Sandhi
Introduction
The pages here contain information on all of Sanskrit's sandhi rules. Before proceeding, please review the terms below. If these terms are unfamiliar to you, please review the unit on Sanskrit sounds.
General terms
- Term
- Definition
- point of pronunciation
- The location of the tongue when we pronounce a letter.
- soft palate
- The soft and fleshy part at the back of the mouth
- hard palate
- The hard and bony part in front of the soft palate.
- retroflex
- a name given to sounds that require you to bend your tongue ("-flex") backward ("retro-").
- teeth
- I hope you know what these are!
- lips
- I hope you know what these are!
Terms for vowels
- Term
- Definition
- similar
- Two vowels are similar when — well, when they're similar! See the lesson on simple vowels for examples.
- dissimilar
- Two vowels are dissimilar when they're not similar! See the lesson on simple vowels for examples.
- short vowel
- A vowel that is pronounced as short as possible. No compound vowels are short vowels.
- long vowel
- A vowel that is produced for exactly twice the length of a short vowel.
- simple vowel
- A sound that is produced by a single type of vowel (like an a-vowel, i-vowel, or so on).
- compound vowel
- A vowel sound that is produced by two different types of vowels (like an a-sound and an u-sound).
- strength
- A quality that describes the presence of the a-sound that the vowel contains. Due to changes in the earliest parts of Sanskrit, e and o hide this fact.
- weak
- The first of the three vowel strengths.
- medium
- The second of the three vowel strengths.
- strong
- The third of the three vowel strengths.
Terms for consonants
- Term
- Definition
- stop
- A consonant that is produced by stopping and quickly releasing air in the mouth.
- tongue consonant
- A consonant in cavarga, ṭavarga, or tavarga.
- nasal
- A consonant that is produced by stopping air in the mouth and redirecting air through the nose.
- semivowel
- A consonant that sounds like a vowel (ya, ra, la, va)
- "s"-sound
- An unvoiced "hissing" sound (śa, ṣa, sa)
- varga
- A Sanskrit word that refers to a class or division of sounds. See below for the actual divisions.
Division into vargas
- Varga
- Letters
- kavarga
- ka kha ga gha ṅa
- cavarga
- ca cha ja jha ña
- ṭavarga
- ṭa ṭha ḍa ḍha ṇa
- tavarga
- ta tha da dha na
- pavarga
- pa pha ba bha ma
- yavarga
- ya ra la va
- śavarga
- śa ṣa sa ha