THose Letters are stiled Consonants, in the pronouncing of which the Breath is intercepted, by some Collision or Closure, amongst the Instruments of Speech: And for this reason are they stiled Clausae Literae, as the Vowels are Apertae.
The common distinction of these into Semi-vowels and Mutes, will not upon a strict enquiry be adaequate. And therefore I do rather chuse to distribute them into these three kinds;
1. By Spiritous, or Breathed, are meant such Consonants, as re∣quire to the framing of them a more strong emission of the Breath, ei∣ther through the आवाज निकालने के लिए ज्यादा सांस को बाहर निकालना या तो
1. The Consonants which are to be breathed only through the Nose, may be again distin∣guished into
1. स्वर जैसे ण , ञ , ड़ , न , म ,
2. बंद मुंह से जैसे अं , अँ , हं , हँ , हंग
Both these kinds, as likewise those that follow through the Mouth, have some imperfect sound of their own, without the joyning of any Vowel with them; though the sonorous only be Vocal; and the mute sort are only a kind of Whisper.
By Sonorous, are meant, such as require some voice or vocal sound, to the framing of them.
By the Mutes of these, are meant other Letters of the same confi∣guration, pronounced with a strong emission of the Breath, without any Vocal sound.
(m) is mugitus, the natural sound of Lowing, when the Lips are shut, and the sound proceeds out of the Nose. 'Tis counted of dif∣ficult pronunciation in the end of words: For which reason, the La∣tin Poets cut it off in Verse, when it comes before a Vowel in the next words: And the Greeks do not terminate any word with it.
(N) is Tinnitus, when the breath is sent out, the Limbus of the Tongue being fixed towards the Gums, or bottom of the upper Fore∣teeth. In the pronouncing of this, the breath is emitted only out of the Nose, which makes it differ from (L). 'Tis counted a pleasant and easie Letter, which may perhaps be the reason why this Letter N, and L, and R, are for the most part, both in Greek and Latin immutable, both in Declensions and Conjugations.
(Ng) is framed by an appulse of the Root of the Tongue towards the inner part of the Palat. The sound of it may be continued simple, as well as any other; which makes it evident to be a single letter, and not a compound of n, and g, as we usually write it: Thus the word Anguis, in the true spelling of it, should be writ A, ng, G, {ou}, ι, s. The Hebrew 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is supposed by divers Authors, but I think groundlesly, to be of this power. I know several things may be said, to render it pro∣bable, that the power here intended, may be sufficiently expressed, by a more soft and slight manner of pronouncing the letters N & G com∣pounded together: But I rather incline to reckon it a simple and di∣stinct Letter.
To the Sonorous letters of this kind, there are three Mutes of affini∣ty, hm, hn, hng; which are formed when the breath is emitted through the Instruments of Speech, in the same position respectively as in the former, but without any Vocal Sound. The two first of these are in use amongst the Welsh and Irish: And the last of them, in the opi∣nion of Bellarmine, and some other Grammarians, is rather the true sound of the Hebrew
RULE:2 - NASAL SOUNDS (ण ,न ,म ,ड़ ,ञ )
Also known as: vyañjana-sandhi, hal-sandhi
Consonant sandhi is the name for sandhi changes between a consonant and some other sound. Here is a simple example of consonant sandhi:
Consonant sandhi is complex. In this lesson, we will focus on the common sandhi changes that occur between two words. These changes also apply between the two words in a compound.
Reducing consonants Sanskrit has many consonants. But Sanskrit words end only in specific consonant sounds. So we must apply a few rules to convert a word's final consonants into a valid ending.
Before we study the specific rules, let's first see some examples of what these rules do. In the examples below, the words on the left don't follow the rules and are not valid words. After applying the rules, we get the correct results:
Now, here are the changes that we should apply to words ending in consonants. First, a word is not usually allowed to end in multiple consonants. If a word does end in multiple consonants, we keep only the first of those consonants. You can see some examples of this below:
There are rare exceptions, usually if the second-to-last consonant is r:
Second, consonants pronounced at the hard palate generally become k. (ñ becomes ṅ.) A very small number of words, such as rāj, use ṭ instead:
Third, the remaining consonant becomes unaspirated and unvoiced if it has an unaspirated and unvoiced version. In the first example below, dh has an unvoiced and unaspirated version t, so it becomes t. In the second example, m has no unvoiced or unaspirated version, so it stays the same:
Finally, -s and -r become the visarga:
By the end of this process, we are left with eight final sounds: k, ṭ, t, p, ṅ, n, m, and the visarga.
Rules for k, ṭ, t, and p k, ṭ, t, and p use the same voicing as the following sound:
They also become nasal when the following sound is nasal:
If the second sound is h, then we usually get this change:
Some learners find it helpful to see these changes in a table:
| k | ṭ | p | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ṅ | ṇ | m | nasal sounds |
| g* | ḍ* | b* | h |
| g | ḍ | b | other voiced sounds |
| k | ṭ | p | unvoiced sounds |
In the table above, * means that the following h shifts its point of pronunciation to match the first sound.
Extra rules for -t -t changes frequently. If the next consonant is pronounced at the hard palate (like ca) or the roof of the mouth (like ṭa), -t changes to a sound with the same point of pronunciation:
If l is the second sound, it becomes l:
And if the next sound is ś, we get this change:
As before, some learners find it helpful to see these changes in a table:
| t | |
|---|---|
| n | nasal sound |
| c | c, ch |
| j | j, jh |
| ṭ | ṭ, ṭh |
| ḍ | ḍ, ḍh |
| l | l |
| c (ś becomes ch) | ś |
| d (h becomes dh) | h |
| d | other voiced sounds |
| t | other sounds |
Rules for -n Like -t, -n changes often. If the next consonant is a voiced consonant at the hard palate (like ja) or the roof of the mouth (like ṇa), -n changes to the nasal sound with the same point of pronunciation:
If l is the second sound, it becomes a nasal l:
In front of c/ch, ṭ/ṭh, or t/th, n becomes ṃś, ṃṣ, and ms respectively:
And if the next sound is ś, two different outcomes are possible:
Again, some learners find it helpful to see these changes in a table:
| n | |
|---|---|
| ṃś | c, ch |
| ñ | j, jh |
| ṃṣ | ṭ, ṭh |
| ṇ | ḍ, ḍh |
| ṃs | t, th |
| nasal l | l |
| ñ (ś optionally becomes ch) | ś |
| n | other sounds |
Rules for -m -m becomes the anusvāra when consonants follow:
And it may optionally become the nasal sound that matches the following consonant:
In modern times, this change is usually not written down. But, it is often used in spoken Sanskrit.
Rules for the visarga We learned about visarga sandhi already. Please see the previous lesson for details.