Namaste...
How in the world do you pronounce the name of the blind king, Dhṛtarāṣṭra??
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Namaste...
How in the world do you pronounce the name of the blind king, Dhṛtarāṣṭra??
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
I will assume you are not aware of the transliteration of devanāgarī ( or written sanscrit, properly written saṃskṛtā or saṃskṛtam).Quote:
Originally Posted by deafAncient
Dhṛtarāṣṭra is dhṛtarāṣṭra ( no capitals are used in devanāgarī).
So now we have this: dhṛi +taraa+sh +ṭra
- ṛ = ri as in merrily, some say the sound in rhythm; others suggest the sound in acre
- ā = long a as palm or father ; some say like the 'a' in tar
- ṣ - this always gives the reader some consternation as there are 3 types of 's' used in the phonetics of saṃskṛtā. This ṣ sounds like ship, shun; some say wish.
- ṭ = the sound in tub, tap ; not to be confused with ṭh like in anthill sounding like an-thill
And what does this word form mean ?
dhṛtarāṣṭra is derived from dhṛta धृत - drawn tight (reins) , kept back , detained ; and rāṣṭra is kingdom, or realm. This rāṣṭra is also rooted in rāj ,
to rule , as this makes sense of one that has a kingdom. So , when we add the words together it is one who rules tightly, has the reins tight.
See this HDF post: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=6446
iti śivaṁ
references : more on the mahābhārata, the 5th veda: http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1882
Namaste...
Dhanyavaad for the assistance. I am aware of the IAST transliteration of Sanskrit. I was wondering how it is possible to make these combinations of sounds. I guess I have a lot of practicing to do! Fortunately, I have a speech therapy background from being deaf all my life.
It sounds like what you are saying is it sounds like this:
"duh(quickly)-huh-ri-(dotted)tuh-rah-sh(dotted-s, sounded as retroflex "sh")-truh.
The confusing part was the first part, "dhṛt"
I was not aware that the two dotted r's was any different in the initial start of the pronunciation of this letter. Are you saying that the normal r is a tapped, non-rhotic r, while the dotted r's are rhotic versions, as pronounced just like the Americans pronounce the r's as in merrily, rhythm, race, etc.? I knew about the former, but not the latter.
I am aware of the three different ways of pronouncing the s sound, they are the same thing, but happen in different parts of the mouth, giving you three different sounds. The dotted s is a retroflex sh that gives a sharper, clearer version of the palatal, accented sh sound, which is further back than the American sh sound (which is pronounced by dropping ONLY the front part of the tongue downward away from the alveolar region in American speech). If you then want the hissing s sound, then pick up only the front part of the tongue towards the ridge about a quarter of an inch behind your teeth.
A correction about anthill. In English, you have to know WHEN to pronounce the th consonant combination. There are times when we say th as in the, thought (first is voiced, the second is unvoiced), and there are times when we say anthill as in ent-hill. We never say anth (as in thick) - ill. We say it just like the unvoiced, aspirated t sound as in थ. This is an example of a shibboleth. See, the more enemies you have outside of your country, the more ways you're going to conjure up to trip them up in the attempt to pass themselves off as a fellow native while spying for your enemies. It can be pronunciation of words, the general flow of the speech, local knowledge of the hot topic of the day or very locale-specific minute details. Even how you eat or use your body in conversation is an example of a shibboleth. Jews gave themselves away in Nazi Germany with their hand motions, even though they could speak perfect German. Spies learn to emulate EVERYTHING, because their enemies train their Secret Service members to look for exactly the mistakes that natives would not make. So, you have to know how to pronounce the ending of words like "happened" or "mated." The endings are the same, but are pronounced differently in order to trip up the spies or any foreign speaker for that matter, to indicate to the natives that this person is not "one of us."
Dhanyavaad!
:) Can you pronounce 'dharma' properly and not make it 'darma'. In which case you will be able to pronounce Dhrita-rāshtrā. Please note, Gujaratis, Maharashtrians and people further South may pronounce it as Dhruta-rāshtrā. Or can you pronounce dhum-dhum not as dum-dum. Dantavya (Dental, I am no linguist) - tongue in contact where teeth join the palate.
Yes, I do. I pronounce it as "duh-huh-r(tapped)-muh." I know! Even supposed Advaida Vedanta Americans I know don't do the correct pronunciation. I recall I was sitting in on a friend's Buddhist meditation held on Sundays (I looked into Buddhism and realized straight-away that I am not that because it was complicated and required praising and worship, which I am not into at all). The man leading the group said a word, and of course I couldn't understand him. I asked to read it, and I uttered whatever it was, and another man said, "Wow... That was the best pronunciation I have ever heard!" Shrugs... I know something about Hindi and Sanskrit, but not much by any stretch of the imagination. I know enough to take on the pronunciation system of a foreign language if I am able to hear the difference. I do that with español. Lots of words, I pronounce natively if they are from that foreign language.
No wonder. North Indians will require at least one year to say Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam correctly.