Sanskrit pronunciation

[ghrue84]

Hola, my ego is currently looking for the best and most complete book (or books) for me to learn how to pronounce, write and read Sanskrit correctly.

Is there anyone here who knows Sanskrit well enough to recommend me a book that they learned from?
As authentic as can be please. My native language is not English, so it could be Spanish book as well, but not necessary as I understand English well enough.

Also audio is helpful if you know of any videos that teach the correct pronunciation it would be helpful as well.

Thanks

 

[Psilosopher?]

You can read as many books as you want, and your pronounciation will still be miles off.

I speak a language that is the most closest to Sanskrit. Every pronounciation guide for every Vedic language i've seen is not accurate for a non Vedic speaker. We Vedic people write the pronounciations, so we already know how to say it, but when a Western raised person tries to pronounce it from written phonetics alone, it is laughably inaccurate. Even going to restaurants, and seeing how the owners write the names in English, it's not written accurately. At all. Anyone who has been raised with that language/culture can say it, cause they already know what it is and how to say it properly.

Only advice i can give is to learn from an actual teacher, who is natively from the Indian subcontinent.

 

[ghrue84]

You can read as many books as you want, and your pronounciation will still be miles off.

I speak a language that is the most closest to Sanskrit. Every pronounciation guide for every Vedic language i've seen is not accurate for a non Vedic speaker. We Vedic people write the pronounciations, so we already know how to say it, but when a Western raised person tries to pronounce it from written phonetics alone, it is laughably inaccurate. Even going to restaurants, and seeing how the owners write the names in English, it's not written accurately. At all. Anyone who has been raised with that language/culture can say it, cause they already know what it is and how to say it properly.

Only advice i can give is to learn from an actual teacher, who is natively from the Indian subcontinent.

Talk about pessimistic attitude.... Your ego is jumbling all westerners under one category. As if they're all exactly the same and they're all equally incapable of adjusting to different pronunciations. You're heavily underestimating half of the globe. You're categorizing and underestimating all western culture as if all western culture is all the same. Your ignorance is pathetic.

Instead of expressing your limited experience as just that (what it is), you have generalized your limited experience to be projected into all westerners (and all western cultures) as if you've already known or met all westerners and know their capabilities or "lack" thereof.

Caribbean culture is very different from gringo culture, and so is Mesoamerican and South American culture. Funny how the "Vedic people" can be so ignorant and underestimating despite their supposed ancient knowledge of the supposed Truth. Or maybe it's just that you're one of those Vedic people that doesn't actually know the Truth?

What a waste of time it is to say "find a guru". It's all some of you "Vedic people" can regurgitate, pretending that you're helping by saying it.

Another question. Have you seen ALL of the Sanskrit pronunciation guides available? If so, do not make a claim that they are all obsolete or inaccurate. Even if your ego does not know of one, there may be other people who actually know of one that is accurate.

Noticed that I asked for both books and audio. You provided no real answer to either one of the things that I was asking about, so why even write so many words to say nothing useful or new?

I know I could theoretically find a guru, yet I don't want one. Because I don't trust them. Why? Well because I've seen many accusations of gurus doing heinous sexual acts to children, young adolescents, young adults, and full grown adults. Do I know if any of these accusations are true? No. I do not know. And cannot know truly. Accusations are just that. Unless you're an actual witness of the happenings, you don't know the truth. But it does get you to pause and think about joining an Ashram or a Math or a Peetham. And there's also that thing about some religions/philosophies/cults brainwashing people and profiting of people. I'm not saying all religions or gurus are like this, but I'm saying that for now, this is all fresh in my mind so I'd rather not partake of these things and read a book in peace at my home. So no thanks to your suggestion of finding a guru. I think I'll pass.

And may God/Brahman/Dios/whateveryoubelievein give you good things so you don't keep categorizing and underestimating half the world.

 

[Prima Materia]

Learn Sanskrit Online

A simple and complete guide to Sanskrit. Includes useful tools and resources for all levels.

www.learnsanskrit.org

 

[ghrue84]

Learn Sanskrit Online

A simple and complete guide to Sanskrit. Includes useful tools and resources for all levels.

www.learnsanskrit.org

Thank you Brahman. Checking this out currently.

 

[Psilosopher?]

Talk about pessimistic attitude.... Your ego is jumbling all westerners under one category. As if they're all exactly the same and they're all equally incapable of adjusting to different pronunciations. You're heavily underestimating half of the globe. You're categorizing and underestimating all western culture as if all western culture is all the same. Your ignorance is pathetic.

Instead of expressing your limited experience as just that (what it is), you have generalized your limited experience to be projected into all westerners (and all western cultures) as if you've already known or met all westerners and know their capabilities or "lack" thereof.

Caribbean culture is very different from gringo culture, and so is Mesoamerican and South American culture. Funny how the "Vedic people" can be so ignorant and underestimating despite their supposed ancient knowledge of the supposed Truth. Or maybe it's just that you're one of those Vedic people that doesn't actually know the Truth?

What a waste of time it is to say "find a guru". It's all some of you "Vedic people" can regurgitate, pretending that you're helping by saying it.

Another question. Have you seen ALL of the Sanskrit pronunciation guides available? If so, do not make a claim that they are all obsolete or inaccurate. Even if your ego does not know of one, there may be other people who actually know of one that is accurate.

Noticed that I asked for both books and audio. You provided no real answer to either one of the things that I was asking about, so why even write so many words to say nothing useful or new?

I know I could theoretically find a guru, yet I don't want one. Because I don't trust them. Why? Well because I've seen many accusations of gurus doing heinous sexual acts to children, young adolescents, young adults, and full grown adults. Do I know if any of these accusations are true? No. I do not know. And cannot know truly. Accusations are just that. Unless you're an actual witness of the happenings, you don't know the truth. But it does get you to pause and think about joining an Ashram or a Math or a Peetham. And there's also that thing about some religions/philosophies/cults brainwashing people and profiting of people. I'm not saying all religions or gurus are like this, but I'm saying that for now, this is all fresh in my mind so I'd rather not partake of these things and read a book in peace at my home. So no thanks to your suggestion of finding a guru. I think I'll pass.

And may God/Brahman/Dios/whateveryoubelievein give you good things so you don't keep categorizing and underestimating half the world.

Wow, way to distort my message out of proportion.

I've been on the path to learn Sanskrit myself. I've seen what's out there. It's a dying liturgical language, with no proper community that speaks it on a daily basis, except that one village in India. The resources out there online are minimal. You could watch SamvaadaMalaa or Sanskrit Sambhashanam, but there are no english translations at all. I said the things i said from experience. My limited experience is not as limited as you think. "As if they're all exactly the same and they're all equally incapable of adjusting to different pronunciations". You may not like this answer, but people who learn non-native languages have accents, unless their practice is impeccable. Which is why i mentioned a teacher, for practice.

Not all Indian teachers are Hindu gurus. Notice i mentioned "teacher", and not "guru"? That's precisely what i mean, a linguistics teacher. Not a sham of the self proclaimed Hindu priesthood. There are university professors who may specialise in Sanskrit, and may offer classes outside of their university curriculum. The reason why i mentioned a teacher is you will have close to zero luck finding someone to practice with. If you don't practice the language, and have someone to correct small phonetic mistakes, those mistakes stick.

I could've ignored your aggression, but i did not intend my original message to incite it. What i said is an untold truth among people of the Indian subcontinent. They, of the older generation, write the pronounciations completely wrong, because they already have the foundation in the language. If you read the pronounciations from a background of English or another western language, you would pronounce it as it was written, which is wrong. That is what i meant by westerners. This isn't some "white people are inferior" post.

Geeze, you try to give someone a glimpse into the inner workings of your own culture, and you get called out on truth...

 

[ghrue84]

My ego never measured your limited experience, so how can you say it's not as limited as what I think?
You don't even know how limited I think your experience is. Truth is I do not know how limited your experience may be, so it would be ignorant to assume that I did know.

I only stated that it was limited (which it is). Not saying it's worthless or invalid. It has it's worth in the empirical universe. What is invalid and false is the presumptions and generalizations that come with your experience. Generalizations and presumptions may be useful to the ego to simplify certain things but there's no truth in them.

I did distort the message in the sense that I ascribed the word guru to the word teacher which you wrote. That was my wrong assumption. I just assumed that you meant a guru because guru is a spiritual teacher and that's what's frequently recommended. That was my ego's bad. The ego is dumb.

As for my supposed aggression, I never threatened you. Just questioned you and I let the "laughable" at the attempt of someone to learn a new language and the initial assumption that "You can read as many books as you want, and your pronunciation will still be miles off." (which may be true for some but not for all, and is a pessimistic and negative thing to promote, it's like putting limits to others who you do not know, it is very literal underestimation) irk my ego. That's why I said "Your ignorance is pathetic.". I am sorry for that. My ego. It's stupid.

Never thought that you were saying anything about "white people". I took the "Westerner" very literally. As in North America, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean, etc. (the entire western hemisphere of the world) are Westerners and Europe, Asia, Australia, etc. (eastern hemisphere) are Easterners. Nor did I take it as an inferiority thing, it just irks me to see any person underestimating others. We all have limitless potential. We are all brothers and sisters. It is erroneous to assume that others "can't do this or that" or "will be terrible at this or that" just because of where they were born. That is all.

Oh, and I found this youtube channel in my search, maybe it has the correct pronunciations? I obviously can't tell but seems like a good start for me at this point.

Wish you all good things always. No matter what you call me or think of me.