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Thread: Beginner pronunciation.

  1. #1
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    Beginner pronunciation.

    Vannakkam: I probably have horrible Sanskrit, but you'd think some western beginner people could at least look it up, or talk to an Indian before making a Youtube video that doesn't even come close. Deity names like Siva (Shiva) and Ganesha shouldn't be mangled. That's just pretty basic, and when someone comes on a video talking like they actually know something about Hinduism, and then mangle a basic name of God, it leaves one doubting everything they say from that point onward. Please people, just learn how to say Ganesha. http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=ganesha

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Namaste,

    Never hurts to learn how words are correctly pronounced.

    Pranam.

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Namast,

    At a public Diwali celebration here two years ago, a local figure was invited to light one of the large lamps that adorned the performance stage. She gave a short speech about what a beautiful custom it was, a tradition she had long admired, and how she was honoured to have been invited to participate. The only problem with this announcement was that she pronounced the object "die-yuh", as if diya rhymed with the English greeting hiya.

    I agree completely on the importance of learning to say basic words correctly.

    Indraneela
    ===
    Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
    Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Quote Originally Posted by Indraneela View Post
    Namast,

    At a public Diwali celebration here two years ago, a local figure was invited to light one of the large lamps that adorned the performance stage. She gave a short speech about what a beautiful custom it was, a tradition she had long admired, and how she was honoured to have been invited to participate. The only problem with this announcement was that she pronounced the object "die-yuh", as if diya rhymed with the English greeting hiya.

    I agree completely on the importance of learning to say basic words correctly.

    Indraneela
    ===
    Oṁ Indrāya Namaḥ.
    Oṁ Namaḥ Śivāya.
    Vannakkam: Coming from a politician, its not all that surprising. But I'm sure Mr. Harper has his aides do basic research before he attends grand openings of Hindu temples. There's nothing worse for a politician trying to get votes from immigrant groups than mangling the most basic of words. Unless of course one is named Dubya.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    hari o
    ~~~~~~

    namasté



    take the simple sound / phoneme of na. We have :


    na as in not or nut

    ña as in singe

    ṇa as in none

    ṅa as in sing or sink


    Now we get to gaṇeśa - note the slight difference in the ṇa sound... some pass this up completely as just sound it as 'na'.
    We will leave the śa for another post as this sound tends to raise too many different views of its sound quality.

    Hence the finer sound quality of his name.


    praṇām
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Vannakkam Yajvan .. It's the e that gets the beginners, not the n. (In my experience)

    I met a cabbie in New York once who told me he was planning a trip to Montreal, and pronounced it Mont real as in font and deal. I don't think his "Welcome to Montreal" would have been all that welcoming, given the French Canadian are somewhat proud of their heritage.

    Another is moksha pronounced as in rock. So I believe the problems arise from the spellings of American English compared to the spelling in the universal transliteration key. But I could be very wrong.

    Aum Namasivaya

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    hariḥ oṁ
    ~~~~~~

    namast

    Quote Originally Posted by Eastern Mind View Post
    It's the e that gets the beginners, not the n. (In my experience)
    Yes, I see your point... I chose na because it is an alternative name for gaṇeśa. We can leave 'e' for another post , if people care to poke around with the sound.

    Yet I see many just miss the wonderful sound of 'a'. Many say 'a' as in hat, yet it is the sound quality found in 'but' or 'rural'. It is the simplist sound one can make just by opening the mouth and allowing air to to come forth with the least amount of effort. The wise say all sounds of humans originate from this 'a' vowel , owned by śiva.


    praṇām
    यतस्त्वं शिवसमोऽसि
    yatastvaṁ śivasamo'si
    because you are identical with śiva

    _

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Namaste.

    Quote Originally Posted by Eastern Mind View Post
    But I could be very wrong.

    Aum Namasivaya
    No, you are not wrong. This is the IPA Wikipedia uses for Sanskrit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:IPA_for_Sanskrit

    The problem with English is that writing and spelling have not kept up with pronunciation. At one time knight, knife, light, night, house were pronounced, respectively, k-neecht (ch like German Bach), k-neef-uh, neecht, hoosuh.

    If moksha were spelled the way it's pronounced in your example it would be mocksha. So someone with good intentions would spell it mokesha to preserve as closely as possible it's original Sanskrit. Then it would probably be read as mo-kee-sha or mo-keh-sha by someone else. Can't win.
    śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Vannakkam: I gave up on the manglement of my last name, over many years. And I mangled Arkansas for many years... until I heard it.



    Aum Namasivaya
    Last edited by Eastern Mind; 18 May 2012 at 05:22 PM.

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    Re: Beginner pronunciation.

    Quote Originally Posted by Eastern Mind View Post
    And I mangled Arkansas for many years...
    So what's wrong with ar-kan-zas?

    I get a kick out of Mackinac (it's Mackinaw).
    śivasya hridayam viṣṇur viṣṇoscha hridayam śivaḥ

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