Pronunciation of word final "a" in sanskrit

[Chandan R. Narayan]

Dear Mr. Ganesan, we should not concern ourselves with orthography here.
Nagari representations would be the same in Skt and Hindi. What we are
dealing with is a sound change that is very common word-finally and
medially.  It is not a matter of what pronunciation is correct, rather an
example of variation. For example, Prof. RK Sharma was telling me about
his area in Bihar and the kS>kkh change. He mentioned a prAtiSAkhya text
that describes this very change. THe notion that Sanskrit pronunciation
does not change, or has not changed is flawed. PANini described...at some
point in time this became prescription. It is however, difficult to thwart
natural sound changes.
As far as naming conventions go, deity epithetic names, like any other
names, are subject to trends. My parents named me chandan, but qualified
it with my "Godly" middle name "rAghava" (with final "a" :). My uncles,
grandfathers, etc. all have god names...its just an example of what's "en
vogue" thats all.
chandan






chandan r. narayan || cnarayan at socrates.berkeley.edu


On Wed, 26 May 1999, N. Ganesan wrote:

> What is pronounced as "rAm" from a Hindi text is written identically
> in a Sanskrit text though it is read as "rAma" in Sanskrit.
> This general rule is true, say, for the case of "kannaD" while
> reading in Hindi  whereas it is "kannaDa" in Sanskrit
> as fas as Nagari writing goes.
>
> Does this explain why word-final "a"s are cut out in
> Hindi?
>
> Thanks,
> N. Ganesan
>
>
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