, farther, pin, pique, pull, and rule. The long vowels e and o are pronounced as in they and go. The diphthongs ai and au are pronounced as in aisle and how.

The anusvāra (ṃ) is a nasal, sounding like the “n” in French bon.

Finally, the visarga (ḥ), is an aspirate sound, a “breathing” sound. Given as “aḥ” it should be pronounced “aha”. Given as “iḥ” it should sound like “ihi”. Paramahamsa, for his part, says that this attention given to visarga pronunciation is important. For in it lies God. The thing of it is, a visarga in a metric verse does formally destroy the meter, it kind of interposes an extra syllable. But, those who know how to chant can cram in that little extra “pseudo-syllable”. It has to be there. For it is divine.

There you have it. Now you have the fundamentals of Sanskrit pronunciation. Now you're on your way to archeofuturist excellence.



Sources
Smith, John D. The Mahābhārata. An Abridged Translation. London: Penguin Classics, 2009
Whitney, William Dwight. Sanskrit Grammar (orig. 1879). Delhi: Motilal Banarsidas, 1989



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