A different example of coronal harmony, sometimes referred to as NATI rule, occurs in Sanskrit, where is retroflexed to if it is preceded by a retroflex continuant, mainly and , in the same word, even at a distance. The retroflexion spreads from left to right affecting any coronal nasal until the word boundary is reached. This phenomenon, however, is blocked whenever a coronal plosive is placed between / and . For instance, in the noun brāhmaṇa "Brahmin priest" (derived from the root *bṛh "to make strong" + the suffix -man- + the thematic vowel -a), the original coronal (IAST: n) of the action noun suffix -man changes to a retroflex (IAST: ṇ) due to consonant harmony triggered by (IAST: r). On the other hand, in the word अर्चन arcana "homage, praising" (from *ṛc "to praise" + -man- + -a) consonant harmony is prevented by the coronal stop (IAST: c) which blocks the assimilation.Feature Spreading in Sanskrit.
