>
>
>I have notice from recordings of Paali chanting that Shinhalese people
>(in particular) pronounce the vowel 'a' differently for different
>words, although the Paali textbooks do not indicate that there are two
>pronunciations for the vowel 'a'.
>
>Allow me to illustrate with the phrase "Namo tassa bhagavato arahato
>sammaasa.mbuddhassa". I have heard for many times, the second 'a' in
>'tassa' and 'buddhassa' pronounced as 'er' instead of 'ah'.
>
>Can someone here please explain?
>

Hi Dennis,

I think it's rather like the English pronounciation of a word like
'banana'. The two unstressed short a sounds reduce to 'uh' or schwa.
The stressed syllable, in the middle, has the full short a sound:
buh-'na-nuh.

I'm not sure of the exact rule for when this happens in Sri Lankan
pronounciation of Pali, but possible factors could be residual
stress, open syllables (not ending in a consonant) or simply final
position.

If you don't get a fuller answer, I'll keep an eye open and if I come
across an explanation of exactly when short a has this reduced value
I'll post it.

best regards,

/Rett