Pronunciation of word final "a" in sanskrit

[Sudalaimuthu Palaniappan]

In a message dated 5/25/99 3:26:13 AM Central Daylight Time,
harryspier at HOTMAIL.COM writes:

> A Gujerati friend who learnt sanskrit in high school in India pronounces
>  word final short "a" so short as to be almost imperceptable.  In the modern
>  grammars written in english short "a" is distinguished from long "a" both
in
>  quality and length but I don't see any mention that short "a" is pronounced
>  any differently when word final than when word internal.

The thread "Questions on word-final vowels in Sanskrit" started on Wed, 25
Nov 1998 may be of use to you. The history of borrowed words in Tamil
suggests this phenomenon in Sanskrit may have been in existence for a long
time.

Regards
S. Palaniappan