Sanskrit Pronunciation - A Practical Overview - Bolo!

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SANSKRIT
PRONUNCIATION: A
PRACTICAL
OVERVIEW
October 8, 2018
by Colin Kenney
 TABLE OF CONTENTS
My goal with this guide is not merely to explain how to sound the letters of the
Sanskrit alphabet. There are countless pronunciation guides online for that! Rather,
I want to give a deeper understanding of how the sounds are formed in the mouth,
and why almost all those pronunciation guides online are wrong. I will also show
why the IAST transliteration system is by far the best.
https://www.bolochant.com/blog/sanskrit-pronunciation 1/35
The word “Sanskrit” — or saṃskṛta in IAST transliteration — means “well-made”

or “perfected”. And it earns that name. It is well thought out, logically structured,
and precise. This makes it relatively easy for non-native speakers like me to
understand how to produce the sounds correctly (for the most part — there are a
couple of tricky ones!).
NOTE: For now, don’t worry about how to pronounce the saṃskṛta words. The lines
above and the dots below the letters might seem intimidating, at first. By the end of
this guide you will understand what all those marks represent.
P RONUNCIATION : T HE T HEORY
In many European languages, a single letter can represent many different sounds.
For example, the “g” in “garage” makes two different sounds within the same word.
Likewise the “c” in the Italian “cucina” (kitchen). This creates the need for
extensive memorization of how to pronounce words. This is not the case with
saṃskṛta, where every letter makes only one sound, and every sound has only one
letter. This allows for easy pronunciation of written words. There are no confusing
homonyms or homophones like “buffet” (buff-ay or buff-it), “through / threw”, or
“to / too / two”. Some English words even have several correct pronunciations. The
following three words — “ante”, “anti”, and “auntie” — can all be pronounced “ant-
ee”. The listener needs context clues to infer which word was said. These words can
also be pronounced differently: “ante” as “ant-ee”, “anti” as “ant-eye”, and “auntie”
as “awn-tee”. This isn’t possible in saṃskṛta, where every word is spelled and
pronounced in only one way1. If you hear a well-pronounced word, you’ll know
how to spell it. If you see a correctly spelled word, you’ll know how to say it. This
logical simplicity comes down to understanding how the mouth forms sounds.
THE FIVE MOUTH POSITIONS
To understand saṃskṛta pronunciation, we have to visualize the mouth and how it

creates different sounds. There are five distinct mouth positions where the energy of
a particular saṃskṛta sound originates. From back to front:
Velar (kaṇṭhya)
Formed with the back of the tongue
and the velum (soft palate)
Palatal (tālavya)
Formed with the middle of the
tongue and the hard palate
Retroflex (mūrdhanya)
Formed with the tip of the tongue The five mouth positions, the focal points of
turned back towards the hard palate saṃskṛta sounds.
Dental (dantya)
Formed with the tip of the tongue
against the front upper teeth
Labial (oṣṭhya)
Formed with the lips
Throughout this guide, I will use the color coding shown above for the mouth
positions. Wherever I reference the positions, I will highlight them with these
colors. My hope is this will help emphasize the importance of learning and using the
mouth positions.
PLEASE NOTE
COLORBLIND READERS: The colors are, in order: blue, green,
yellow, orange, and red. I realize that the pale shades I’ve chosen
may appear very similar. The particular colors aren’t that
important. Rather, the highlights are intended to call your attention
to the name of the mouth position as a reminder of their
importance.
Later in this guide I will use purple as an indicator for English

approximations of saṃskṛta sounds. Again, the color doesn’t matter,
just that the letters are highlighted.
Each of these mouth positions produces both a short and a long vowel sound, along
with five stop consonants2. Each mouth position except velar also produces a
semivowel, and each position except labial produces a fricative (I’ll explain these
terms later).
The tongue and lips in each of the five mouth positions
VOWELS
This will sound very obvious, but saṃskṛta is built with syllables. All languages are,
of course. But saṃskṛta pays special attention to its syllabic nature by appending a
vowel sound to every consonant by default. Every letter, unless otherwise specified,
forms a complete syllable. For example, the consonant क is not transliterated or
pronounced as “k”, but rather as “ka”, with a short a vowel built right in3. Saṃskṛta’s
syllabism manifests in its various alphabets used over the past three millennia. From
the ancient Brahmi script to the modern day Devanāgarī , saṃskṛta’s
predominant alphabet has been an an abugida , or syllabic script. This means every
syllable is written and treated as a single unit. Vowels are not written as distinct
letters (unless the word begins with a vowel). They are written as diacritical marks
appended to consonants.
A syllable is a packet of sounds that contains exactly one vowel. A syllable must
have a vowel and it can have only one vowel. Vowels are the energy that give
syllables life. They are often referred to as the mātṛkā or śakti (“powers” or
“energies”) of saṃskṛta. The short and long versions of each vowel sound the same,
only the length is different. The long vowels are twice the length of short vowels.
SIMPLE VOWELS
The tables below show the five basic vowel sounds in their short and long forms.
First is the Devanāgarī “independent” form, used only when the vowel begins a
word. Then is the IAST transliteration of the vowel. And last is the Devanāgarī
diacritical form attached to the consonant क (ka).
Short Long
hrasva dīrgha
Mouth Diacritic Mouth Diacritic

Vowel IAST Vowel IAST
Position (with क) Position with क
Velar अ a क Velar आ ā का
Palatal इ i िक Palatal ई ī की
Retro- Retro-
ऋ ṛ कृ ॠ ṝ कॄ
flex flex
Dental ऌ ḷ Dental ॡ ḹ
Labial उ u कु Labial ऊ ū कू
These five simple vowels are the pure sounds created from each of the five mouth
positions. In fact, they define the mouth positions used for the rest of the alphabet.
DIPHTHONGS
Diphthongs are compound vowels that

combine two simple vowels to create a new
Diacritic
vowel. All diphthongs in saṃskrta are long Vowel IAST
with क
vowels (dīrgha). They are called saṃdhyakṣara,
which means “combined letters”. ए e के
ऐ ai कै
PLEASE NOTE
For a more thorough explanation ओ o को

of the diphtongs and the mouth
positions involved in their औ au कौ
creation, see Lesson 1.A.5 of A

Practical Sanskrit Introductory,
on this site.
ANUSVĀRA AND VISARGA
The anusvāra (◌ं, transliterated as ṃ) and visarga (◌ः, transliterated as ḥ) are

grouped with the vowels, but they are neither vowels nor consonants. They are not
vowels because they can never follow a consonant. They are not consonants
because they can never begin a syllable. They can only appear immediately after a
vowel, and cannot precede a vowel. They serve to “close” the vowel.
Anusvāra (ṃ) closes the vowel with a resonant (nasal) sound from the mouth
position of the consonant that follows it.4.
Visarga (ḥ) closes the vowel with an unvoiced breathy (aspirate) sound through the
vowel’s mouth position. If the visarga comes at the end of a sentence, it is common to
add a voiced echo of the vowel after the breath. For example, aḥ would be
pronounced “aha”. This is not a standard rule, and many traditions end the word
with the unvoiced breath sound. As for which method is more correct, I don’t think
there is a definitive answer.
CONSONANTS
Consonants (vyañjana) in saṃskṛta are also called “stops”. This is because they stop
the flow of air (and thus the sound) by means of contact within the mouth by either
the tongue or lips. Full stops (spṛṣṭa) are made by complete contact that blocks the
air. Partial stops (īṣatspṛṣṭa, also called semivowels) are made by partial contact that
does not stop the air, but suppresses it through the various mouth positions.
STOP CONSONANTS
There are twenty-five stop consonants, five for each of the mouth positions. The
stop consonants have the following three characteristics:
Unvoiced (aghoṣa)
Sound created only with the breath, not the vocal cords.
Voiced (ghoṣa)
Sound created with the vocal cords.
Resonant (anunāsika, “through the nose”)

A nasalized ghoṣa (voiced) sound. The mouth acts as a resonance
chamber, then directs the resulting sound through the nose. For
example, with your lips closed, pronounce a prolonged “ng” sound by
closing the back of the mouth with the base of the tongue. This is the
velar mouth position. This sound bypasses the mouth entirely and
passes directly into the nose. Now relax the whole tongue and
pronounce a prolonged “mmm” sound. This is the labial mouth
position. In both cases, all the sound is passing through the nose, but
they sound distinctly different. The velar “ng” sound does not
resonate in the mouth at all. The labial “mmm” sound resonates
through the entire mouth before traveling out the nose.
The voiced (ghoṣa) and unvoiced (aghoṣa) sounds have two variants:
Aspirated (mahāprāṇa, “large breath”)

These sounds are followed by a small puff of air, creating a breathy
sound. Take for example, these two English phrases: “a pill” and
“uphill”. They sound almost the same, but the second “p” is aspirated.
It is important not to overdo the aspiration. This can result in the
insertion of a vestigial vowel sound, especially with the voiced (ghoṣa)
consonants, i.e. “bha” becomes “baha”.
Unaspirated (alpaprāņa, “small breath”)

These sounds are, obviously, not followed by a puff of air.
The table below shows all twenty-five stop consonants, sorted by mouth position
and type of sound.
Unvoiced Unvoiced Voiced Voiced Resonant

Unaspirated Aspirated Unaspirated Aspirated (Nasal)
क ka ख kha ग ga घ gha ङ ṅa
च ca छ cha ज ja झ jha ञ ña
ट ṭa ठ ṭha ड ḍa ढ ḍha ण ṇa
त ta थ tha द da ध dha न na
प pa फ pha ब ba भ bha म ma
SEMIVOWELS, SIBILANTS, AND ASPIRATE
Semivowels (antaḥstha, “standing Mouth Semi-

Sibilant Aspirate
between”) Position vowel
Also called īṣatspṛṣṭa (“slight touch”).

Velar ह ha
The flow of air is not stopped
completely, but is suppressed at the Palatal य ya श śa
respective mouth positions.
Retroflex र ra ष ṣa
Sibilants (ūṣman, “steam”)
Also called īṣadvivṛta (“slight Dental ल la स sa
opening”). An unvoiced (aghoṣa)
stream of air passes through a small Labial व va
space at the respective mouth

positions, creating a hissing sound.
Aspirate (ūṣman, “steam”)

A pure breath sound, “ha”. Formed
with an open throat and mouth.
TRANSLITERATING WITH IAST

Before we move on to the practical application of what we’ve covered so far, I want
to discuss transliteration.
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is the only transliteration

system I use. It is very easy to learn and understand. It uses strict 1:1 character
substitution, making it unambiguous and reversible. This means that IAST can be
transliterated back into Devanāgarī or other Indic scripts with 100% accuracy.
THE DIACRITICS
IAST employs a handful of diacritical marks.
Macron ̄
This mark only occurs above the five simple vowels to denote
the long version of the vowel: ā ī ṝ ḹ ū. A vowel with a macron
is held for twice as long as its short counterpart.
Underdot ̣
This mark is used for almost all the sounds in the retroflex
position (tongue-tip vertical at the roof of the mouth): ṛ ṝ ṭa
ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa ṣa. It is also used for the dental vowel (ḷ and ḹ),
the anusvāra (ṃ), and the visarga (ḥ).
Overdot ̇
This mark typically only occurs with the velar resonant
consonant (the “ng” sound): ṅa. It is also used for the
anunāsika (◌ँ), which occurs in Vedic saṃskṛta when an
anusvāra is followed by a vowel, transliterated as ṁ. Chances
are you won’t encounter this, but I include it for the sake of
thoroughness.
Tilde ̃
This mark only occurs once, with the palatal resonant
consonant: ña.
Acute ́
This mark only occurs once, with the palatal sibilant: śa.
Macron below ̱
This is the rarest mark. It only occurs on the transliteration of
the character ळ: ḻa. This letter is not part of the saṃskṛta
alphabet, but a grammatical substitution that occurs very
rarely, and only in Vedic saṃskṛta. This consonant is an
alternate version of ḍa (ड) that occurs when ḍa falls between
two vowels. The aspirated version of the consonant is ḻha
( ), and occurs when ḍha (ढ) falls between two vowels. It is
pronounced similarly to la (ल), but with the tongue raised to
the retroflex position (tongue-tip vertical at the roof of the
mouth). An example of this grammatical substitution occurs
in the very first word of the first verse of the ṛgveda:
अि मीडे ⇒ अि मीळे
agnimīḍe ⇒ agnimīḻe
“I praise Lord Agni”
COMPARING SYSTEMS
Saṃskṛta does not differentiate between upper- and lower-case letters. Proper
nouns are not identified by capitalization, but by grammatical rules (noun
declension). IAST uses only lower-case letters, the exception being if a saṃskṛta
word comes at the beginning of an English sentence. This makes IAST far more
readable than some other transliteration schemes. Some systems use a mixture of
upper- and lower-case letters or interior punctuation to represent saṃskṛta
characters.
Here is an example using two famous saṃskṛta names. I give them first in an
Anglicized spelling (not a transliteration), followed by several popular
transliteration systems, beginning with IAST.
Anglicized Shankaracharya Krishna
IAST śaṅkarācārya kṛṣṇa
Harvard-Kyoto zaGkarAcArya kRSNa
ITRANS sha~NkarAchArya kRRiShNa
SLP1 SaNkarAcArya kfzRa
5
Velthuis "sa"nkaraacaarya k.r.s.na
It is immediately clear that IAST is the most concise and legible of these examples.
Mixing upper- and lower-case letters, or sprinkling punctuation into the middle of a
word, wreaks havoc on readability. When reading a full sentence, or a whole
stotram, or conducting a long pūjā ceremony, quick and easy legibility is a must.
There are some very similar systems that use all the same diacritical marks as IAST.
These include National Library at Kolkata romanization and the ISO 15919
standard. These systems were not designed for saṃskṛta alone, but for all Indian
language scripts. These include Bengali, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu,
Arabic, Nastaliq, Oriya, Gujarati, and others. Unlike saṃskṛta, some of these
languages have both short and long diphthongs, meaning the e and o have a macron:
ē and ō. Since I only work with saṃskṛta, these macrons are superfluous, and I
would rather not have to type or read them. This is why I prefer IAST, and use it
exclusively.
IAST AT A GLANCE
This chart shows the full saṃskṛta alphabet in IAST. It is color-coded by mouth
position, and the letters with diacritical marks are outlined . Until you become
accustomed to what each mark means, use this chart as a reference.
Short Vowels a i ṛ ḷ u
Long Vowels ā ī ṝ ḹ ū
Diphthongs e ai o au
Velar Stops k kh g gh ṅ
Palatal Stops c ch j jh ñ
Retroflex Stops ṭ ṭh ḍ ḍh ṇ
Dental Stops t th d dh n
Labial Stops p ph b bh m
Semivowels y r l v
Aspirate / Sibilants h ś ṣ s
Others ṃ ṁ ḥ ḻ
A BRIEF HISTORY OF IAST
PLEASE NOTE
If you’re curious about the origins of IAST and how it came about,
this section should interest you. It is not pertinent to reading or
pronouncing IAST saṃskṛta, so feel free to skip it and move on to

the next section.
Modern IAST is derived from a system developed and adopted at the 1894
International Congress of Orientalists in Geneva. The scholars of the time saw a
growing need to standardize a system of transliteration. The goal was to eliminate
confusion caused by differing systems in use across Europe, as well as to streamline
the printing of transliterated texts. They took inspiration from the most prevalent
systems of the day, as well as leading saṃskṛta scholars like Monier Monier-
Williams.
The system they arrived at is very similar to modern IAST, with a few distinctions.
Namely, despite a desire to use a macron for all the long vowels, due to printing
limitations of the day, they were not able to place a macron over the letter “l” for the
long dental vowel. Since the short vowel had a dot below, they opted for an “l” with
two dots below for the long vowel (l̤). Other minor differences include “m with dot
above” for anusvāra (ṁ), and “m with candrabindu” (m̐ ) for anunāsika. There were
also two additional variants of visarga: jihvāmūlīya (ẖ), used when ka or kha
immediately follows visarga, and upadhmānīya (ḫ), used when pa or pha immediately
follows visarga.
Modern IAST is essentially a simplification of the 1894 system. We are now able to
put a macron above the letter “l”, so the long dental vowel is ḹ. The candrabindu mark
for anunāsika is superfluous, so ṁ is used. This leads to the anusvāra being ṃ. And
the two visarga variants occur so rarely in saṃskṛta that modern IAST ignores them,
using ḥ in all cases.
If you are so inclined, you can read the Report of the Transliteration Committee
from the 1894 Congress. It has some interesting insights into how they decided
which diacritical marks to use where.
P RONUNCIATION : T HE P RACTICE
So, how are all these things actually pronounced? We’ll examine that in detail, but
first I want to cover some of the most common mistakes people make.
(MIS)PRONUNCIATION
First, I want to address something that, to me, seems straightforward, yet is the
subject of controversy. It has to do with the retroflex and dental vowels. How the
heck do you pronounce those things?
PRONOUNCING Ṛ AND Ḷ
Many saṃskṛta pronunciation guides will tell you to pronounce ṛ like “ri” as in
“crisp”, but with a trilled “r”. This leads to the instruction that ṝ is pronounced as
“ree” in “creek” (again with a trilled “r”). They will then tell you to pronounce ḷ like
ṛ, but starting with an “l” sound, leading to the truly bizarre “lri” (and “lree” for ḹ).
Some other guides and teachers will say that ṛ and ṝ are a rolled “r”, but for
different lengths.
These guides have lost sight of the fact that these are simple vowels. They are the
pure sound created from each mouth position. One could sound these vowels
without variation for the length of a full breath. The notion that ṛ sounds like “ri”
changes it from a simple vowel to, at best, a diphthong, and at worst, a consonant.
And “lri” for ḷ is just wacky.
The simple vowel ṛ sounds very like an English “r” (ṝ being the same, only longer),
but with the tip of the tongue pointed straight up (retroflex position). Likewise, ḷ
sounds very much like an English “l” (with ḹ being the same, only longer), with the
tip of the tongue right behind the teeth (dental position).
Charles Wikner — author of A Practical Sanskrit Introductory — offers the

following exercises for how to pronounce these vowels:
“ To get to the correct pronunciation of ṛ, begin by sounding a

prolonged i and slowly raise the tip of the tongue so that it is
pointing to the top of the head, approaching but not
touching the roof of the mouth. Do not try to hold the back
of the tongue in the i position, nor try to move it out of that
position: simply have no concern with what is happening at
the back of the tongue, just attend to the tip of the tongue
and listen. Repeat the exercise a few times until comfortable
with the sound of ṛ then practice directly sounding ṛ for a
full breath.
Similarly for ḷ start sounding with a prolonged i and slowly

raise the tip of the tongue to behind the upper front teeth
without touching them. Continue the exercise as for ṛ.
Wikner closes this section with the following explanation of how the
mispronunciation of ṛ as “ri” came to be (emphasis added):
“ In practice when either of these vowels is followed by a

consonant whose mouth position requires that the tip of the
tongue be at a lower position, a vestigial i will emerge due to
the bunching of the muscle at the back of the tongue when
moving the tip downwards. For example ṛk tends to
produce rik, but a word like kṛṣṇa should produce no i
sound at all.
TROUBLES WITH JÑA ( )
If you have even a passing familiarity with saṃskṛta, you have likely encountered
the compound consonant jña. You’ll have seen words like jñāna (wisdom), yajña
(sacrificial worship), and ājñā (the “third-eye” cakra located behind the point
between the eyebrows). And someone probably told you to pronounce these letters
as “gya”, i.e., gyāna, yagya, and āgyā. Other common pronunciations of this
character are “nya” (as in the Spanish word “mañana”), “dnya”, and “gna”. In
modern Hindi, the character (jña) is, indeed, pronounced “gya”. In Marathi, it
becomes “dnya”. And in South Indian dialects, we have “gna”. But for saṃskṛta
these are all incorrect.
Jña is a compound of two consonants: ja and ña. Ja is the voiced, unaspirated

palatal consonant, and ña is the palatal resonant. Both sounds originate from the
palatal position, so their combined sound must also originate there.
Again citing Wikner:
“ The pronunciation of this is similar to the French “J” as in

“Jean-Jacques”, or as in the “zh” sound in the English
words “mirage”, “rouge”, “measure”, “or “vision”; but in all
cases it is sounded through the tālavya (palatal) mouth
position, and is strongly nasalized.
He gives the following exercise to practice this sound:
“ Now with the tongue in the palatal position, sound a

prolonged śa (the palatal sibilant). And then repeat the
sound but allowing the vocal cords to vibrate — with some
imagination, this is beginning to sound like a prolonged ja
(which is of course, impossible to sound). Now repeat this
voiced sound allowing it to be strongly nasalized. This is
about as close as one can get to describing the sound of jña.
To summarize, jña is pronounced as a strongly nasalized “zha” sound (as in

“mirage” and “vision”) that originates from the palatal position. This is a very tricky
sound to master, which is most likely why it devolved over centuries to the much
simpler “gya”.
SILENT LETTERS
Saṃskṛta has no silent letters. You will often hear Westerners pronounce brahmā as
“braw-muh”, treating the “h” as silent. But every letter in saṃskṛta is important and
needs proper articulation. Some people, knowing that the “h” is not silent, will
pronounce it as brum-haw, with the “h” after the “m”. But this is also wrong. Every
letter must be sounded in the order they are written.
PRONUNCIATION GUIDE
If you read everything up to this point and you’re still with me, I commend you and
your commitment to refining your skills. Now we’re going to get into the practical
stuff.
PRONOUNCING THE VOWELS
The table below lists the vowels in order by mouth position. An English
approximation is given with the relevant sound highlighted.
Mouth Position Vowel Sounds Like6
Velar a b ut, not bat
ā h arm, not ham
i p it, p ill
Palatal
ī p eep, p eel
Retroflex ṛ/ṝ ac re
Dental ḷ/ḹ tab le
u p ut, f oot
Labial
ū b oot, sh oe
edge, not age

e
w et, not weight
ai aisle, p ie
Diphthongs
o t old, not tow
au d own, h ound
The ai and au diphthongs are “moving sounds” (not a technical term). The ai vowel
begins with a short a sound and moves into the i position. The au vowel begins with
a short a and moves into the u position (this is different from the English sound,
which begins with an “a” like in “cat”, and moves to the u position).
The e and o diphthongs are “constant sounds”, so the tongue and lips don’t move
during the vowel.
PRONOUNCING THE ANUSVĀRA AND VISARGA
As explained earlier, even though they are neither vowels nor consonants, the
anusvāra (ṃ) and visarga (ḥ) are typically grouped with the vowels. Therefore, I will
include them here, as well. These sounds are grouped with the vowels because they
can only appear immediately after a vowel, thus “closing” the vowel.
The anusvāra closes its preceding vowel with a resonant

(nasal) sound that changes depending on what consonant
comes next. An anusvāra followed by any velar consonant
would be pronounced as the velar resonant (ṅ). An anusvāra
followed by any labial consonant would be pronounced as the
labial resonant (m).
Take, for example, this famous mantra for the elephant-headed deity gaṇeśa — oṃ
gaṃ gaṇapataye namaḥ. This is often mispronounced as “gum ganapataye”. But
because the consonant after the anusvāra is the velar “ga”, the anusvāra must be
pronounced as a velar resonant: “gung”.
The visarga closes its preceding vowel with a breathy sound resulting from a small
puff of air. The visarga uses the same mouth position as its preceding vowel. If the
visarga is at the end of a sentence, it is very common to follow the breathy sound
with a voiced echo of the vowel. Take, for example, the universal closing mantra oṃ
śāntiḥ śāntiḥ śāntiḥ. The last word is often pronounced “shawn-ti-hi”. The gaṇeśa
mantra from the previous example can end with either “namah” with a puff of air,
or as “namaha” with a voiced a. The correct way is not definitively known. I come
down on the side of the unvoiced puff of air, because a voiced echo adds a syllable
to the word, which changes the poetic meter (if there is one). That being said, I still
often say “namaha”, simply out of decades long habit.
PRONOUNCING THE STOP CONSONANTS
The twenty-five stop consonants are separated below by mouth position. Each table
gives English approximations with the relevant sound highlighted, followed by
specific guidance for pronouncing the sounds of that position.
Velar
k kiss, kiln, ba ck
kh bun khouse
g good, give, buVelar

g Mouth Position
gh lo ghouse
ṅ si ng, lo ng, to ngue
The velar consonants are created with the back of the

tongue and the soft palate, exactly as in English.
Palatal
c cello, chair, chur ch
ch coa ch-horse
j just, jolly, joyPalatal Mouth Position
jh he dgehog
ñ e njoy, ca nyon, pi nch
The palatal consonants are created with the middle of

the tongue against the hard palate. In English, it is
common to make these sounds with the tip of the
tongue placed at the palatal ridge behind the teeth,
but this is incorrect for saṃskṛta.
Say the word “chai”, and pay attaention to the tip of

your tongue. If the tip of your tongue is raised and / or
touching the roof of the mouth, you will have to make
some adjustments to properly get to the saṃskṛta
sound. Relax the tip of the tongue, and bunch up the
middle of the tongue. Now try saying “chai” again,
and keep the tip of the tongue relaxed. Practice this
tongue position until it becomes very easy, as this
applies to all the sounds from this mouth position.
Retroflex / Dental
ṭ/t tub, tap, car t
ṭh / th an thill, ho thouse
ḍ/d Retroflex
day, dog, go d Mouth Position Dental Mouth Position
ḍh / dh re dhead
ṇ/n ge ntle, ha nd, gai n
I have grouped the retroflex and dental consonants

together because neither of these mouth positions
occur in English.
In English these sounds occur as alveolar consonants,

because the tip of the tongue touches the palatal ridge
behind the teeth, called the “alveolar process” or
“alveolar ridge”. The saṃskṛta versions of these
consonants are pronounced similarly to the English,
but with the tip of the tongue pointed straight up
(touching the roof of the mouth) for the retroflex
sounds, or straight forward (touching the teeth) for
the dental sounds.
Labial
p pill, pat, ta p
ph u phill
b be, ca b, im biLabial
be Mouth Position
bh clu bhouse
m a mble, mu mble
The labial consonants are created with the lips,

precicely as they are in English.
PRONOUNCING THE SEMIVOWELS
Every mouth position besides

velar has a semivowel. The
Mouth Semi-
semivowels are similar to their Sounds Like
Position vowel
simple vowel counterparts, but
they act as the boundary of a i+a = yellow, be yond,
Palatal
syllable rather than the heart of ya back yard
the syllable (the “nucleus”, in

ṛ+a =
phonetic terms). If you sound a Retroflex rise, p ray, g row
ra
simple vowel and immediately
follow it with “a” to form a Dental ḷ+a = la love, p lay, b link
syllable, you get the semivowel

u+a =
for that mouth position. Labial wet, s wim, t win
va
Palatal — as explained above in the “chai” example, this semivowel is pronounced

with the tip of the tongue relaxed and the middle of the tongue bunched up. Take
care that you are not engaging the tip of your tongue when sounding this letter.
Retroflex — pronounced like an English “R”, but with the tongue-tip vertical at the
roof of the mouth.
Dental — pronounced the same as an English “L”, taking care that the tip of the
tongue is touching the upper teeth.
Labial — pronounced similarly to an English “W”, but the lips do not protrude as
far forward (as when whistling).
For many years, before I truly understood the mouth positions, I made the mistake
of pronouncing the labial semivowel (va) as an English “V” sound (as in “very” or
“vertical”). But the English “V” is not a labial sound. It — along with its unvoiced
couterpart, “F” — is called a labiodental fricative — labiodental because it
involves both lips and the teeth (specifically, the lower lip curls under and touches
the upper teeth), and fricative because it is created by the friction of air through a
very narrow passage (i.e. a hissing sound)7. But the saṃskṛta “va” is a labial sound,
and does not involve the teeth at all. For example, where I used to pronounce viṣṇu
as “Vishnu”, I now pronounce it more akin to “Wishnu”. After training myself or
years to always say “V” — even in words where it is more awkward like svāmi or
tattva (both of which are much easier to say with the correct sound: “swami” and
“tattwa”) — the habit is deeply ingrained. If I don’t pay close attention I still
absentmindedly default to a “V” sound. Don’t get frustrated by small errors. No
matter how much we practice, we will still make simple mistakes. Just keep at it,
and get a little better every day.
PRONOUNCING THE SIBILANTS AND ASPIRATE
The sibilants (hissing sounds) and aspirate (breathy sound) are called ūṣman,
meaning “heated”. In English they are called fricatives.
Every mouth position except labial has

a fricative. They are all unvoiced, and
Mouth Sounds
result from passing a stream of air Fricative
Position Like
through the mouth.
Velar ha hello,
The aspirate has the same open throat be hind

and mouth as the simple vowel a, and a
Palatal / shine,
puff of air creates the an “H” sound, śa / ṣa
Retroflex wi sh
just as in English.
sun,
The palatal and retroflex sibilants are Dental sa
pea ce
similar to the English “SH”, but
distinctly different from it. The English
sound is a voiceless postalveolar
fricative. The tongue tip is between the teeth and the alveolar ridge, and the teeth
are clenched. For both the saṃskṛta sounds the tongue tip is relaxed, and the teeth
are open. The palatal sibilant can be especially tricky for an English speaker. It is
similar to the German “i ch”.
The dental sibilant is the easiest, as it is a simple “S” sound. To quote linguist W. D.
Whitney :
“ …it is the ordinary European S — a hiss expelled between

the tongue and the roof of the mouth directly behind the
upper front teeth.
IN REVIEW
Everything in this section is redundant. We covered it all in the previous sections.
But presenting the same information in a different, more compact way can be quite
helpful. Think of this section as a quick reference guide if you need a refresher on a
particular mouth position.
THE SAṂSKṚTA ALPHABET

The table below lists all the sounds created from each of the five mouth positions.
Excluded are the diphthong vowels, as they don’t belong to any particular mouth
position 8 .
Velar Palatal Retroflex Dental Labial
Simple Vowels
a ā i ī ṛ ṝ ḷ ḹ u ū
Stop Consonants
ka ca ṭa ta pa
kha cha ṭha tha pha
ga ja ḍa da ba
gha jha ḍha dha bha
ṅa ña ṇa na ma
Semivowels
ya ra la va
Sibilants / Aspirate
ha śa ṣa sa
CREATING THE SOUNDS
Creating the Sounds
Velar: All sounds of this mouth position originate in the back of the
back of mouth. The vowels (a and ā) are wide open sounds. Throat open,
tongue to tongue relaxed, and lips wide open and relaxed.
soft palate
Form the consonants by touching back of the tongue to the soft
palate, or velum. Relax the rest of the tongue.
These sounds all use the middle of the tongue — the tip of the
tongue stays relaxed — with the teeth open (i.e., not clenched).
This can be an awkward adjustment for an English speaker.
To form the vowels (i and ī) and the semivowel (ya), raise the
middle of the tongue to the hard palate without touching.
The consonants are all formed by touching the middle of the

tongue against the hard palate.
Palatal: Form the sibilant (śa) the same way, but with a small gap to force
middle of air through, creating a hissing sound. This is different from the
tongue to
English “SH”, which has the front of the tongue at the palatal
hard ridge and clenched teeth.
palate
For an English speaker, this mouth position can be especially
awkward. We tend to form many of these sounds with the front of
the tongue, often with the teeth clenched. Always try to keep the
tip of the tongue relaxed for these sounds, and the teeth open.
Practice this mouth position with the phrase “jaya śiva śaṃkara”.
All three words begin with a palatal sound. Keep the tip of the
tongue relaxed until the last syllable (“ra”). Keep the teeth apart,
and be sure to form “va” with only your lips (like “wa”).
Retroflex:
tip of Form all the sounds of this position with the tip of the tongue
tongue pointed straight up towards the roof of the mouth.
vertical to
hard The vowels (ṛ and ṝ) are not pronounced as a trilled “ri” or a

palate Spanish-style rolled “r”, as is often taught. They are a pure “r”
sound and can be voiced continuously for a full breath.
As with its palatal counterpart, the sibilant (ṣa) is similar to — but

different from — the English “SH”.
These sounds are formed by touching the tip of the tongue to the
upper teeth.
Dental: The vowels (ḷ and ḹ) are not pronounced as “lri”, as is often

tip of taught. They are a pure “l” sound, and can be voiced continuously
tongue to for a full breath.
teeth
Form the dental sibilant by passing air through the clenched teeth
with the tongue tip directly behind the upper teeth, exactly like
the English “S”.
These sounds are created entirely with the lips. For the most part,
Labial: sound them exactly like their English analogs.
lips only,
tongue Note that the semivowel (va) is formed with the lips like an
relaxed English “W”, and should not involve the teeth, as with an
English “V”.
1. There are, of course, exceptions in cases of compound words formed by

various grammatical rules, which are sometimes spelled with an anusvāra (ṃ),
and sometimes with the consonant the anusvāra is implying (e.g. śaṃkara and
śaṅkara are both correct spellings, though śaṃkara is more correct). ↩
2. These consonants are called spṛṣṭa, meaning “touched”, because they are
formed by complete contact of different parts of the mouth. They are also
called “stops” because the contact interrupts the air flow. ↩
3. In phonetics, this built-in vowel is referred to as “schwa”. Modern descendants

of saṃskṛta — such as Hindi, Urdu, Marathi, and Gujarati — have undergone
“schwa syncope” or “schwa deletion”, meaning the inherent vowel is dropped.
For example, even though spelled the same in both languages, ग ु देव is
pronounced “gurudeva” in saṃskṛta, but “gurudev” in Hindi. Whenever you
see a saṃskṛta word without its ending “a” (like Ram instead of rāma, or
Ganesh instead of gaṇeśa, this is due to the schwa syncope of modern Hindi, et
al. ↩
4. For example, the anusvāra in śaṃkara (शंकर) is voiced as a velar resonant (ङ

ṅ, “ng”) because it is followed by a velar consonant, क k. Likewise, the
anusvāra in saṃskṛta (सं ृ त) is voiced as a dental resonant (न n) because it is
followed by a dental sibilant, स s. ↩
5. Gérard Huet, creator of the fabulous Sanskrit Heritage Site , modified the
Velthuis scheme to make it easier to type. This modified Velthuis gives us
zafkaraacaarya, which somehow manages to be both better and worse. ↩
6. The English approximations are only a very rough guide, especially

considering the wide variety of accents around the world. Be very conscious of
the five mouth positions, and make sure you are using them to shape these
vowel sounds. ↩
7. In phonetics (the study of sounds used in human communication), a fricative

is different from a semivowel in that a fricative creates “turbulence”, and a
semivowel doesn’t. For this reason, semivowels are also sometimes called
glides. ↩
8. For a more thorough explanation of the diphthongs and the mouth positions
used to create them, see Lesson 1.A.5 of A Practical Sanskrit Introductory, a
self-taught course created by Charles Wikner, now available online for the
first time on this site. ↩
 3 Comments  5 Likes  Share
COMMENTS (3) Newest First
Preview POST COMMENT…
Mike Crawford 7 months ago · 1 Like
Many thanks for posting all this detail! For years I kept forgetting the
difference between Ś and Ṣ, and none of the sources were consistent. Today I
needed a reminder, did a web search, and found a detailed and definitive
guide. The back/meat of the tongue goes where the diacritical is -- up for
palatal, down for retroflex or what other sites call cerebral. And I can always
look at the printout in the future if I forget again. What a relief.
Michael Stasko 2 years ago · 1 Like
Namaste. Let me begin by saying I really enjoyed this post. It's excellent.
Clear explanations and great visuals and very thorough. I am always working
on refining my Sanskrit and chanting.
I was very happy to see jihvāmūlīya and upadhmānīya -- that is often left out
of chanting today.
(I have heard the later explained as the labial sibilant.)
In the way I have learned sandhi rules dictate that you would almost never
pronounce aḥ as aha unless it is at the end of the line or some other rare
cases.
From whom did you learn?
Namaste and again, a great post!
Colin Kenney 2 years ago · 2 Likes
Hi Michael! I’m glad you enjoyed the article.
I am entirely self-taught, learning from many different books and

online sources, but the resource I have learned the most from and use
most often as a resource is Charles Wikner’s “A Practical Sanskrit
Introductory”.
Namaste,
Colin
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4/9/2021 Sanskrit Pronunciation: A Practical Overview — Bolo!

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The word “Sanskrit” — or saṃskṛta in IAST transliteration — means “well-made”

THE FIVE MOUTH POSITIONS

To understand saṃskṛta pronunciation, we have to visualize the mouth and how it

turned back towards the hard palate saṃskṛta sounds.

COLORBLIND READERS: The colors are, in order: blue, green,

Later in this guide I will use purple as an indicator for English

The tongue and lips in each of the ﬁve mouth positions

Mouth Diacritic Mouth Diacritic

Diphthongs are compound vowels that

For a more thorough explanation ओ o को

creation, see Lesson 1.A.5 of A

ANUSVĀRA AND VISARGA

The anusvāra (◌ं, transliterated as ṃ) and visarga (◌ः, transliterated as ḥ) are

Resonant (anunāsika, “through the nose”)

Aspirated (mahāprāṇa, “large breath”)

Unaspirated (alpaprāņa, “small breath”)

Unvoiced Unvoiced Voiced Voiced Resonant

SEMIVOWELS, SIBILANTS, AND ASPIRATE

Semivowels (antaḥstha, “standing Mouth Semi-

Also called īṣatspṛṣṭa (“slight touch”).

space at the respective mouth

Aspirate (ūṣman, “steam”)

TRANSLITERATING WITH IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is the only transliteration

IAST employs a handful of diacritical marks.

“I praise Lord Agni”

Anglicized Shankaracharya Krishna

IAST śaṅkarācārya kṛṣṇa

Harvard-Kyoto zaGkarAcArya kRSNa

ITRANS sha~NkarAchArya kRRiShNa

SLP1 SaNkarAcArya kfzRa

A BRIEF HISTORY OF IAST

pronouncing IAST saṃskṛta, so feel free to skip it and move on to

Charles Wikner — author of A Practical Sanskrit Introductory — offers the

“ To get to the correct pronunciation of ṛ, begin by sounding a

Similarly for ḷ start sounding with a prolonged i and slowly

“ In practice when either of these vowels is followed by a

TROUBLES WITH JÑA ( )

Jña is a compound of two consonants: ja and ña. Ja is the voiced, unaspirated

Again citing Wikner:

“ The pronunciation of this is similar to the French “J” as in

He gives the following exercise to practice this sound:

“ Now with the tongue in the palatal position, sound a

To summarize, jña is pronounced as a strongly nasalized “zha” sound (as in

PRONOUNCING THE VOWELS

Mouth Position Vowel Sounds Like6

Velar a b ut, not bat

ā h arm, not ham

Dental ḷ/ḹ tab le

edge, not age

o t old, not tow

PRONOUNCING THE ANUSVĀRA AND VISARGA

The anusvāra closes its preceding vowel with a resonant

PRONOUNCING THE STOP CONSONANTS

speciﬁc guidance for pronouncing the sounds of that position.

g good, give, buVelar

ṅ si ng, lo ng, to ngue

The velar consonants are created with the back of the

c cello, chair, chur ch

j just, jolly, joyPalatal Mouth Position

ñ e njoy, ca nyon, pi nch