Thread by @Sampadananda

#LearnSamskritam
Welcome to the 5th session of this Twitter chat. Today we will be learning a few fascinating things about the consonants of Sanskrit.

Contrary to the vowels which are independent sounds, the consonants are dependent sounds - सापेक्ष sāpekṣa. 5/1

Consonants in Sanskrit are known as व्यञ्जन vyañjana which literally means embellishment. Indeed the vyañjana sounds are decorated by the vowels. So we have: क का कि की कृ कॄ क्लृ कु कू के कै को कौ कं कः (ka kā ki kī kṛ kṝ klṛ ku kū ke kai ko kau kaṃ kaḥ). 5/2

In the Sanskrit grammatical tradition vowels are described as prāṇa or life-force without which the speech world would not exist. The consonants are described as śarīra or the body. Interestingly Tamil uses the word மெய் எழுத்து (Mei Ezhuthu) meaning the body-sounds. 5/3

Further, the ancient Indian grammarians considered the vowel sounds as sūtra or thread, and consonants as maṇi or gems. As gems are supported by a thread to form a garland so the consonants are supported by the vowels to form garland of speech or language. 5/4

Beginning from the sound क ka to ह ha, there are thirty-three consonant sounds in Sanskrit. These thirty-three sounds are divided into three different categories: plosives (spṛṣṭa), approximants (īṣatspṛṣṭa) and sibilants or fricatives (ardhaspṛṣṭa). 5/5

The first twenty-five sounds (from क ka to म ma) are called plosives/stops. In the production of these twenty five sounds the contact between the articulators is concrete. In Sanskrit these are called स्पृष्टवर्णs spṛṣṭa varṇas or sounds produced with complete contact. 5/6

Based on the places of articulations the plosives are divided into five distinct groups: guttural (कण्ठ्य kaṇṭhya), palatal (तालव्य tālavya), cerebral (मूर्धन्य mūrdhanya), dental (दन्त्य dantya) and labial (ओष्ठ्य oṣṭhya). 5/7

कण्ठ kaṇṭha the throat is the first position where the upward moving air gets modified by the contact of the organs of speech. This is the reason that क ka ख kha ग ga घ gha ङ ṅa these five sounds are placed first in the plosive group. 5/8

Did you know that it is not possible to produce a pure consonant from a position below where from the sound क ka is produced? The human vocal cord is not designed that way. So the sound क ka is not just the first consonant Sanskrit but of the entire humanity. 5/9

Interesting to observe that all these five sounds (क ka ख kha ग ga घ gha ङ ṅa) are articulated from the same place but each one is different from the other. To know about the distinctive features of each of these five sounds check out for the next session. 5/10