Re: 'Saṁyutta' niggahita pronunciation

Chris Clark chris.clark@... [palistudy] wrote thus at 07:21 AM 28-11-15:
>The pronunciation of Pali in Burma is fairly
>heavily influenced by the way the corresponding
>graphemes are pronounced in the Burmese language.

Fully agree. IMO, comparing among Burmese, Thai,
and Singhalese, the Burmese pronunciation is most
different from the Indian pronunciation. Even
some Burmese recognises that. (It's common now
for them to speak of "Burmese Pali" and "International Pali".)

The other 2 isn't without any issue. The Thais
somehow inverted the voiced and the voiceless
consonants. Thus, Buddho is pronounced as Puttho.
Afaik, the Singhalese (being next to India) has
the least distortion, but somehow tend to
nasalise "gg". Thus "magga" is pronounced as
"manga". In both, the niggahita is pronounced the same as "n".

To me, it doesn't make sense that the niggahita
should be pronounced as "m" or "n". If it were,
such a character wouldn't have been necessary and
thus not created out of an oral language. I've
been following the Indian pronunciation (as I've
learnt from Indians, and those who have studied in India): a nasal "m".


with mettâ,
Kumâra Bhikkhu, ven.