Pronunciation of word final

Thu May 27 02:59:01 UTC 1999

Many Hindi purists (inculding myself and some of my ex- teachers on the
subject) do insist that the final 'a' should not be omitted while
pronouncing words like 'Asoka', 'Ganesha' etc. They (and I ) point out that
these words are different from 'Hanuman' and 'Bhagvan' where there is a
'Halant' at the last letter. However, by and large, Hindis do omit the last
'a'. This has lead most Hindis to make spelling errors while writing words
like 'Hanuman' etc. On the other hand, use of standard English spellings for
Surnames (like 'Gupta) has lead to the opposite effect- the 'hrasva' a is
pronounced as 'DIrgha' A (i.e. as guptA). Again, this mistake has percolated
even to those secions of people who do not know english. It is very common
to hear people addressing a Mr. Gupta as 'guptAjI'.

While addressing people with names like Santosh, Ashok etc., the Punjabis
tend to lengthen the final hrasva 'a' (Array Santosh3) while Hindis would
say 'Array Santo3sh"

Why this has happened? I don't know. But a fairly prevelant joke is that the
Punjabis are always in a hurry and therefore keep distorting the correct
pronounciations and introduce guttaral sounds into Hindi :-)

Regards,

Vishal

----Original Message Follows----
From: "N. Ganesan"
Subject: Re: Pronunciation of word final "a" in sanskrit
Date: Wed, 26 May 1999 11:02:21 PDT

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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