representative of h, but rather of a final aspirate, which, under certain circumstances, takes the place of final s and r. It may be conveniently represented by the English h. At the same time it should be borne in mind that Visarga (h) is less than h, and is in fact no consonant, but only a symbol for s and r whenever the usual consonantal sound of these letters is deadened at the end of a sentence or through the influence of a k, p, or a sibilant commencing the next word. Observe, however, that all those inflections of nouns and persons of verbs, which as standing separate from other words are by some made to end in Visarga, may most conveniently be allowed to retain their finals; only bearing in mind that this s is liable at the end of a sentence, or when followed by certain consonants, to pass into a weak breathing, as in the French les or the English isle, viscount; in all which cases it might be expressed by Visarga, thus ले: &c. So again, in French infinitives, such as aller, the final r is silent; and in many English words, such as bar, tar, the sound of r is very indistinct; and these also might be written in Sanskrit with Visarga, alleḥ, ◄: báḥ, &c.

a. An Ardha-visarga, 'half-visarga,' or modification of the symbol Visarga, in the form of two semicircles X, is sometimes employed before k, kh, and p, ph. Before the two former letters this symbol is properly called Jihvá-múlíya, and the organ of its enunciation said to be the root of the tongue. Before p and ph its proper name is Upadhmáníya, and its organ of utterance is then the lips.

b. The Ardha-visarga is very rarely, if ever, seen in classical Sanskrit. In the Vedas the Upadhmáníya occurs, but only after an Anusvára or Anunásika: thus, नुं x पाहि or नॄ x पारि, and in this case also the symbol Visarga may be used for it. The following are other marks:

9. The Viráma, 'pause' or 'stop,' placed under a consonant (thus k), indicates the absence of the inherent a, by help of which the consonant is pronounced.

Observe-Viráma properly means the pause of the voice at the end of a sentence. By the natives it is employed like a mark of punctuation at the close of a sentence ending with a quiescent consonant, while the mark is the only means of denoting the close of a sentence ending in a vowel, all the preceding words being written without separation, because supposed to be pronounced without pause. When, however, by simply extending the functions of the Viráma we can make Sanskrit typography conform to modern European ideas so

as to enable proper spaces to be left between distinct words in such a sentence as the following; sakrid duḥkakaráv ádyáv antimas tu pade pade; it seems better to break through the native rule which however theoretically correct would oblige us to write the first five words of the same sentence thus, sakṛidduḥkakarávádyávantimastu. See r. 26.

10. The marks (Avagraha, sometimes called Ardhákára, half the letter a), placed between two words, denotes the elision or suppression (abhinidhána) of an initial a after e oro final preceding. It corresponds to our apostrophe in some analogous cases. Thus, तेsपि te 'pi for ते अपि te api.

a. In books printed in Calcutta the marks is sometimes used to resolve a long á resulting from the blending of a final á with an initial a or á; thus for तथा अपश्यं, usually written तथापश्यं. Sometimes a double mark ss denotes an initial long. The mark $ is also used in the Veda as the sign of a hiatus between vowels, and in the pada text to separate the component parts of a compound or of other grammatical forms.

b. The half pause I is a stop or mark of punctuation, usually placed at the end of the first line of a couplet or stanza.

c. The whole pause I is placed at the end of a couplet like a full stop.

d. The mark of repetition indicates that a word or sentence has to be repeated. It is also used to abbreviate a word, just as in English we use a full point; thus ° stands for, as chap. for chapter.

PRONUNCIATION OF SANSKRIT vowels.

II. The vowels in Sanskrit are pronounced for the most part as in Italian or French, though occasional words in English may exemplify their sound.

a. Since a is inherent in every consonant, the student should be careful to acquire the correct pronunciation of this letter. There are many words in English which afford examples of its sound, such as vocal, cedar, zebra, organ. But in English the vowel u in such words as fun, bun, sun, more frequently represents this obscure sound of a; and even the other vowels may occasionally be pronounced with this sound, as in her, sir, son.

b. The long vowel á is pronounced as a in the English father, bard, cart; i as the i in pin, sin;í as the i in marine, police; u as the u in push;ú as the u in rude.

c. The vowel ri, peculiar to Sanskrit, is pronounced as the ri in merrily, where the i of ri is less perceptible than in the syllable

ri, composed of the consonant r and the vowel i*. ऋ ri is pronounced nearly as the ri in chagrin, being hardly distinguishable from the syllable ; but in the case of the vowels ri and rí there is a mere vibration of the tongue in the direction of the upper gums, whereas in pronouncing the consonant r, the tongue should actually touch them (compare 19 and 20): e as the e in prey; to as in so; ai as ai in aisle; au as au in the German baum or as ou in the English our. ri andri do not differ in sound from the letter with the vowels ri and rí annexed, but as before remarked the vowellri only occurs in one root, viz. a klṛip, to make;' and its long form is not found in any word in the language. As to the Vaidikra or la, see 16. a.

d. Hence it appears that every simple vowel in Sanskrit has a short and a long form, and that each vowel has one invariable sound; so that the beginner can never be in doubt what pronunciation to give it, as in English, or whether to pronounce it long or short, as in Latin.

e. Note, however, that Sanskrit possesses no short ĕ and ŏ in opposition to the long diphthongal sounds of e and o.

f. In comparing Sanskrit words with Greek and Latin, it will be found that the Sanskrita usually answers to the Greek as well as to € (especially in vocative cases); and rarely to a. In Latin, the Sanskrita is represented by u as well as by a, e, and o. Again, the Sanskrit Tá is generally replaced by the Greek or w, rarely by a long alpha. In Latin it is represented by long a or even by long e.

g. Although for all practical purposes it is sufficient to regard vowels as either short or long, it should be borne in mind that native grammarians give eighteen different modifications of each of the vowels a, i, u, ṛi, and twelve of lri, which are thus explained:-Each of the first four vowels is supposed to have three prosodial lengths, a short (hrasva), a long (dírgha), and a prolated (pluta); the long being equal to two, and the prolated to three short vowels. Each of these three modifications may be uttered with a high tone, or a low tone, or a tone between high and low; or in other words, may have the acute, or the grave, or the circumflex accent. This gives nine modifications to a, i, u, ṛi; and each of these again may

* That there is not, practically, much difference between the pronunciation of the vowel ri and the syllable fri may be gathered from the fact that some words beginning with are also found written with f, and vice versa; thus, fifg and ऋष्टि, रिषि and ऋषि, रिष्य and ऋष्य. Still the distinction between the definition of a vowel and consonant at 19 and 20 should be borne in mind. There is no doubt that in English the sound of ri in the words merrily and rich is different, and that the former approaches nearer to the sound of a vowel.

C

be regarded either as nasal or non-nasal, according as it is pronounced with the nose and mouth, or with the mouth alone. Hence result eighteen varieties of every vowel, excepting Iri, e, ai, o, au, which have only twelve, because the first does not possess the long and the last four have not the short prosodial time. A prolated vowel is marked with three lines underneath or with 3 on one side, thus or 3.

PRONUNCIATION OF SANSKRIT CONSONANTS.

The arrangement of most of the consonants in the table at page 1 under the five heads of gutturals (kanthya), palatals (tálavya), cerebrals (múrdhanya), dentals (dantya), and labials (oshthya), refers of course to the organ principally employed in pronouncing them, whether the throat, the palate, the top of the palate, the teeth, or the lips. This classification is more fully explained at 18.

12. ☎ ka, ◄ ća, ♬ ja, ◄ pa, a ba are pronounced as in English. Observe thatća is a simple consonantal sound, although represented in English words by ch. It is a modification or softening of ka, just as ja is of ga, the organ of utterance being in the palate, a little in advance of the throat. Hence, in Sanskrit and its cognate languages, the palatals é and j are often exchanged with the gutturals k and g. See note †, p. 15.

a. ga has always the sound of g in gun, give, never of g in gin. b. ♬ ta, da are more dental than in English, t being something like in stick, and d like th in this; thus veda ought to be pronounced rather like vetha. But in real fact we have no sound exactly equivalent to the Indian dentals t and d. The sound of th in thin, this, is really dental, but, so to speak, over-dentalised, the tongue being forced through the teeth instead of against them. Few Englishmen acquire the correct pronunciation of the Indian dentals. They are said to be best pronounced by resting the end of the tongue against the inside of the front teeth and then suddenly removing it.

13. ta, 3 da. The sound of these cerebral letters is in practice hardly to be distinguished from the sound of our English and d. Properly, however, the Sanskrit cerebrals should be uttered with a duller and deeper intonation, produced by keeping the tongue as far back in the head (cerebrum) as possible- that is, it should strike the palate rather above the front gums, not as in English, the gums themselves. A Hindú, however, would always write any English word or name containing t and d with the cerebral letters. such words as trust, drip, London would be written z, fz,

Thus

a. Observe-The cerebral letters have probably been introduced into Sanskrit through the aboriginal dialects with which it came in contact. In Bengal the cerebralḍa and ☎ ḍha have nearly the sound of a dull r. Thus faз: viḍálaḥ, ‘a cat,' is pronounced virálah. In fact in some words both and seem interchangeable with र and ल; thus खोद, 'to be lame,' may also be written खोड़, खोर, खोल् In corruptions of Sanskrit (especially in Prákrit) cerebral letters often take the place of dentals. In Sanskrit the cerebrals are rarely found at the beginning of words.

14. kha, gha, ćha, jha, tha, dha, tha, ↳ dha, ■ pha, bha. These are the aspirated forms of the preceding consonants. In pronouncing them the sound of h must be distinctly added to the unaspirated consonantal sound. Thus is pronounced like kh in ink-horn, not like the Greek ; as th in ant-hill, not as in think; as ph in uphill, not as in physic. Care must be taken not to interpolate a vowel before the aspirate. Indeed it is most important to acquire the habit of pronouncing the aspirated consonants distinctly. Dá and dhá, prishta and prishṭha, stamba and stambha, kara and khara have very different meanings, and are pronounced very differently. Few Englishmen pay sufficient attention to this, although the correct sound is easily attainable. The simple rule is to breathe hard while uttering the aspirated consonant, and then an aspirated sound will come out with the consonant before the succeeding vowel.

a. The Sanskrit th may be represented by 7 in Greek, and ч dh by 0, while☎ éh may answer to OK, bh to and ƒ, or sometimes in Latin (in declension) to b.

b. With a view to the comparison of Sanskrit words with Greek and Latin, it is important to remember that the aspirates of the different classes are easily interchangeable in different languages; thus dh and bh in Sanskrit may be ƒ (or ph) in Latin; gh in Sanskrit may be in Greek &c.

Each of the five classes of

15. na, na, ■ ṇa, ♬ na, ♬ ma. consonants in Sanskrit has its own nasal sound, represented by a separate nasal letter. In English and most other languages the same fivefold division of nasal sounds might be made, though we have only one nasal letter to express the guttural, palatal, cerebral, and dental nasal sounds. The truth is, that in all languages the nasal letters take their sound from the organ employed in uttering the consonant that follows them. Thus in English it will be found that guttural, palatal, cerebral, dental, and labial nasals are followed by consonants of the same classes, as in ink, sing, inch, under, plinth, imp. If such words existed in Sanskrit, the distinction of nasal