[INDOLOGY] Antw: Re: Grammatical question

Tue Apr 21 08:43:57 UTC 2020

Dear List members,

regarding rendition of saṃskr̥ta- to sanskr̥ta-, to my knowledge this
is not considered to be accepted in the higher register, or is it
described as such anywhere? This might simply be a result of
contamination from the vernacular, lower register, into the higher one,
due to classic phonotactical assimilation during the natural
articulation process, so “the nasal is put in the same phonetic
category”, as George said. 

On the contrary, renditions of saṃskr̥ta- (where anusvāra – as usual
behaving rather like a simple nasal placeholder – inevitably is prone to
assimilation) or sam̐skr̥ta- might rather just be allophones (and
consequently allographs) in differently standardized languages and/or
dialects. 

And samskr̥ta-, afaik, would be an outrageous violation of articulatory
norms and practice in the higher registers of Vedic Sanskrit as well as
Epic-Classical Sanskrit. 

I guess, the same holds true for siṃha- to simha- (?!), where the
assimilation of anusvāra to the velar nasal seems to be common.

Best,

Raik Strunz

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Raik Strunz, M.A.

Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Email: raik.strunz at indologie.uni-halle.de
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Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
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सर॑स्वत्यै॒ स्वाहा॑ ॥

>>> Dominik Haas via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info> 21.04.20
9.56 Uhr >>>

     Given that it originally was an m, my own practical solution to    
  pronouncing the anusvāra ṃ is to simply speak an m, but       without
letting the lips touch each other. This can be practised       by
putting two fingers between them – stopping before the teeth,       of
course – and then trying to say "saṃyoga" or "saṃsāra."       You can
think of the dot in ṃ as the finger in this case,       but in my
experience, two fingers are needed. 

     Now this is only one way to pronounce it, but it's simple and      
working (tested with students also). Most importantly, it prevents      
one from speaking an actual m in words like "saṃskṛta." I      
personally have the feeling that Pāṇini would have approved of it,      
but of course I do not have proof for this! 

            D Haas 

       __________________        
       Dominik A. Haas, BA MA
       PhD Candidate, University of Vienna

                dominik.haas at univie.ac.at              
                ORCID 0000-0002-8505-6112       

       follow         my work on 
         univie.academia.edu/DominikHaas       

     Am 21.04.2020 um 05:05 schrieb Harry       Spier via INDOLOGY:

                   The two articles by S.K. Chatterji both titled "The  
      Pronounciation of Sanskrit" but written 30 years apart address    
    the pronounciation of anusvara in different parts of India and      
  also whats considered "correct" pronounciation of sanskrit.         
I've attached one article and given you a link to the second one        
on archive.ort         
           Indian Linguistics 21:  pages 61-82
           I've attached this article

           K. B. Pathak Commemoration volume  pages 333 - 350  

https://archive.org/download/k.b.pathakcommemorationvolumes.k.belvalkar_272_w/K.B.%20Pathak%20Commemoration%20Volume%20-S.K.%20Belvalkar.pdf

           Harry Spier

                On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at 10:51           PM Madhav
Deshpande via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>           wrote:

                    Dear George,             
                            As per Pāṇini's rules, a word-final m changes         
     to anusvāra before any consonant [mo                 'nusvāraḥ,
hali].  Then come option rules.  Before y/v/l,               an anusvāra
can optionally change to nasal               versions of y/v/l.  Before
the stops, it can               optionally change to a nasal homogeneous
with               the following stop [parasavarṇa].  This leaves
r/ś/ṣ/s/h,               and before these it remains anusvāra.  In
some               Vedic traditions, in this last environment, it
becomes nāsikya               or raṅga.  Then there are rules which
change n into               an anusvāra in some environments.  This is
the               general description according to Pāṇini.  Some other  
            grammars do allow an m occurring at the end of an           
   occurrence before a pause to change into anusvāra,              
reflecting some local variation.  Of course, the actual              
pronunciation of an anusvāra probably differed               regionally
as we notice today, and different Vedic               traditions have
conventionally settled ways of its               pronunciation.  Also
rules that are optional in Pāṇini               don't necessarily remain
optional in various Vedic               tradition.  In most Vedic
recitations I have heard, the               change of an anusvāra into a
parasavarṇa nasal               is almost done invariably.

             Madhav

                                               Madhav M. Deshpande      
                    Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and                    
        Linguistics
                           University of Michigan, Ann Arbor,           
                 Michigan, USA
                           Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu       
                     Studies

                           [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]

                        On Mon, Apr 20, 2020 at               6:59 PM
George Hart via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>              
wrote:

             I’ve been enjoying the               discussion on
Indology. A friend had a question about               Sanskrit that I
could not answer properly. It involves the               pronunciation
of anusvāra before various consonants. I               believe that
before y, r, l and v, it is nasalized.               Assuming that is
correct, is it also nasalized before ś,               ṣ, s and h? Some
people say samskṛta, with an m sound, but               I always assumed
it was a nasal sound. I think the nasal               is put in the same
phonetic category as the ś etc. — i.e.in aṃśa it is a palatal           
   nasal, in saṃskṛta it is a dental nasal, and in siṃha it             
 is sort of a velar nasal sound. The problem is, everyone              
seems to say simha (m sound), not the nasal sound. What do              
the grammarians say? Is there a correct pronunciation, or              
can one choose between the nasal and the “m” before ś, ṣ,              
s and h? George Hart
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