Phonetics in Sanskrit

Introduction

• Phonetics is the starting point for language, especially for cultures with a strong oral tradition.

Oral Tradition and the Vedas

• The Vedas, transmitted orally for thousands of years, have survived due to scientific methods of oral rendering.
• The preservation of pronunciation indicates the development of a science of phonetics.
• Good phonetics ensured impeccable textual transmission, surpassing classical texts of other cultures.

UNESCO Recognition

• Vedic scriptures, transmitted orally, are unique.
• UNESCO recognized the Vedas as a Heritage for preservation in the form of Oral Knowledge.

Phonetics in Indian Knowledge Tradition

• The study of sounds in a language, particularly sound production and communication, is part of phonetics.
• In the Indian knowledge tradition, the science of sound study is known as Shiksha, one of the six Vedangas.

Pratishakhyas

• The IKS Corpus includes Pratishakhyas, which address the issue of how sounds are produced.
• Rigveda Pratishakhya and Taittiriya Pratishakhya are the earliest works on the subject.
• They lay down the rules of phonetics.

Panini and Phonetics

• Panini discussed phonetics in Ashtadhyayi through sutras.
• He also created a separate addendum known as Paniniya Shiksha.
• According to Panini, the origin of sounds is specific to the letters (varnas) in Sanskrit.

Origin of Sound in Oral Cavity

• Six locations in the oral cavity are identified as sound origins.
• Sounds originate from these locations or a combination thereof.
• These areas include the nasal area, palate, lips, and throat.
• All of these are involved in the production of various varnas.

Example: Kantha (Throat)

• The Kantha (throat) generates sounds like "a", "k", "kh", "g", "gh", "ha".

Paniniya Shiksha

• It details how to pronounce sounds and their origins.
• Includes aspects like nasal sounds (m, n, n).
• Recognizes articulatory effort: throat, nose, palate etc.

Vowel Variations

• According to Panini, vowels (a, i, u, e, o) have 18 possible variations categorized as:
  • Hrasva: Short
  • Dirgha: Long
  • Pluta: Extended (held for 1, 2, or 3 counts)

Svaras

• Three types of Svaras(tones) are specified:

  • Udatta: Raised Tone
  • Anudatta: Unraised Tone
  • Svarita: A combination of the two

• There are three possible variations:

  • Same level (sound from the earlier variation is the same level).
  • Raised(sound from the earlier variation is braced).
  • Lowered(sound from the earlier variation is braced).

Nasal and Non-Nasal Sounds

• He talks about Nasal and Non-nasal sounds:
  • a is nasal
  • a, i is not nasal
  • i, ii, is nasal you have to use your nose also in making the sound i

Alpaprana and Mahaprana

• Consonants are categorized as:
  • Alpaprana: Little air (e.g., k).
  • Mahaprana: More air (e.g., kh) *When you say the th, if you put your hand in front of your tongue you will find a lot of air will blow. If you say k no air will blow

Efforts in Analysis

• Identifying the place of pronunciation and the required articulatory effort involved a lot of effort, observation, and analysis.
• Panini took all of this into consideration.
• The recitation of Vedas is the gold standard for phonetics and preservation.

Benefits of Good Phonetics

• Accrued benefits from good phonetics in a language.
• Possible to impart good phonetical training to language aspirants.
• Closely monitor and rectify phonetical inaccuracies.
• Arrest deterioration of pronunciation over time.
• Ensures preservation and transmission of language components through oral tradition.

Summary

• The greatest contribution of the Indian Knowledge System in linguistics is through Shiksha.
• Panini accommodated all of these elements into his grammatical work, Ashtadhyayi.