Thread by @TheSanskritDude

Some of my students have been asking about this, so…

Here’s everything you need to know about the anusvāra (अनुस्वार)! What it is, when it appears, when it doesn’t, and how to pronounce it.🧵 1/

The anusvāra is known as the “pure nasal”, in that it is a nasal sound that is not tied down to any of the places in the mouth where sounds are typically made. It is tied down to the nose alone. It is written as a dot on top in Devanāgarī, or as ṁ or ṃ in IAST (I prefer ṁ). 2/

The first rule for its appearance is: when you have a “m” (म्) at the end of a word followed by any consonant, then the “m” becomes an anusvāra.

For example:
kim karoti => kiṁ karoti
(किम् करोति => किं करोति)
śivam bhajate => śivaṁ bhajate
(शिवम् भजते => शिवं भजते)

3/

The second rule for its appearance is: when you have a “m” (म्) or “n” (न्) in the middle of a word followed by any consonant other than a nasal (ñ, m, ṅ, ṇ, n) or semivowel (y, v, r, l), then it becomes an anusvāra as well. Some examples in the next tweet. 4/

For example:
śām + ti => śāṁti
(शाम् + ति => शांति)
han + tā => haṁtā
(हन् + ता => हंता)

These processes are incomplete so far though! Read on… 5/

The third rule is that an anusvāra (whether in the middle or at the end of a word) that is followed by a consonant other than h, ś, ṣ, or s transforms into the nasal that corresponds with the place in the mouth that the following letter is produced. Examples in next tweet. 6/

For example:
śām + ti => śāṁti => śānti (ṁ becomes n because t, the following consonant, is a dental, and n is the dental nasal)
(शाम् + ति => शांति => शान्ति)
han + tā => haṁtā => hantā
(हन् + ता => हंता => हन्ता)
7/

The fourth rule is that if this happens at the end of a word, it is optional.

For example:
kim karoti => kiṁ karoti => OPTIONALLY kiṅ/kiṁ karoti
(किं करोति => किङ्/किं करोति)
śivam bhajate => śivaṁ bhajate => śivam/śivaṁ bhajate
(शिवं भजते => शिवम्/शिवं भजते)
8/

That’s it for the rules of its appearance! Therefore, you should technically never see an anusvāra in the middle of a word unless it is followed by h (ह्), ś (श्), ṣ (ष्), or s (स्), and you will only optionally see it at the end of a word if it is followed by a consonant. 9/

When you see a word like saṁskṛta (संस्कृत), know that it was once a “m” (म्) inside a word, sam + s + kṛta (सम् + स् + कृत), and it became an anusvāra because of rule 2, but couldn’t return to an ordinary nasal because it is followed by a “s” (स्). Also saṁsāra (संसार). 10/

Now, how is it pronounced? In theory, since the anusvāra is the "pure nasal", it should simply be pronounced through the nose without any contact in the mouth. Something like unh (as in the beatbox sound unh tss unh tss unh tss). But that's not it, is it? 11/

Instead, the trick is: watch the following consonant. Whatever its respective nasal sound is, is how you pronounce the anusvāra. For example, in kiṁ karoti (किं करोति), you would pronounce it as ṅ (ङ्) because the following letter is क्, and the corresponding nasal is ṅ. 12/

Respective nasal sounds can be found at the end of a row of consonants, rows beginning with ka, ca, ṭa, ta, and pa. However, what if you had a sentence like kiṁ satram? The letter s (स्) does not belong to a row of consonants like ka or ca or ṭa. What to do now? Read on... 13/

When you have a situation where the anusvāra is followed by a sibilant (ś, ṣ, or s - श् ष् or स्) or h (ह्), there are two camps on how to pronounce this. Camp 1 says, pronounce it like a m (म्), but without touching your lips together. 14/

Camp 2 says, pronounce it according to the place in the mouth where the following letter is created. So for kiṁ satram, since s (स्) is pronounced in the dental area, the ṁ should be pronounced like n (न्), but without the tongue making contact with the top of the mouth. 15/

This is also true for saṁsāra and saṁskṛta. Camp 1 makes it sound like “samsāra” or “samskṛta”, and camp 2 makes it “sansāra” or “sanskṛta”. Both are done without making contact, of course, to be technically correct. This is up to you. But the difference matters!! 16/

Take the word siṁha (सिंह) for example, which means lion. If you pronounce it like camp 1, you get simha, which eventually becomes Simba (Lion King, anyone?). If you pronounce it like camp 2, you get siṅha, which eventually becomes Singha (like the name Singh, or Singapore) 17/

Both camps are technically correct, but I tend to fall into camp 2. However, don't go around telling someone their pronunciation is wrong just because it is different from yours! They might fall into a different camp that is equally correct. Now, for the grammarians here... 18/

According to #Pāṇini, Rule 1 above is “mo'nusvāraḥ” (8.3.23), and Rule 2 is “naścāpadāntasya jhali” (8.3.24). Rule 3 is “anusvārasya yayi parasavarṇaḥ” (8.4.58), and Rule 4 is “vā padāntasya” (8.4.59).

Whew!! Oh, and be sure to try it out! Speak it! /END