Sanskrit Pronunciation Guide 331
d — as in dove but with tongue against teeth
dh— as in red-hot but with tongue against teeth
n — asin nut but with tongue between teeth
p — asin pine | — asin light
ph— asin uphill (not f) v — asin vine
b — asin bird § (palatal) — as in the s in the German
bh— as in rub-hard word sprechen
m — as in mother s (cerebral) — as the sh in shine
y — asin yes s — asin sun
r — asinrun h — asin home
Generally two or more consonants in conjunction are written
together in a special form, as for example: a ksa A 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 (A, i, G, e, ai, o, au), or whose short vowel is followed by more
than one consonant (including anusvara and visarga). Aspirated
consonants (such as kha and gha) count as only single consonants.
