Pronunciation of word final "a" in Sanskrit

[Lalita du Perron]

As a Hindiwallah (or actually -vali) I can confirm that in most Hindi
verse that I'm aware of the final 'a' (which can be syllable-final as
well as word-final) is pronounced - usually, as Allen Thrasher suggests,
metris causa, but it also occurs in songs where the reason is rhythmic
rather than metric.

Lalita du Perron
Dept of the Languages and Cultures of South Asia
SOAS
University of London