Reading Sanskrit

Syllable Stress

"Syllables are either heavy or light. Heavy syllables con­tain either a long vowel [eg. ā, ī, ō, ū], or a short vowel followed by two or more consonants. Light syllables contain a short vowel, ei­ther at the end of a word or followed by a single consonant. Remember that aspirated letters, such as bh, are single consonants. Generally, the stress falls on the heavy syllable closest to the end of a word but not the last syllable.

Examples: tu-rī-ya and su-ṣup-ti; man-van-ta-ra and pra-jā-pa-ti; but u-pa-ni-ṣad (which has no heavy syllable)" (p.9).


Most relevant here: Ma-hā-bhā-ra-ta - Abhinavagupta's Lo-ca-na (c as church)

Most relevant consonants

ś and - ship, āśraya

j - jail, rāja

c - church, Locana

- ri, Kṛṣṇa

th - aspirated t

ph - aspirated p

bh - aspirated b

Links

Sanskrit Transliteration

Sanskrit Consonants

Pronunciation Intro

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