Re: [tied] Centum in Vedic?

> But the present day chanters also mispronounce vocalic 'r' as 'ri'
> and the visarga as 'h' with an inserted voiceless vowel to assist

in

> pronouncing a sound no longer found in their natural language.

This opinion is held by a few people, but I think most Indologists
agree with Witzel that the Vedic chanting is an accurate
representation of what prevailed 3000 years ago. Witzel calls it
a "tape recording."

I'd be very interested in reading or hearing more about this if you
have more sources to quote or just your thoughts on this.

> An aspirated 'k' is also often substituted for the 'x' in modern
> Indo-Aryan loans from Arabic, Farsi or Turkic.

True enough but these are Prakrits.

> In short, the
> present pronunciation of Sanskrit and Vedic is based on the
> substitution of the closest available sounds in the chanter's first
> language, with certain universally accepted conventions for
> representing sounds no longer present in any modern Indo-Aryan
> language, such as vocalic 'r' or 'l' and visarga. It's comparable

to

> the habit of some nowadays who pronounce Latin 'c' and 'g' as
> affricates before a front vowel, as in Italian.

This was Deshpande's point in the article I mentioned earlier in the
thread. However, his opinion is not widely accepted. I've heard Hock
attacked it rather strongly although I'm still waiting for his paper
to reach me. Certainly, Witzel would not agree, if I understand him
correctly.

Unlike the Prakrits, the Vedas have taken extreme measures to try and
maintain the proper pronunciation since the efficacy of the rituals
are believed to depend on it. Classical Sanskrit has also changed
pronunciation though.

Actually, I'm pretty sure there were also many dialects of Vedic
Sanskrit in the different Shakhas -- it's just that only one of them
has been passed down to us.