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Sarangi

Musical Instrument
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A North Indian bowed string instrument with a rich, vocal-like timbre

Detailed Definition
The sarangi’s expressive, melancholic voice appears in ghazal and qawwali poetry to symbolize the pain of love, spiritual longing, and the human cry; its ability to mimic vocal ornamentation makes it a metaphor for the unspoken depths of lyrical emotion in verse.
Example
Example in poetry:
Hindi poets liken the sarangi to “a thousand crying voices in one box”; Its bowed strings mimic human sob; “Sarangi weeps—lovers reunite in sound”; In film poetry, the sarangi scores heartbreak: “Black-and-white screen, but sarangi bleeds color.”
Additional Notes
The sarangi is a North Indian bowed lute with sympathetic strings, capable of mimicking the human voice; used in classical and folk music, its weeping tone evokes deep pathos—ideal for poems about unspoken grief, the bow as tear, or the sarangi as companion to the khayal singer’s inner world.
Also Known As
Sarangi fiddle
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