Pariprashnena — Q&A Archive

The pronunciation of Ram is a bit of Hindi not proper Sanskrit, in Sanskrit you pronounce all thirty two syllables. Just like some Hindi speaking people say Krisn we should not miss a single syllable of a mantra. Of course every school of Sanskrit has different accentuations and pronunciation guide, but we follow Prabhupada and he (softly and shortly) pronounced last a in Rama (the first A is a long a thus it is sometimes pronounced stronger). BTG gives an example of an English word Drama in its explanation of the mantra pronunciation.

Thanks CCD for your input, so what should one do when he has got used to chanting the maha mantra as RAM not RAMA, it is very difficult to change.

At least you can sing in the kirtana right to not mislead others;-) But the pronunciation is the end of the world, your emotion that you put into it is the main thing. In fact you may get the full result of the mantra is you put your heart into it. Now how to improve the feeling and the sincere dedication is a different question, but do not think that your japa is spoiled by that. However in my humble experience the proper pronunciation of japa is really important, people who do pronounce it clearly and nicely are getting extra benefits. Even the six-sillable mantra (vaidic) is said not become invalid as per murka bole sloka of Caitanya Bhagavata, but try to chant correctly.

In devanagari
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350
f0 =Ram, whereas
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350 u2366
f0 =Rama and
f3 uc0u2325 u2371 u2359 u2381 u2339
f0 =Krsn whereas
f3 uc0u2325 u2371 u2359 u2381 u2339 u2366
f0 =Krsna.

Pronouncing
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350
f0 is correct whereas
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350 u2366
f0 is wrong,
f3 uc0u2325 u2371 u2359 u2381 u2339
f0 is correct but
f3 uc0u2325 u2371 u2359 u2381 u2339 u2366
f0 is wrong. There are two types of notes (swara). Hrisva swara and dirgha swara. Last a in
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350
f0 is short sound as in hrisva swara not as
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350 u2366
f0 which is long sound of a as in dirgha swara. Rama and Krsna depicts a feeling of dirgha swara in the end as if it is a long aaaaaaaaaaa. But using phonetic symbols solves the problem because then Rama=
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350
f0 , and Krsna=
f3 uc0u2325 u2371 u2359 u2381 u2339
f0 , and
f3 uc0u2352 u2366 u2350 u2366
f0 =Ramuc0u257 and
f3 uc0u2325 u2371 u2359 u2381 u2339 u2366
f0 =Krsnuc0u257 .

Nobody asks to put a long A at the end, it should be short a (Rama and Krishna with long A is a name of a Goddess).

A quote from BR Sridhara swami of Navadvipa:

Naturally they should chant Rama, not Ram, for that is the real pronunciation. If one pronounces it as Ram that does not mean that the whole thing is spoiled, but Rama is the grammatically correct pronunciation. Everything depends on the heart. The highest importance is your earnestness of surrender. the child may call his father by the name Papa or by any disfigured sound, but that is overlooked. The inner earnestness is always to be reckoned. SfGoD 3.10

Phonetically, the western or english pronunciation of the letter m is "em." In this form, the mouth is open and then closes which allows no air to pass out of the mouth hence the sound vibration is strictly stopped or cut off. The Hindi and sanskrit form of m is ma and the mouth works in the opposite fashion - the mouth is closed and then opens, which allows air to pass out of the mouth and it is this small exhalation of air that forms the slightly audible a sound, (the short a.) For pronouncing the long a, double the strength and length of air exhalation.

Word ruc0u257 ma of Sanskrit is transliterated in Hindi as ru257 m and sounds like ram. To give an example: in Sanskrit, u256 sana is indeed written
f3 uc0u2310 u2360 u2344
f0 , with three syllables:
f3 uc0u2310
f0 -
f3 uc0u2360
f0 -
f3 uc0u2344
f0 (uc0u257 -sa-na). But in Hindi one reads the same written word
f3 uc0u2310 u2360 u2344
f0 as uc0u257 san for some reason, but in Sanskrit it is pronounced u257 sana. We say Govinda not Govind, Madhava not Madhav. The last a is short and not long, but is needed to maintain the meter.

[quote][cite] deena:[/cite]Phonetically, the western or english pronunciation of the letter m is "em." In this form, the mouth is open and then closes which allows no air to pass out of the mouth hence the sound vibration is strictly stopped or cut off.[/quote]

In my linguistics course, we were taught that /m/ and /n/ are nasal sounds. When articulating them, the air passes through the nose, not the mouth. This is easy to test - just hold your nose together and try to say /m/ or /n/.[br]
The place of articulation for /m/ and /n/ is the same as for the stops /p/, /b/ and /t/, /d/ respectively, but since with /m/ and /n/ the air passes through the nose, they are sonorants, which makes them easy to sing: oooommmmmm.[br]

[br]Other than that, generally, in Indoeuropean languages, there is the tendency to reduce or eliminate short non-accented vowels, so I presume the short form /Ram/ is part of that tendency.

Other than that, generally, in Indoeuropean languages, there is the tendency to reduce or eliminate short non-accented vowels, so I presume the short form /Ram/ is part of that tendency.

Yes that is what is happening here. Last word na with halant will have a very short sound of the consonant and when there is a sandhi with a, it will complete the consonant. However another matra of A will add double stress. For example Kamala is lotus and kamala with a long a in end means laxmi not the lotus.