The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Sanskrit pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.
Sanskrit has many complex phonological processes, called sandhi , that alter sounds due to the presence of neighboring sounds at morpheme or word boundaries. See Shiksha for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Sanskrit.
Consonants
IPA
Nagari [ 1] IAST English equivalent
b ब
b
ab ash
bʱ
भ
bh
abh or
c च
c
catch
cʰ
छ
ch
ch oose
d̪
द
d
ad o
d̪ʱ
ध
dh
adh ere
ɖ ड
ḍ
guard
ɖʱ
ढ
ḍh
guardh ouse
ɡ ग
g
ag ate
ɡʱ
घ
gh
pigh eaded
h ः
ḥ
h ead
ɦ ह
h
ah ead
j य
y
y ak
ɟ ज
j
hedg e
ɟʱ
झ
jh
hedgeh og
k क
k
sc an
kʰ
ख
kh
c an
l ल
l
l eaf
m म
m
m uch [ 2]
n̪ न
n
n ot [ 2]
ɳ ण
ṇ
burn er [ 2]
ɲ ञ
ñ
cany on [ 2]
ŋ ङ
ṅ
ban k [ 2]
p प
p
sp an
pʰ
फ
ph
ph one
r र
r
s̪ स
s
s ue
ʂ ष
ṣ
worsh ip
ɕ श
ś
sh oe
t̪ त
t
st able
t̪ʰ
थ
th
t able
ʈ ट
ṭ
art
ʈʰ
ठ
ṭh
art-h istorian
ʋ व
v
between ‹w› and ‹v›
Vowels [ 2] [ 3]
IPA
Nagari [ 1] IAST English equivalent
ə अ, प
a
nu t
ɑː
आ, पा
ā
bra
eː
ए, पे
e
between ye ll and Ya le
i इ, पि
i
happy
iː
ई, पी
ī
fee t
l̩ ऌ, पॢ
ḷ
Syllabic le
l̩ː ॡ, पॣ
ḹ
Long syllabic ‹l›
oː
ओ, पो
o
o ld
r̩ ऋ, पृ
ṛ
Syllabic er
r̩ː ॠ, पॄ
ṝ
Long syllabic ‹r›: bir d
u उ, पु
u
loo k
uː
ऊ, पू
ū
loo t
əi
ऐ, पै
ai
əu औ, पौ
au
Other symbols
IPA
Nagari [ 1] IAST English equivalent
̃
ँ
ṃ
nasal vowel ([ãː], [õː], etc.) [ 2]
ˈ
stress
↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 In its time, Sanskrit was transmitted orally only. Traditionally, the various languages of India each used their local Brahmic script script for writing Sanskrit. In the past few centuries, Devanagari has come to be used as the default script for Sanskrit.
↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Vowels may occur nasalized as an allophone of the nasal consonants in certain positions. See anusvara , chandrabindu .
↑ Sanskrit distinguishes between long and short vowels . Each monophthong has a long and short phoneme. The diphthongs , historically /ai, aːi, au, aːu/ , also have a difference in quality : /e, əi, o, əu/ . Vowels may rarely occur extra-long .
