madat:IPA/Sanskrit

This is the pronunciation key for IPA transcriptions of Sanskrit on Wikipedia.

It provides a set of symbols to represent the pronunciation of Sanskrit in Wikipedia articles, and example words that illustrate the sounds that correspond to them. Integrity must be maintained between the key and the transcriptions that link here; do not change any symbol or its value without establishing consensus on the talk page first.

Shortcut: H:IPA-SA

This page contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) represents Vedic and Classical Sanskrit pronunciations in Wikipedia articles. For a guide to adding IPA characters to Wikipedia articles, see {{IPA-sa}} and Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Pronunciation § Entering IPA characters.

See shiksha for a more thorough discussion of the sounds of Sanskrit.

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Key

Consonants
IPA^[1]	Nagari^[1]	IAST^[1] ^[2]	English approximation
b	ब	b	about
bʱ	भ	bh	clubhouse
ɕ	श	ś	sheep
d	द	d	do
dʱ	ध	dh	redhead
dʑ	ज	j	juice
dʑʱ	झ	jh	hedgehog
ɖ	ड	ḍ	American English bird
ɖʱ	ढ	ḍh	American English birdhouse
ɡ	ग	g	again
ɡʱ	घ	gh	loghouse
ɦ	ह	h	ahead
j	य	y	yak
k	क	k	skin
kʰ	ख	kh	kin
l	ल	l	leaf
m	म	m	much
n	न	n	tenth
ɲ	ञ	ñ	enjoyable^[3]
ɳ	ण	ṇ	American English burn^[3]
ŋ	ङ	ṅ	bank^[3]
p	प	p	span
pʰ	फ	ph	pan
r^[4]	र	r	Indian roti
s	स	s	soup
ʂ	ष	ṣ	American English worship
t	त	t	stable
tʰ	थ	th	table
ʈ	ट	ṭ	stable
ʈʰ	ठ	ṭh	table
tɕ	च	c	riches
tɕʰ	छ	ch	chew
ʋ	व	v	between wine and vine

Vowels^[3]^[5]
IPA	Nagari	IAST^[2]	English approximation
ɐ	अ, प	a	comma
aː	आ, पा	ā	bra
ɪ	इ, पि	i	sit
iː	ई, पी	ī	feet
ʊ	उ, पु	u	look
uː	ऊ, पू	ū	loot
eː	ए, पे	e	Scottish wait
ɐːi̯^[6]	ऐ, पै	ai	hi
oː	ओ, पो	o	Scottish old
ɐːu̯^[7]	औ, पौ	au	how
Syllabic Consonants
r̩^[8]	ऋ, पृ	ṛ	Possibly like bird
r̩ː^[9]	ॠ, पॄ	ṝ	longer ṛ
l̩^[10]	ऌ, पॢ	ḷ	bottle
Vowel Diacritics
◌̃	ँ	◌̃/m̐	nasal vowel [ɐ̃], [ãː], [õː], etc.)^[3]
h	ः^[11]	ḥ	head

Suprasegmentals
IPA	Nagari	IAST^[2]	English equivalent
ˈ◌			stress^[12] (placed before stressed syllable)

Notes

1 2 3 Devanagari consonant letters such as क have the inherent vowel अ a. Thus, क is pronounced ka, even without any vowel sign added. But the IPA and IAST shown here have the consonant k only and do not include the vowel 'a'.
1 2 3 Comparison of IAST with ISO 15919 transliteration.
1 2 3 4 5 Vowels may occur nasalised as an allophone of the nasal consonants in certain positions: see anusvara and chandrabindu.
↑ /r/ may be phonetically realised as [ɽ], [ɾ] or [ɾ̪] in Classical Sanskrit.
↑ Sanskrit distinguishes between long and short vowels. Each monophthong has a long and short phoneme. The diphthongs, historically /əi, aːi, əu, aːu/, also have a difference in quality: [e, ei, o, ou]. Rarely, vowels may be extra-long.
↑ [ai], [ɐi] or [ɛi] in Classical Sanskrit.
↑ [au], [ɐu] or [ɔu] in Classical Sanskrit.
↑ [ɻĭ] or [ɾɪ] for most modern speakers. [rŭ] for southern speakers.
↑ [ri] or [ɽiː] for most modern speakers. [ru] for southern speakers.
↑ [lrĭ] for most modern speakers. [lĭ] in Bengali and Maithili regions.
↑ Visarga, added after a vowel.
↑ In Classical Sanskrit, stress was predictable by syllable weight: counting from the end of a word, the second-last was stressed if heavy (having a long vowel or a coda consonant); if it was light, the third-last was stressed if heavy; otherwise, stress fell on the fourth-last syllable. Vedic Sanskrit, in contrast, possessed an unpredictable pitch accent.

References

Zieba, Maciej; Stiehl, Ulrich (June 9, 2002). "The Original Pronunciation of Sanskrit" (PDF). Ulrich Stiehl. Retrieved 27 September 2011.

[inherentv-1] 1 2 3 Devanagari consonant letters such as क have the inherent vowel अ a. Thus, क is pronounced ka, even without any vowel sign added. But the IPA and IAST shown here have the consonant k only and do not include the vowel 'a'.

[comp-2] 1 2 3 Comparison of IAST with ISO 15919 transliteration.

[nasal-3] 1 2 3 4 5 Vowels may occur nasalised as an allophone of the nasal consonants in certain positions: see anusvara and chandrabindu.

[4] /r/ may be phonetically realised as [ɽ], [ɾ] or [ɾ̪] in Classical Sanskrit.

[5] Sanskrit distinguishes between long and short vowels. Each monophthong has a long and short phoneme. The diphthongs, historically /əi, aːi, əu, aːu/, also have a difference in quality: [e, ei, o, ou]. Rarely, vowels may be extra-long.

[6] [ai], [ɐi] or [ɛi] in Classical Sanskrit.

[7] [au], [ɐu] or [ɔu] in Classical Sanskrit.

[8] [ɻĭ] or [ɾɪ] for most modern speakers. [rŭ] for southern speakers.

[9] [ri] or [ɽiː] for most modern speakers. [ru] for southern speakers.

[10] [lrĭ] for most modern speakers. [lĭ] in Bengali and Maithili regions.

[11] Visarga, added after a vowel.

[12] In Classical Sanskrit, stress was predictable by syllable weight: counting from the end of a word, the second-last was stressed if heavy (having a long vowel or a coda consonant); if it was light, the third-last was stressed if heavy; otherwise, stress fell on the fourth-last syllable. Vedic Sanskrit, in contrast, possessed an unpredictable pitch accent.

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Key

See also

Notes

References