Editing Sanskrit (section)

===Vowels===
{{wide image|828 CE Paramesvaratantra Sanskrit palm leaf manuscipt, Late Gupta script, Nepal.jpg|350px|This is one of the oldest surviving and dated palm-leaf manuscripts in Sanskrit (828&nbsp;CE). Discovered in Nepal, the bottom leaf shows all the vowels and consonants of Sanskrit (the first five consonants are highlighted in blue and yellow).||right |alt=A palm leaf manuscript published in 828 CE with the Sanskrit alphabet}}
The cardinal vowels (''svaras'') ''a'' (अ), ''i'' (इ), and ''u'' (उ) distinguish length in Sanskrit.{{sfn|Jamison|2008|p=9}}{{sfn|Robert P. Goldman|Sally J Sutherland Goldman|2002|pp=1–9}} The short ''a'' (अ) in Sanskrit is a closer vowel than ā, equivalent to schwa. The mid vowels ē (ए) and ō (ओ) in Sanskrit are monophthongizations of the Indo-Iranian diphthongs ''*ai'' and ''*au''. They are inherently long, though often transcribed ''e'' and ''o'' without the diacritic. The vocalic liquid ''r̥'' in Sanskrit is a merger of PIE ''*r̥'' and ''*l̥''. The long ''r̥'' is an innovation and it is used in a few analogically generated morphological categories.{{sfn|Jamison|2008|p=9}}{{sfn|Michael Coulson|Richard Gombrich|James Benson|2011|pp=21–36}}{{sfn|Masica|1993|pp=163–165}}

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; width:60%"
|+Sanskrit vowels in the Devanagari script{{sfn|Robert P. Goldman|Sally J Sutherland Goldman|2002|pp=13–19}}{{efn|Sanskrit is written in many scripts. Sounds in grey are not phonemic.|name="manyscript"}}
|-
!
!Independent form
![[IAST]]/<br />[[ISO 15919|ISO]]
!style="width:3em"|[[International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]]
!Independent form
!IAST/<br />ISO
!style="width:3em"|IPA
|-
!''{{IAST|kaṇṭhya}}''<br />([[Guttural]])
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|अ}}
|{{IAST|a}}
|{{IPAslink|ɐ}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|आ}}
|{{IAST|ā}}
|{{IPAslink|ɑː}}
|-
!''{{IAST|tālavya}}''<br />([[Palatal]])
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|इ}}
|{{IAST|i}}
|{{IPAslink|i}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ई}}
|{{IAST|ī}}
|{{IPA|/iː/}}
|-
!''{{IAST|oṣṭhya}}''<br />([[Labial consonant|Labial]])
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|उ}}
|{{IAST|u}}
|{{IPAslink|u}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ऊ}}
|{{IAST|ū}}
|{{IPA|/uː/}}
|-
!''{{IAST|mūrdhanya}}''<br />([[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]])
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ऋ}}
|{{IAST|ṛ}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|r̥}}
|{{IPAslink|r̩}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ॠ}}
|{{IAST|ṝ}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|r̥̄}}
|{{IPA|/r̩ː/}}
|-
!''{{IAST|dantya}}''<br />([[Dental consonant|Dental]])
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ऌ}}
|{{IAST|ḷ}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|l̥}}
|{{IPAslink|l̩}}
| style="background:#ccc; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ॡ}}
|{{IAST|ḹ}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|l̥̄}}{{efn|''{{IAST|ḹ}}'' is not an actual sound of Sanskrit, but rather a graphic convention included among the written vowels to maintain the symmetry of short–long pairs of letters.{{sfn|Salomon|2007|p=75}} }}
|{{IPA|/l̩ː/}}
|-
!''{{IAST|kaṇṭhatālavya}}''<br />(Palatoguttural)
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ए}}
|{{IAST|e}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|ē}}
|{{IPAslink|eː}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ऐ}}
|{{IAST|ai}}
|{{IPA|/ɑj/}}
|-
!''{{IAST|kaṇṭhoṣṭhya}}''<br />(Labioguttural)
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ओ}}
|{{IAST|o}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|ō}}
|{{IPAslink|oː}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|औ}}
|{{IAST|au}}
|{{IPA|/ɑw/}}
|-
!''(consonantal allophones)''
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ं}}
|{{IAST|ṃ}}/{{Transliteration|sa|ISO|ṁ}}<ref>{{harvnb|Masica|1993|p=146}} notes of this diacritic that "there is some controversy as to whether it represents a homorganic [[nasal stop]] [...], a [[nasalized vowel|nasalised vowel]], a nasalised [[semivowel]], or all these according to context".</ref>
|{{IPAslink|◌̃}}
| style="background:#ffdec1; font-size:24px;"|{{lang|und-Deva|ः}}
|{{IAST|ḥ}}<ref>This ''visarga'' is a consonant, not a vowel. It is a post-vocalic [[voiceless glottal fricative]] {{IPA|[h]}}, and an [[allophone]] of ''{{IAST|s}}'' (or less commonly ''{{IAST|r}}'') usually in word-final position. Some traditions of recitation append an echo of the preceding vowel after the [h] ({{cite web |last=Wikner |first=Charles |year=1996 |title=A Practical Sanskrit Introductory |url=http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/index.html |page=6 |access-date=26 June 2020 |archive-date=18 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080618194654/http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/index.html |url-status=live }}): <span style="font-size:14pt;">{{lang|und-Deva|इः}}</span> {{IPA|[ihi]}}. {{harvnb|Masica|1993|p=146}} considers the ''visarga'', along with letters <span style="font-size:14pt;">{{lang|und-Deva|ङ}}</span> ''{{IAST|ṅa}}'' and <span style="font-size:14pt;">{{lang|und-Deva|ञ}}</span> ''{{IAST|ña}}'', for the "largely predictable" [[velar nasal|velar]] and [[palatal nasal]]s, to be examples of "phonetic overkill in the [writing] system".</ref>
|{{IPA|/h/}}
|}

According to Masica, Sanskrit has four traditional semivowels, with which were classed, "for morphophonemic reasons, the liquids: y, r, l, and v; that is, as y and v were the non-syllabics corresponding to i, u, so were r, l in relation to r̥ and l̥".{{sfn|Masica|1993|pp=160–161}} The northwestern, the central and the eastern Sanskrit dialects have had a historic confusion between "r" and "l". The Paninian system that followed the central dialect preserved the distinction, likely out of reverence for the Vedic Sanskrit that distinguished the "r" and "l". However, the northwestern dialect only had "r", while the eastern dialect probably only had "l", states Masica. Thus literary works from different parts of ancient India appear inconsistent in their use of "r" and "l", resulting in doublets that are occasionally semantically differentiated.{{sfn|Masica|1993|pp=160–161}}

The nasal 'ṃ' is optionally the corresponding nasal consonant before plosives (aṃ + k = aṅk or am k) and an 'm'-sound before r, s, ś, ṣ, and h. Before y, l, v, it can cause nasalaization and gemination (am + y = aỹy or am y).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Whitney |first=William Dwight |title=Sanskrit grammar: including both the classical language, and the older dialects, of Veda and Brahmana |date=1993 |publisher=Harvard Univ. Pr |isbn=978-0-674-78810-7 |edition=2. ed., 17. issue |location=Cambridge, Mass}}</ref>