नमस्काराः! In the last article we made a beginning. Here is the second step in the same direction. In this article I am going to explain the vowels and consonants of Sanskrit. I will quote the pronunciation in brackets.

अ (a as in ultimate)

आ (aa)

इ (i as in India)

ई (ee as in East)

उ (u as in out)

ऊ (oo as in pool)

ए (e as in then)

ऐ (ai difficult to pronounce in English, similar to pine)

ओ (o as in go)

औ (ou again difficult to pronounce in English, similar to out)

अं (am as in umbrella) 

अः (ahaa)

ऋ (It is out of scope of English to pronounce ऋ. If you say ‘ru’, it will become ‘रू’, if you say ‘ri’ it would become ‘रि’. It is neither ‘ri’ nor ‘ru’. This is why the word कृष्ण is never pronounced correctly in English. Many people say ‘Krishna’ (क्रिष्ण) or ‘Krushna’ (क्रुष्ण))

ॠ (The deergha ऋ)

लृ (Again out of scope of English. I will try to upload audio clips in order to explain these pronunciations.)

ॡ (The deergha लृ)

These are the 16 vowels in Sanskrit.

Now, let us study the consonants.

क (k)    ख (kh) ग (g)     घ (gh)  ङ (ung as in sung)

च (ch as in chapter)     छ (chh)                        ज (j as in juggler)         झ (jh)   ञ (nch as in lunch)

ट (T as in put)  ठ (TH)  ड (D as in dog)            ढ (DH)  ण (N)

त (t)     थ (th as in thanks)       द (d as in the)  ध (dh as in this)                       न (n as in no)

प (p as in pen) फ (ph similar to ‘f’ as in friend, but putting both the lips together. I will explain this later.)       ब (b)     भ (bh)      म (m)

य (y)     र (r)      ल (l as in all)    व (w as in window)       श (sh)   ष (SH)  स (s)    ह (h as in hut)  ळ (L not possible to write in English)           क्ष (ksh)             ज्ञ (dny)

 Please note that certain vowels and consonants cannot be pronounced in English. I will try to upload audio clips to show the correct pronunciations, in future.

क्ष and ज्ञ are formed by combining two consonants. Similarly, many other consonants can be formed by combining other consonants.