Dear list members,

In fairness to the opposite view, I'm forwarding this off-line reply to the list

Dear Harry, it depends WHICH AI do you use. Of course, ANY IA is faultless, but some of them are more performant and exact than others. So I asked the 2 I use "Does sanskrit have nukta", and here are the answers:

Gemini Ai studio / Gemini 2.0 Flash Experimental

No, Sanskrit does not have the nukta ( नुक्ता ).

The nukta, a dot placed below a consonant, is a feature of the Persian script and its derivatives, including Urdu and some other languages of the Indian subcontinent. It's used to represent sounds that are not present in the original script but were borrowed from Persian or Arabic.

While some Devanagari scripts used for writing languages other than Sanskrit (like Hindi, Marathi, etc.) do use the nukta to represent foreign sounds (like क़, ख़, ग़, ज़, फ़), it is not part of the traditional or standard Sanskrit writing system. Sanskrit's phonology is considered complete and distinct, and it doesn't require the nukta to represent any of its sounds.

Copilot

No, Sanskrit does not traditionally use the nukta. The nukta is a diacritical mark used in some modern scripts, like Devanagari, to represent additional sounds not originally found in the script. These sounds often come from Persian, Arabic, or other languages and are used in languages such as Hindi and Urdu. However, classical Sanskrit does not incorporate the nukta. If you're curious about more aspects of the Sanskrit script or its linguistic features, feel free to ask!

Best regards

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Il giorno mar 4 feb 2025 alle ore 06:06 Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> ha scritto:

Thank you Hans. I just typed in "Does sanskrit have nukta" and I think the google AI reply below shows the dangers of AI. It says things that sound reasonable but are completely wrong.

Yes, Sanskrit does use "nukta" (also sometimes called "anusvara") which is a small dot placed above a consonant to indicate a different pronunciation; essentially acting as a diacritic to differentiate between similar-looking consonants in the Devanagari script used to write Sanskrit.

Key points about nukta in Sanskrit:

Function:

It is used to distinguish between similar-sounding consonants, like "ta" (त) and "tha" (थ) where the nukta above the "th" signifies a different pronunciation.

Appearance:

In Devanagari, nukta is represented as a small dot placed above the consonant letter.

Harry Spier

On Mon, Feb 3, 2025 at 11:14 PM Hock, Hans Henrich <hhhock@illinois.edu> wrote:

Dear Harry,

This looks like a transfer from Hindi. What would be comparable in RV, some other Vedic branches, and Pali is the character ळ, which seems to indicate a similar lenition as in Hindi ढ़ but with a different phonetic realization.

I’m not aware of a nukta being used in Sanskrit

Best wishes,

Hans Henrich

On Feb 3, 2025, at 20:47, Harry Spier via INDOLOGY <indology@list.indology.info> wrote:

Dear list members,

I've noticed in some printed editions sanskrit ढ is sometimes printed with a nukta as ढ़ . Any explanation. Is this just a case of regional pronounciation of the editor leaking into the sanskrit.

As an aside when I typed "Nukta in sanskrit" into my google browser, its AI overview replied "The nukta is a character in sanskrit".

Thanks,

Harry Spier

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