Preliminary Note
Pronunciation
As a general rule, the Sanskrit vowels are to be sounded like those of the Italian alphabet, except the short or unaccented a, which has the sound of that letter in the word America: “pandit,” a learned man, being pronounced pundit.
| á, long or accented | like a in father. |
| e | like e in they. |
| i, short or unaccented, | like i in pick. |
| í, long or accented | like i in pique. |
| o | like o in go. |
| u, short or unaccented, | like u in full. |
| ú, long or accented | like u in rule. |
The diphthongs ai and au are pronounced severally like i in rise and ou in our.
The consonants are sounded as in English. In the aspirates, however, the sound of h is kept distinct; dh, th, ph, bh, &c., being pronounced as in red-hot, pent-house, up-hill, abhor, &c. G is always hard, whatever vowel follows.
In Himálaya the accent is on the second syllable.