No historically authentic Sanskrit pronunciation has survived in India today, because no modern Indian language preserves all Sanskrit sounds. However, there are regional standards of Sanskrit pronunciation, which may be described in terms like the Pune pronunciation, Banaras pronunciation, Mysore pronunciation etc. Sanskrit scholars in these different regions generally follow that regional standard. Reciters of the same Veda from different regions also have their regional standards. The Yajurveda recited in Maharashtra sounds different from the Yajurveda recited in south India. This is to be expected given the diverse linguistic history of India that has left its marks also on the pronunciation of Sanskrit. Even works like Rājaśekhara's Kāvyamīmāṃsā give details of the regional peculiarities of Sanskrit pronunciation and recitation of Sanskrit poetry.

Madhav Deshpande

Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India

[Residence: Campbell, California, USA]


On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 8:03 AM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:
Dear Johanna,

I was just wondering to what extent, without native speakers (and even with modern native speakers), we have any chance of reconstructing classical Sanskrit phonetics. Devanagari is of course much closer to the ‘one grapheme - one phoneme’ ideal than e.g. Greek or Latin writing are, and in some later grammatical works we have descriptions is how sounds are to be pronounced; but that still usually only gives us an overview of phonemes, and not necessarily their complete phonetic reality. 

I think it’s much more important to teach our students to be consistent in their approximations, so as to be intelligible, than to give them the idea that there is *one* correct ‘ideal’ pronunciation, so to speak.  

All best,
     Antonia

On Sat 25. Sep 2021 at 16:31, Joanna Jurewicz <j.jurewicz@uw.edu.pl> wrote:
Thank you, Antonia, very much. 

But, generally speaking, the main topic of my letter was not Sanskrit speaking villages, but how interesting the website is and how much ultrasound technology would be helpful in teaching Sanskrit phonetics. 

Best, 

Joanna

---

Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz

Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia Studies

Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies

Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw  

ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

00-927 Warszawa , Poland

Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages

College of Human Sciences

UNISA

Pretoria, RSA

Member of Academia Europaea  

https://uw.academia.edu/JoannaJurewicz



sob., 25 wrz 2021 o 16:15 Antonia Ruppel <rhododaktylos@gmail.com> napisał(a):
On the idea of Indian villages where Sanskrit supposedly is spoken, I recommend Patrick McCartney’s excellent work, accessible e.g. here:

All best,
     Antonia

On Sat 25. Sep 2021 at 16:11, Joanna Jurewicz <j.jurewicz@uw.edu.pl> wrote:
An eminent scholar and my colleague, Artur Karp, has just rightly questioned in a personal letter if there are Sanskrit native speakers. Well, there are villages in India where Sanskrit is spoken as the first language, but  Artur is right, the expression "Sanskrit native speakers" was unfortunate. 


---

Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz

Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia Studies

Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies

Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw  

ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

00-927 Warszawa , Poland

Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages

College of Human Sciences

UNISA

Pretoria, RSA

Member of Academia Europaea  

https://uw.academia.edu/JoannaJurewicz



sob., 25 wrz 2021 o 15:07 Joanna Jurewicz <j.jurewicz@uw.edu.pl> napisał(a):
What a wonderful website! 

I wish I could use ultrasonography when I teach my students to explain the Sandhi phenomena, e.g. cerebralisation of consonants (cerebral consonants are the most difficult consonants for Polish speakers). 

For example, it takes me much time to explain them how to pronounce the noun  kṛṣṇa. I tell them that if they want to properly  express it,  they have to realise:

1) that they have to open their mouth slightly more than when they speak Polish  and release the muscles of their chicks and other muscles of the lower part of their face, 

1)  that when they open the mouth slightly more and pronounce the guttural "k", they will have a lot of place between the tip of the tongue and the palate, 

2)  that, having pronounced "k", they have to push the tip of the tongue slightly back (which is now not difficult thanks to creation of space in the mouth), and quickly move it in order to pronounce the vocalical "ṛ" (which is the same movement as in Polish "r"),

3) that, having pronounced "ṛ", they still  have to keep their tongue back (to "yoke" it) in order to pronounce the sibilant "ṣ" (which is contrary to Polish habit to move the tongue a bit forward to pronounce the Polish consonant "sz", the same is for English "sh"), 

4) that, having pronounced "ṣ", they still have to "yoke" their tongue in the same position to pronounce the cerebral "ṇ".

I make funny faces when I try to "show" them this process, they laugh at me, and I ask them why they don't laugh at people at the gym who train various muscles of their body (which might look very funny too) and that the tongue is a muscle too, moreover its structure is unique to human species, because it allows us to speak. Then  we come back to the exercises until they say "wow, if we push our tongue back and keep it there, there is no problems with "ṇ" !".  Then they have to exercise until they are able to pronounce the word quickly. 

The fact that the larynx is placed slightly more below in Sanskrit pronunciation than in Polish  is the upaniṣad and I teach it to them later on. I have some devices to explain how to lower one's larynx. But the video would be of much help. 

The movements of lips  (generally speaking the whole vocal apparatus) are also different, but this is easier to be shown. And the role of breathing is crucial, of course (which I teach my students from the very beginning). 

If I had such a device, it would be easier for me to explain to them "the art of yoking of the tongue". 

It would be great if we could create such videos with Sanskrit native speakers which would take into account the invisible aspects of Sanskrit phonetics. I'd gladly take part in such an enterprise!

Thank you very much, Adheesh. I will certainly use the page during my phonetics classes to show the movements of the tongue in general perspective.

Best wishes, 

Joanna


---

Prof. dr hab. Joanna Jurewicz

Katedra Azji Południowej /Chair of South Asia Studies

Wydział Orientalistyczny / Faculty of Oriental Studies

Uniwersytet Warszawski /University of Warsaw  

ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście 26/28

00-927 Warszawa , Poland

Department of Linguistics and Modern Languages

College of Human Sciences

UNISA

Pretoria, RSA

Member of Academia Europaea  

https://uw.academia.edu/JoannaJurewicz



pt., 24 wrz 2021 o 02:47 adheesh sathaye via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> napisał(a):
Dear Marcis et al,

I don’t know if this will be useful for your purposes, but the Linguistics department here at UBC has designed a website called “eNunciate!” with various linguistics learning tools, including “Sounds of the World’s Languages”, which provides videos illustrating the pronunciation of a broad range of IPA consonants and vowels, including, presumably, all sounds within the Sanskrit syllabary. 
They feature both graphical representations like you are looking for, as well as actual ultrasound captures of a live speaker.

Similar animated videos are found on the ArticulatoryIPA YouTube site: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuOKJqD00W2EiC3DHmOuu0g

For a list of correspondences between IPA and the Sanskrit syllabary, you may consult Andrew Ollett’s excellent Sanskrit reference grammar (vṛddhiḥ) at the Univ. of Chicago, here: http://prakrit.info/vrddhi/grammar/

I am also currently making youtube videos that you can find if search for UBC Sanskrit on Youtube. These may or may not be useful.

With all best wishes,
Adheesh

—
Adheesh Sathaye
University of British Columbia




On Sep 22, 2021, at 04:56, Mārcis Gasūns via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Greetings,
 
  Is there something like this for Sanskrit (taken from https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.503070/page/99/mode/2up)? The closes I've seen is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_phonology but it has not pictures, only a vowel chart.
  Does https://archive.org/details/ACriticalStudyOfSanskritPhonetics_Mishra/img167_2R.jpg remains the only book on Sanskrit phonetics?
 
Regards,
Marcis
 

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