Pronunciation of word final "a" in sanskrit

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

 The south had a full word-final "a", it seems.
 Probably why modern personal names differ a little
 between north and south.

          --------------------------------------------
           north             |     south
          ---------------------------------------------
           shiv                     shivan
           narayan                  narayanan
           ganesh                   ganeshan
           ram                      raman
           lakshman                 lakshmanan
           gopal                    gopalan

           and so on.

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