Sanskrit Pronunciation Guide
363
d – as in  dove  but with tongue against teeth. 
 l – as in  light  
 
 
 dh – as in  red-hot  but with tongue against teeth. 
 v – as in  vine  
 
 
 n – as in  nut  but with tongue between teeth. 
 ś (palatal) – as in the  s  in the German 
 
 
 p – as in  pine  
  
 
 
 ph – as in  uphill  (not  f ) 
 word  sprechen  
 
 
 b – as in  bird  
  
 
 
 bh – as in  rub-hard  
 ṣ (cerebral) – as the  sh  in  shine  
 
 
 m – as in  mother  
 s – as in  sun  
 
 
 y – as in  yes  
 h – as in  home  
 
 
 r – as in  run
Generally two or more consonants in conjunction are written together in a special form, as for example:  श   kṣa   त्र   tra
There is no strong accentuation of syllables in Sanskrit, or pausing between words in a line, only a flowing of short and long (twice as long as the short) syllables. A long syllable is one whose vowel is long ( ā ,  i ,  ū ,  e ,  ai ,  o ,  au ), or whose short vowel is followed by more than one consonant (including  anusvāra  and  visarga ). Aspirated consonants (such as  kha  and  gha ) count as only single consonants.