kanthya talavya murdhanya dantya osthya guttural palatal cerebral dental labial ka ca ta ta pa kha cha tha tha pha ga ja da da ba gha jha dha dha bha na iia na na ma The table is also arranged horizontally by rows: the first, for example, comprises ka, ca, ta, ta, and pa. The first, third and fifth rows are pronounced with little breath (alpaprana), and the second and fourth rows with much breath (mahaprana). The last three rows are voiced (ghosa), i.e. the vocal cords vibrate in producing the consonant, whereas the first two rows are unvoiced (aghosa). The consonants in the fifth row are nasalized (anunasika), the others not. In terms of alphabetical order, these follow after the sixteen matrka in order from ka-varga through pa-varga, i.e.: . . . am ah ka kha ga gha na ca cha ... pa pha ba bha ma . . . 2. A. 3 Pronunciation of the Stops While the previous section (2. A. 2) describes the sounds authoritatively, the following notes may assist with first-time pronunciation. The unvoiced (aghosa) stops have an explosive quality to them, whereas the voiced (ghosa) stops have a gentler quality to them as though releasing the stop more slowly: this can be observed by listening to the difference between ka and ga when 'sounded' without the following a. The nasal (anunasika) consonants continue to sound through the nose when the breath through the mouth has been stopped by the tongue or lips. The aspiration (prana) gives the native English speaker the most problems. In English there is a tendency to pronounce some consonants slightly aspirated before
