anusvara
/ɐnʊsʋɐɽɐ/
noun
Origin
Sanskrit
anu + svara — following sound
Overview
Meaning Now
- A symbol in the Indic scripts used to indicate nasalization of the preceding vowel.
- The nasal sound represented by a dot above a consonant or vowel.
Literal older meaning
after-sound
Language path
Sanskrit → Sanskrit
Earliest form
अनुसार
Earliest period
c. 5th–4th century BCE
Journey
In Indian linguistics and phonetics, the anusvara is classified as a nasal consonant that lacks a specific place of articulation, often described as a pure nasal resonance occurring after a vowel. It is orthographically represented by the 'bindu' (dot) symbol in the Devanagari script.
Evolution
- Vedic Sanskrit
anusvara
“a nasal sound occurring after a vowel”
- Classical Sanskrit
anusvara
“grammatical term for the nasalization marker”
Connections
Word parts
anu-
prefix
after, following
svara
root
sound, tone, vowel
Related across languages
Pali
anussāra
nasalization marker
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Related to anusvara
External references use DefinedTerm semantics.