Visarga

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Visarga (visargā) is a Sanskrit word meaning "sending forth, discharge". In Sanskrit phonology (śikṣā), visarga (also called, equivalently, visarjanīya by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone, [h], written as IAST <ḥ>, Harvard-Kyoto <H>, Devanagari <ः>. Visarga is an allophone of /r/ and /s/ in pausa (at the end of an utterance). Since /-s/ is a common desinence (nominative singular, second person singular, etc.), visarga appears frequently in Sanskrit texts. In the traditional order of Sanskrit sounds, visarga together with anusvara appears between vowels and stop consonants.

The precise pronunciation of visarga in Vedic texts may vary between shakhas. Some pronounce a slight echo of the preceding vowel after the fricative, for example aḥ will be pronounced [ɐhɐ], and iḥ will be pronounced [ihi].

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