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Exercises: Other Consonants

All of the exercises on this page are based on real transformations that occur in Sanskrit. Although these exercises use real rules, do not memorize these rules.. You are responsible only for the material we've covered so far; these Sanskrit rules are just here to help you practice what we've learned already. For that reason, some of the rules are given in a verbose and "roundabout" way.

For each set of exercises, read the rule and apply it to the items given.

Consonant Reduction

Almost all Sanskrit words end in vowels. A few end in consonants, but these consonants are usually sounds like n or m. Still, there are some words that end in other sorts of consonants. They usually follow this rule:

If a word ends in a non-nasal consonant, its final consonant becomes an unvoiced and unaspirated stop. The point of pronunciation is preserved. However, sounds that use the hard palate will use the soft palate instead.

If the final consonant was aspirated, then the consonant before it, if it is a stop consonant, becomes aspirated.

This process of changing the final consonant is called "reduction." Now, reduce the consonants in the words below.

Final t

Of all Sanskrit consonants, t is one of the most flexible. At the end of a word, it follows this rule:

t takes the voice of any sound that follows it. It takes the point of pronunciation of any stop consonant that follows it, unless the sound is from kavarga or pavarga. And, it becomes the nasal sound in tavarga if followed by a nasal sound.

The exercises below have two words. Change the t of the first word according to this rule. Leave the second word as it is.

ta

Some of the most common and useful Sanskrit words end in ta. Because Sanskrit has been taught so poorly, most students have no idea why words that end in ta change the way they do. But because you now have an excellent grasp of Sanskrit sounds, such words won't be a problem for you.

Here are some of the rules for adding ta to the end of a word:

If the last letter of the word is voiced and aspirated, then the letter becomes unaspirated and the t in ta becomes voiced and aspirated.

For most words that end in h, the following changes happen when ta is added:

The gist of the first rule is that aspiration and voice are preserved by being moved forward to ta. The second rule is also simple, but we will need to learn more about Sanskrit before you can see how.

Given these two rules, add the ta term to the end of each of the words below.

Answers

Consonant Reduction

Final t

ta

Does buddha look familiar?

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