in closed syllables, the long variants occur only in open syllables. Short and long e and o are therefore not distinct phonemes. e and o are long in an open syllable: at the end of a syllable as in [ne-tum̩] เนตุํ 'to lead' or [so-tum̩] โสตุํ 'to hear'. They are short in a closed syllable: when followed by a consonant with which they make a syllable as in [upek-khā] 'indifference' or [sot-thi] 'safety'. For vowels ā, ī, ū, e appears for a before double-consonance: seyyā = sayyā 'bed' pheggu = phaigu 'empty, worthless' The vowels ⟨i⟩ and ⟨u⟩ are lengthened in the flexional endings including: -īhi, -ūhi and -īsu A sound called anusvāra (Skt.; Pali: niggahīta), represented by the letter (ISO 15919) or (ALA-LC) in romanization, and by a raised dot in most traditional alphabets, originally marked the fact that the preceding vowel was nasalized. That is, , and represented , and . In many traditional pronunciations, however, the anusvāra is pronounced more strongly, like the velar nasal , so that these sounds are pronounced instead , and . However pronounced, never follows a long vowel; ā, ī and ū are converted to the corresponding short vowels when is added to a stem ending in a long vowel, e.g. becomes , not , becomes , not *. Changes of vowels due to the structure of the word Final vowels The final consonants of the Sanskrit words have been dropped in Pali and thus all the words end in a vowel or in a nasal vowel: -> kantā 'from the loved one; -> 'the loved one The final vowels were usually weak in pronunciation and hence they were shortened: akārsit -> akāsi 'he did'. Consonants Among the labial consonants, is labiodental and the rest is bilabial. Among the dental/alveolar consonants, the majority is dental but and are alveolar. Of the sounds listed above only the three consonants in parentheses, ṅ, ḷ, and ḷh, are not distinct phonemes in Pali: ṅ only occurs before velar stops, while ḷ and ḷh are allophones of single ḍ and ḍh occurring between vowels. In the Pali language, the consonants may be divided according to their strength or power of resistance. The strength decreases in the order of: mutes, sibilant, nasals, l, v, y, r When two consonants come together, they are subject to one of the following change: they are assimilated to each other they