The Phonemic Approach for Sanskrit Text

Sanskrit Grammar has distinguished the terms varna (phoneme) and akshara (syllable). Both these terms are used in the context of spoken languages and can be extended to written languages. Since the oral tradition in India was of a higher order, the stress on right pronunciation was laid at most on the spoken language. To represent such speech nuances in written language, various chinhas (signs) were evolved as to strike the equivalence in spoken and written expressions. This extra-ordinary activity is part of the Indian tradition. Diagram 1 Therefore, the realization of such phonemic system in the context of new technology seems to be imperative where writing is talked in the context of speech and speech in the context of writing. The attempt is made to identify varnamala comprising of basic speech sound units as vowel phonemes (swara varna) and consonant phonemes (vyanjan varna) (Diagram 1). These phonemes (varnas) when combined as C...C + V or only V, form complete phonetic cluster. The correspondence in spoken and written syllables must be preserved through the Phonemic scheme firstly by giving each phoneme a distinct identity and secondly by giving each chinha -denoting nuances of speech -a distinct identity in the form of standardisation.