We feel it is important to use accurate transliteration of Sanskrit and Pāli words on our web site. Therefore, we prefer to apply Sanskrit and Pāli diacritics in order to retain the original pronounciation as much as possible. Thus, we offer our visitors a quick guide to learning to understand the correct pronounciation of these ancient Indian languages.
Vowels:
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a — as in sofa |
a — as in father | i — as in pin |
| ī — as in teen | u — as in put | ū — as in noon |
| ṛ — as in fibre | ṝ — like ṛ, but long | ḷ — as in able |
| e — as in Vegas | ai — as in aisle | o — as in oh |
| au — as in out |
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Consonants:
| k, kh = English k | g, gh — as in good (never as in gym) |
| ṅ — as in singing | c, ch — as in church (never as in car) |
| j, jh — as in jam | ñ — as in canyon (cañon) |
| ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh, ṇ = retroflex sounds of t, th, d, dh, n. * | t — as in stop |
| th — as in top, Thomas (never as in thin or this) | d, dh = English d |
| n = English n | p — as in spin |
| ph — as in pat (never = English f) | b, bh = English b |
| m = English m | y — as in yodel (never as in body) |
| r = English r | l = English l |
| v = English v | ś, ṣ = English sh |
| s = English s | h = English h |
| ḥ is a final aspiration | ṁ (also written ṃ) is a pure nasal (pronounce as m) |
* We do not have such sounds in English. The tongue should touch the roof of the mouth for these letters, not the teeth (as it does in English).
Aspirate letters, those written with a letter + h (kh, gh, ch, jh, ṭh, ḍh, th, dh, ph, bh), are pronounced with a breath after the consonant, as: back-hoe, big-horn, wart-hog, boat-house if pronounced bac-khoe, bi-ghorn, war-thog, boa-thouse.