Pronunciation of l before k

[Madhav Deshpande]

The contextual (allophonic) pronunciations of Sanskrit sounds are not
studied by Sanskrit grammarians and phoneticians, except perhaps in the
context of what is called faults of pronunciation (uccaara.nado.sa), cf.
chapters in texts like the .Rk-Praatizaakhya and Mahaabhaa.sya.  I have a
feeling that with the emergence of Sanskrit phonetics and grammar, a high
value was placed on the distinctness of sounds (their phonemic value?) but
not on their contextual variation, except what could be represented in
terms of discret sounds (var.na).  The sub-var.na (sub-phonemic /
allo-phonemic) phonology of Sanskrit was not pursued as vigorously.
Occasional references to sub-phonemic variation do pop up in texts, but
there is no systematic treatment.  There is a passage in Kaiya.ta's
Pradeepa where he refers to something like voicing of k occurring between
two vowels.  This would show a Prakritic tendency at sub-phonemic level in
spoken Sanskrit.  If I can locate the passage, I will be more precise.
But such statements can be collected and studied.  Best,
                                        Madhav Deshpande

On Thu, 6 Jul 2000, Peter Freund wrote:

> Dear list members:
>
> For the Sanskrit teachers amongst you, another somewhat bizarre way that
> Americans mispronounce Sanskrit has recently come to my attention.
> Perhaps everyone knows this, but I've never heard it discussed before.
>
> There are four semivowels in Sanskrit, ya, ra, la, and va, representing
> half-contact for the palatal, retroflex (arguable, of course), dental, and
> labial points of contact.  In English, there is apparently a fifth
> semivowel, an l which is pronounced with the glottis at the back of the
> throat.  This occurs whenever l is followed by k, as in the common word
> "milk".  The l in milk is not a dental--as an Estonian friend of
> mine--quite fluent in English-- discovered to his chagrin when he could
> not make his desire for "milk" understood to a waiter because he was
> mispronouncing the guttural l!
>
> In Sanskrit, an l before a k occurs in words like Yajnavalkya, words which
> are inevitably mispronounced by Americans who unconsciously substitute
> their guttural l for the proper dental l.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Peter Freund
>