Gutturals

Exercise

One of the best exercises to improve your pronunciation of Sanskrit is to consciously articulate all sounds produced at one place of articulation. Watch how similar the vibration of individual letters in the mouth feels and how you can easily move from one letter to the next. In this exercise, the phonation space becomes closer and closer:

a: vowel - phonation space completely open. You can feel a short vibration at the soft palate.
ā: vowel - phonation space completely open. You can feel a longer vibration at the soft palate.
h: fricative - The soft palate is almost closed off, the air swirls there.
k: plosive - There is a short closure at the soft palate, the air streams out afterwards.
kh: plosive, aspirated - A breath of air follows.
g: plosive, voiced - The sound is voiced.
gh: plosive, voiced, aspirated - Again, a breath of air follows.
ṅ: nasal - The closure stays, air streams out through the nose.

Sanskrit Pronunciation

Vowels

On the articulation of a vowel, air streams out almost unimpededly. In Sanskrit, vowels oscillate, either as long or short vowels, from guttural (a,ā), palatal (i,ī), retroflex (r̥,r̥̄) and dental (l̥,l̥̄) to labial (u,ū). The umlauts (vowel On the articulation of a vowel, air streams out almost unimpededly. In Sanskrit, vowels oscillate, either as long or short vowels, from guttural (a,ā), palatal (i,ī), retroflex (r̥,r̥̄) and dental (l̥,l̥̄) to labial (u,ū). The umlauts (vowel mutations) (o,au,e,ai) are always long.

Guttural vowels

a / ā: Relax your mouth and half open it on pronunciation of this sound. While the short a is only sounded briefly, the long ā lingers. Both vowels make the throat (guttural) vibrate deep down.

Examples:

a: kann, Affe
ā: Kahn, Vater

Sanskrit Pronunciation

Plosives

On the articulation of a plosive, built up pressure is released by a sudden release of air. In Sanskrit, plosives are ideally pronounced sonant and aspirated from guttural (k,kh,g,gh), palatal (c,ch,j,jh), retroflex (ṭ,ṭh,ḍ,ḍh), and dental On the articulation of a plosive, built up pressure is released by a sudden release of air. In Sanskrit, plosives are ideally pronounced sonant and aspirated from guttural (k,kh,g,gh), palatal (c,ch,j,jh), retroflex (ṭ,ṭh,ḍ,ḍh), and dental (t,th,d,dh) to labial (p,ph,b,bh).

Guttural plosive

ka: The tongue closes off the soft palate. The contact is released after slight pressure.
kha: The analogue sound with more air.
ga: The analogue sound with vibration or voice.
gha: The voiced sound with more air.

Examples:

ka: Skat, Muskat
In German, usually within a word.
kha: Kaffee, Kanu
In German, usually at the beginning of a word.
ga: Gabel, Galopp
The usual German g.
gha: Flughafen, taghhell
Occurs in German only in compound words.

Sanskrit Pronunciation

Nasals

On the articulation of nasal sounds, the closure at the place of articulation is not released. Most of the air streams out through the nose. The closed back part of the oral cavity thus becomes a variable resonance chamber for ṅ,ñ,ṇ,n and m.

Guttural nasal

ṅa: The tongue closes off the soft palate/the throat. In contrast to the plosive ka or ga, though, the contact is not released but remains. The sound is nasalised.

Examples:

ṅa: Gesang, langer, Hang
In German, the guttural ṅ is intuitively pronounced correctly in front of other guttural sounds such as ka, kha, ga oder gha. For instance in aṣṭāṅga yoga.

Sanskrit Pronunciation

Semivowels

Phonetically, a semivowel lies between a vowel and a plosive. In contrast to a vowel, a semivowel does not represent a syllable on its own when articulated. Neither is the vocal tract blocked for the pressure characteristic of a plosive. The tongue Phonetically, a semivowel lies between a vowel and a plosive. In contrast to a vowel, a semivowel does not represent a syllable on its own when articulated. Neither is the vocal tract blocked for the pressure characteristic of a plosive. The tongue moves in the direction of the place of articulation to produce an approximant. In contrast to a fricative, though, the approximation does not go so far as to produce the friction necessary for a fricative. In Sanskrit, there are semivowels for four of the five places of articulation (y, r, l, v).

Guttural semivowel

There is no guttural semivowel in Sanskrit.

Sanskrit Pronunciation

Fricatives and Aspirates

On the articulation of a fricative, a confined space is created. The air streaming out is swirled and creates a fricative. Compared to semivowels, which also count as approximants, the tongue moves closer to the confined space, though without the On the articulation of a fricative, a confined space is created. The air streaming out is swirled and creates a fricative. Compared to semivowels, which also count as approximants, the tongue moves closer to the confined space, though without the contact necessary for a plosive. In Sanskrit, there is a semivowel for four of the five places of articulation (h, ś, ṣ, s).

Aspirate - the guttural fricative

In linguistics, "aspirate" is the technical term for an unvoiced glottal fricative.

ha: A guttural fricative (5).

Examples:

In German, the aspirate only occurs in the initial sound of syllables.

ha: Harmonie

Im Sanskrit, though, it also occurs within words or in final sounds. Here, the pronunciation is similar to the guttural friction as in the German i-ch.