Nature of Syllables
Occulataion
Assimilation
- vowels are pronounced long in open syllable
- vowels are pronounced short in closed syllable.
- Seva is the name for a half voweled letter.
- Initial letter of a word without vowel has got a seva.
- Second of two consecutive non voweled letters has got a seva.
- The 6 letters bes, gamal, dalas, kap, pe, taw are liable to hard and soft pronunciation according to the position they take in a word.
- Kusaya (Hard) is indicated by a dot placed over the letter. Rukakha (Soft) is indicated by a dot placed below the letter.
- An initial letter is always hard (Kusaya)
- Doubled bes, gamal, dalas is always Kusaya.
- After a consonant without vowel or a seva the letter is pronounced hard.
- After seva the b-g-d-k-p-th which follows is a soft one.
Occulataion
- The occulted letter is marked by a small line above it and is not pronounced.
- A vowelled letter letter preceded by another with a short vowel is doubled.
- In doubling bes, gamal and dalas Mar Thoma Nasranis of India add nasal sound (noon). Thus da becomes nda, ga becomes nga, ba becomes nba. This is considered to be a pre 2nd century pronunciation.
- When doubling is practically impossible, the preceding short vowel is prolonged
Assimilation
- When same consonants or consonants of same organ and the first of which is without vowel and the second with or without vowel, they generally by a homogeneous articulation.
