For example, the consonant क is not transliterated or pronounced as “ k”, but rather as “ ka”, with a short a vowel built right in 3. Every letter, unless otherwise specified, forms a complete syllable. But saṃskṛta pays special attention to its syllabic nature by appending a vowel sound to every consonant by default. This will sound very obvious, but saṃskṛta is built with syllables. There are five distinct mouth positions where the energy of a particular saṃskṛta sound originates. To understand saṃskṛta pronunciation, we have to visualize the mouth and how it creates different sounds. This logical simplicity comes down to understanding how the mouth forms sounds. If you see a correctly spelled word, you’ll know how to say it. If you hear a well-pronounced word, you’ll know how to spell it. This isn’t possible in saṃskṛta, where every word is spelled and pronounced in only one way 1. These words can also be pronounced differently: “ante” as “ ant-ee”, “anti” as “ ant-eye”, and “auntie” as “ awn-tee”.

The listener needs context clues to infer which word was said. The following three words - “ante”, “anti”, and “auntie” - can all be pronounced “ ant-ee”.

Some English words even have several correct pronunciations. There are no confusing homonyms or homophones like “buffet” ( buff-ay or buff-it), “through / threw”, or “to / too / two”. This allows for easy pronunciation of written words. This is not the case with saṃskṛta, where every letter makes only one sound, and every sound has only one letter. This creates the need for extensive memorization of how to pronounce words. Likewise the “c” in the Italian “cucina” (kitchen). For example, the “g” in “garage” makes two different sounds within the same word. In many European languages, a single letter can represent many different sounds. By the end of this guide you will understand what all those marks represent. The lines above and the dots below the letters might seem intimidating, at first. N ote: For now, don’t worry about how to pronounce the saṃskṛta words. This makes it relatively easy for non-native speakers like me to understand how to produce the sounds correctly (for the most part - there are a couple of tricky ones!). It is well thought out, logically structured, and precise. The word “Sanskrit” - or saṃskṛta in IAST transliteration - means “well-made” or “perfected”.

I will also show why the IAST transliteration system is by far the best. There are countless pronunciation guides online for that! Rather, I want to give a deeper understanding of how the sounds are formed in the mouth, and why almost all those pronunciation guides online are wrong.

My goal with this guide is not merely to explain how to sound the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet.

Bengali to sanskrit alphabet