--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, cardemaister <no_reply@...> wrote: > > > > FWIW, the first sound of Rgveda is 'a' (*short* a-sound): > > agnim iiLe purohitaM, > yajñasya devam RtvijaM > hotaaraM ratnadhaatamam. > > The first line contains the following vowels: > > a, i, ii (long i-sound), e, u, o , i, a. > > Please, look at the devanaagarii alphabet here, > especially 'VOWELS - FULL FORM': > > http://sanskrit.farfromreal.com/index.php?x=writ_alpha > > If we ignore the long vowels, most of them are included > in the first line: > > a, i, u, e (sandhi of a + i), o (sandhi of a + u) > > Those not included are: > > R (vocalic r-sound), L (vocalic l-sound, quite rare) > and diphthongs 'ai' (diachronically aa + i, methinks) > and 'au' (aa + u). >
The vocalic R-sound on the second line (R-tvi-jam), and *long* a-sound (aa or A or a: or a_ or any other of the numerous ways to indicate the length of Sanskrit vowels in ASCII) on the third! The L in iiLe is *not* the vocalic/syllabic L-sound...
