New Post
Search
Help
ArchivesIndian pronunciation
Questions:
Do they pronounce the "j" as a "y" or a "zh" or just as a "j"? Example: Would Shailaja be pronounced shai-LAY-a, shai-LAZH-a, or shai-LAJ-a?
Do they prnounce the "h" sound? Example: Would "Mohana" be pronounced "mo-HAN-a" or "mo-AN-a"?
If anyone knows, please tell me, this is driving me crazy!
Do they pronounce the "j" as a "y" or a "zh" or just as a "j"? Example: Would Shailaja be pronounced shai-LAY-a, shai-LAZH-a, or shai-LAJ-a?
Do they prnounce the "h" sound? Example: Would "Mohana" be pronounced "mo-HAN-a" or "mo-AN-a"?
If anyone knows, please tell me, this is driving me crazy!
1
Replies
j is most often like j and h like h, but please read on.
But, asking about Indian pronounciation is like asking about European pronounciation: with 22 languages from two language families guaranteed as the official languages of India, with 415 distinct languages, some of which are isolates and others from at least four language families, being claimed as mother tongue by people from India, and many more mutually unintelligible dialects and enormously larger number of accents and speech patterns, there can be no simple answer to general questions like that, especially about spellings in a script not traditionally used to write most of these languages in the first place. Most of the time you have to be more precise in asking.
I know of no transliteration where j is pronounced y, though there are names and languages where y is pronounced j. h is usually pronounced roughly as in English stressed syllables containing an h: i.e. it is distinct. Most of the major Indian regions would not have a marked stress on any of the syllables: so shai-LAJ-a or mo-HAN-a is putting a foreign concept onto the Indian pronounciations. Most Indians would pronounce three equally stresses syllables, shai/la/jA and mo/ha/nA (the capital is not a stress marker: it is to distinguish the schwa a from the open A). In those Indian languages where length or mora is a valid concept, the middle syllable is half the length of the outer syllables.
shailajA is a word from Sanskrit: The root shi/sho, to sharpen, probably gave rise to shilA, a stone or a mountain (and bunch of other meanings), and shaila is an adjective from that. jan, cognate with the root of genesis, means to be born, and these combine together (with the feminine -A) to become shailajA, born of a mountain, one of the epithets of the personification of power (always feminine in the Hindu mythology). The sh- is palatal like in English sugar, the l and the j as in English. The ai is more of a dipthong than in English, the middle -a- as in English about, and the last a is long as in English car. In modern Hindi, it is pronounced very like this, but in other languages there are changes: for example, in Bengali, the ai becomes a dipthong of the o sound in go and i in hit, but short, the -a- becomes the short version of the sound in English awe, and the A becomes much shorter.
But, asking about Indian pronounciation is like asking about European pronounciation: with 22 languages from two language families guaranteed as the official languages of India, with 415 distinct languages, some of which are isolates and others from at least four language families, being claimed as mother tongue by people from India, and many more mutually unintelligible dialects and enormously larger number of accents and speech patterns, there can be no simple answer to general questions like that, especially about spellings in a script not traditionally used to write most of these languages in the first place. Most of the time you have to be more precise in asking.
I know of no transliteration where j is pronounced y, though there are names and languages where y is pronounced j. h is usually pronounced roughly as in English stressed syllables containing an h: i.e. it is distinct. Most of the major Indian regions would not have a marked stress on any of the syllables: so shai-LAJ-a or mo-HAN-a is putting a foreign concept onto the Indian pronounciations. Most Indians would pronounce three equally stresses syllables, shai/la/jA and mo/ha/nA (the capital is not a stress marker: it is to distinguish the schwa a from the open A). In those Indian languages where length or mora is a valid concept, the middle syllable is half the length of the outer syllables.
shailajA is a word from Sanskrit: The root shi/sho, to sharpen, probably gave rise to shilA, a stone or a mountain (and bunch of other meanings), and shaila is an adjective from that. jan, cognate with the root of genesis, means to be born, and these combine together (with the feminine -A) to become shailajA, born of a mountain, one of the epithets of the personification of power (always feminine in the Hindu mythology). The sh- is palatal like in English sugar, the l and the j as in English. The ai is more of a dipthong than in English, the middle -a- as in English about, and the last a is long as in English car. In modern Hindi, it is pronounced very like this, but in other languages there are changes: for example, in Bengali, the ai becomes a dipthong of the o sound in go and i in hit, but short, the -a- becomes the short version of the sound in English awe, and the A becomes much shorter.
1