'r'

[Mana]

Namaste deafAncient,

Please forgive me; I was being a little facetious, I certainly meant no offence.
I mention musical instruments, because learning to listen is a major part of
being aware whist playing. Thus in perceiving vibration by whatever means; I
think we can help greatly our pronunciation this way; that is why I mentioned
playing an instrument.

Evelyn Glennie has no audible speech pattern that would readily give away Her
deafness; I would speculate that She is as acutely aware of her pronunciation
as she is Her playing.

Aided by Her musical prowess.

Love the didgeridoo!

Kind regards.

[Mana]

Namaste devotee,

I can see that I have a great deal to learn; I have taken to using a new text
editor for all of my computer musings, thus the different page formatting; as
such I have a programmable function that helps with the diacritics, but is is
so clumsy on an Occidental keyboard; it must be infuriating for native Hindi
speakers, how do you manage with the Devanagari in the digital realm? Do you
use Itrans for entering text I see that you have in the Noun Declension Chart
for सा (Saa).

I am looking forwards to learning more; in English my spelling is terrible, but
if Sanskrit is so much more that phonetic I might not then have such difficulty
spelling correctly; I suppose that time and a little toil will tell ...

Kind regards.

[devotee]

Namaste Mana,

I am looking forwards to learning more; in English my spelling is terrible, but
if Sanskrit is so much more that phonetic I might not then have such difficulty
spelling correctly; I suppose that time and a little toil will tell ...

Learning any new language and script is never easy and therefore you have to give some time to yourself. In India, children face a lot of pressure for learning English and I remember the difficulty I have gone through and can feel the difficulty for you in learning Sanskrit/Hindi when it is not your native language.

Yes, spelling in Sanskrit / Hindi is not much of an issue if you know how to pronounce the word correctly. However, on one hand it helps you in spelling but on the other hand, you have to deal with a number of characters and symbols in Sanskrit/Hindi unlike in English where you have to learn only 26 characters for all sounds.

OM

[Mana]

Namaste devotee,

Thank you for your thoughts and encouragement; I am certainly never going to be
bored with such a task ahead; So much wisdom is found within the wonderful
texts that are your cultural heritage, that it seems to me to be a very worthy
pass time indeed; I will take the internet course when I feel ready.
There is certainly no rush with the blessings of so many futures in which to absorb
this wonderful knowledge; to remember it.
It is I think, "On the tip of my tong" as we say in English when something is just
underneath the conscious memory.

Kind regards.

[deafAncient]

Namaste Mana.

It's not that I can't learn how to make the sounds, but that the teachers online do not know how to teach. They do not have the training of speech therapists or one knowledgeable in voice and diction.

[Mana]

Namaste deafAncient,

I think that good teachers are very hard to find no matter the condition of our
physical hearing; naturally then the same is true for good teachers, they
find it very hard to find eligible students; Rather a Paradoxical situation.

Have you been deaf all of your life or is this something that has occurred at a
later stage; I ask so that I might be better able to communicate your
experiences and memory's of sound?

Kind regards.

[deafAncient]

Namaste Mana,

I've been deaf all my life, but it doesn't matter because I have great use of residual hearing and speak most of the time. Just assume that I am hearing.

[Mana]

Namaste dA,

That is interesting, I can't help but wonder just how that effects the way that
you think. To return to the subject of r with a dot; To my ears it is breathed
into the letter as it is said, giving a very slight roll to the r but not
fully, think of a oscillation forming in the tong that only lasts for two or three
hits of the pallet.
My teacher is from oṛiśā and the East Indian Puri school of Brahmin, how
this differs across India I have no idea.

I am happy to learn that the small r is for joining together sentences; perfect
logic to this linguistic structure; it really is quite wonderful.

Kind Regards.