The Devanagari Script - देवनागरी लिपि 2

Consonants

Velar Consonants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
क	unaspirated “k”
ख	aspirated “k”
ग	unaspirated “g”
घ	aspirated “g”
ङ	n, as in “sing”

Note that the velar nasal consonant does not appear as the first letter of any word.

Palatal Consonants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
च	unaspirated “ch”, as in “cheese”
छ	aspirated “ch”
ज	unaspirated “j”
झ	aspirated “j”
ञ	n, as in “punch”

Retroflex Consonants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
ट	like “t”, but retroflex and unaspirated
ठ	like “t”, but retroflex and aspirated
ड	like “d”, but retroflex and unaspirated
ढ	like “d”, but retroflex and aspirated
ण	like “n”, but retroflex

Hindi additionally employs two flap consonants: ड़ and ढ़. The symbols for these consonants are formed by placing a diacritical mark called a nuqta, which is a subscript dot, underneath the consonant symbols ड and ढ respectively.

ड़ is pronounced by flapping the tongue from the retroflex position forward, toward the alveolar ridge. ढ़ is pronounced similarly, except with aspiration.

English does have an alveolar flap consonant, as the “t” in the word “better”, or the “d” as in “bedding” as in American English. The Hindi flaps are retroflex, however.

Retroflex Flap Consonants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
ड़	like a flapped “d”, flapping tongue from retroflex to alveolar ridge position
ढ़	like flapped “d”, flapping tongue from retroflex to alveolar ridge position, and aspirated

Dental Consonants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
त	like “t”, but dental and unaspirated
थ	like “t”, but dental and aspirated
द	like “d”, but dental and unaspirated
ध	like “d”, but dental and aspirated
न	like “n” in “name”, but dental

Labial Consonants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
प	like “p”, but unaspirated
फ	like “p”, but aspirated
ब	like “b”, but unaspirated
भ	like “b”, but aspirated
म	“m”

Semivowels

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
य	“y”, as in “young”
र	like “r”, but often rolled
ल	“l”, as in “lip”
व	either “w”, or “v”

The Hindi “r” sound is typically a flap. However, some speakers may trill the “r” sound occasionally, or may even occasionally pronounce it closer to an unflapped approximant sound, as in the English “r” in “red”.

Sibilants

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
श	“sh”, as in “shave”
ष	like “sh”, but retroflex
स	“s”, as in “save”

Glottal

LETTER	DESCRIPTION
ह	like “h”, but voiced

Allophony of “w” and “v” in Hindi

A phoneme is an equivalent class of atomic, discrete sounds which can produce a difference in meaning when spoken, yet cannot produce a difference in meaning when substituted for one another. A “phone” is simply a distinct sound. For instance, in English the “p” in the word “spit” and in the word “pit” are pronounced distinctly: the former is unaspirated, the latter is aspirated. Thus, they are two distinct phones. However, they are both members of the same phoneme, since substituting one for the other can never produce a difference in meaning, even though substitution may be perceived as slightly awkward by native speakers. Two distinct phones which are both members of the same phoneme are called “allophones” (from Greek, “different sounds”).

In Hindi, the sounds associated with the English letters “w” and “v” are allophones. Both are transcribed with one letter, व. Analogously to the English example above, these sounds are typically pronounced consistently in words, but they do not constitute meaningful differences in utterances. For example, the word वो is typically pronounced as “vo”, whereas the suffix -वाला is typically pronounced “wala”. Hindi speakers are not generally aware of this distinction, even though they pronounce the distinction fairly consistently, just as English speakers are not aware of the differences of aspiration in certain letters, yet pronounce aspiration consistently.

Thus, व may be pronounced as “w” or “v”. Some speakers may even pronounce an intermediate sound.

Semi-Allophones “j” and “z” in Hindi

Likewise, Hindi speakers do not generally maintain any strict distinction between the English “j” and “z” sounds either, but will typically pronounce words consistently. This situation is not quite the same as “w” and “v”, since technically, the “z” sound can be represented distinctly from the “j” sound by placing a dot (nuqta) underneath the letter, and some speakers are aware of this distinction. For instance, the word जो is pronounced as “jo”. There is some variation, however, in some words such as ज्यादा – some speakers pronounce this as “zyada”, and some as “jyada”.

Sibilants

In modern Hindi, both श and ष and pronounced the same. ष occurs mostly in Sankrit loanwords.

English Alveolar Consonants

There is no equivalent of the English “t” or “d” in Hindi. These English sounds are pronounced with the tongue on the tip of the alveolar ridge, behind the top teeth. This place of articulation is between the Devanagari retroflex and dental positions, although the English pronunciation will sound much closer to the retroflex pronunciation to Hindi speakers. English loanwords containing “t” or “d” are therefore transcribed with retroflex approximations.

Capital Letters

Devanagari has no capital letters.

Special Matraa Forms of उ and ऊ with र

र + उ = रु

र + ऊ = रू

Borrowed Sounds

There are 6 additional sounds used in Hindi which have no corresponding symbols in Devanagari. These sounds are represented by placing the nuqta underneath a symbol which is phonetically similar. These symbols represent sounds from other languages, such as Persian, Arabic, and English.

Foreign Sounds

LETTER	APPROXIMATION
क़	like “k”, but pronounced in the back of the mouth
ख़	velar fricative, like “Bach” in German
ग़	velar sound, similar to ख़ but voiced
ज़	just as English “z”, as in “zoo”
झ़	similar to the s in English “vision”
फ़	just as English “f”

Only two of the borrowed sounds are typically pronounced distinctly from the non-nuqta forms, though:
ज़़ and फ़

Summary of Consonants

Hindi Consonants

	Stops				Nasals
	Unvoiced		Voiced
	Unaspirated	Aspirated	Unaspirated	Aspirated
Velar	क	ख	ग	घ	ङ
Palatal	च	छ	ज	झ	ञ
Retroflex	ट	ठ	ड (ड़)	ढ (ढ़)	ण
Dental	त	थ	द	ध	न
Labial	प	फ (फ़)	ब	भ	म

Semivowels/Approximants

य

र

ल

व

Sibilants

श

ष

स

Glottal

ह

Conjuncts

Since any consonant that is not explicitly followed by a vowel symbol is implicitly followed by the inherent vowel, अ, Devanagari provides two means of suppressing the inherent vowel:

1. The halant ( ् ) a diacritical subscript, e.g. क्
2. A conjunct, a ligature synthesized by conjoining two consonant symbols. This method is much more common. The halant is typically only used when typographical difficulties make it difficult to use conjuncts.

Horizontal Conjuncts

Horizontal conjuncts are formed when the first letter of a conjunct contains a vertical line. The vertical line is deleted, then the modified consonant symbol is conjoined to the second consonant symbol. For example:

• न् + द = न्द, हिन्दी
• च् + छ = च्छ, अच्छा
• स् + त = स्त, नमस्ते
• ल् + ल = ल्ल, बिल्ली
• म् + ब = म्ब, लम्बा
• फ़् + त = फ़्त, मुफ़्त
• क् + य = क्य, क्यों

Note that in the last two examples, although neither क nor फ end in a vertical line, they still can be the first letter of a horizontal conjunct. The curve on the right side is shortened and adjoined to the following consonant.

Vertical Conjuncts

Consonants that do not end with a vertical line often form vertical conjuncts with the following consonant. The first consonant is written on top of the second consonant. For example:

• ट् + ट = ट्ट , छुट्टी
• ट् + ठ = ट्ठ, चिट्ठी

Other Conjuncts

Certain conjuncts are special, and should be observed:

Conjuncts with Nasal Consonants

If a nasal consonant is the first member of a conjunct, it may be written either using a “regular” conjunct (e.g. न् + द = न्द, हिन्दी), or an “anusvar”, which is a dot written above the horizontal line, to the right side of the preceding consonant or vowel. For instance, हिन्दीcould be spelled हिंदी, and अण्डा could alternatively be spelled अंडा. Note that the anusvar always indicates a so-called “homorganic” nasal consonant – in other words, it is articulated in the same location in the mouth as the following consonant is articulated. Thus, the anusvar in हिंदी must represent न्, which is a dental nasal consonant, since द, the following letter, represents a dental consonant. Likewise, the anusvar in अंडा must represent the retroflex nasal consonant ण since the following consonant, ड, is a retroflex consonant.

Note that the anusvar is not the same as the bindu (or chandrabindu). The anusvar represents a consonant which is the first letter of a conjunct, whereas the bindu and chandrabindu represent the nasalization of a vowel. The bindu in हैं cannot be considered an anusvar, since there is no conjunct. The anusvar in हिंदी is not considered a bindu since it represents a consonant that is the first member of a conjunct.

Conjuncts with र

As the first member of a conjunct, र appears like a small “hook” or “sickle” above and to the right of the following consonant:

• र् + म = र्म, शर्मा
• र् + ट + ई = र्ट, पार्टी

As the second member of a conjunct, र is indicated by a diagonal line adjoined to the vertical line of the preceding consonant:

• क् + र = क्र, शुक्रिया
• म् + र = म्र, उम्र

Four consonants, ट, ठ, ड, ढ, do not have any vertical line, so they indicate a following र with the symbol like an inverted “v”, as follows:

• ट् + र = ट्र, राष्ट्र

Special Conjuncts

Some conjuncts look quite different than their component consonants, and are not obvious. Most of these occur in words borrowed from Sanskrit:

• क् + ष = क्ष
• त् + त = त्त
• त् + र = त्र
• ज् + ञ = ज्ञ
• द् + द = द्द
• द् + ध = द्ध
• द् + य = द्य
• द् + व = द्व
• श् + र = श्र
• ह् + म = ह्म

The conjunct ज + ञ = ज्ञ is pronounced as ग्य (“gya”) in Hindi. Conjuncts are treated as a single unit, and a maatraa is placed before the entire conjunct.

There are hundreds of conjuncts, but most conjuncts are easily discernable.

Punctuation

Hindi has a punctuation sign, the purn viraam ' । ', which is a vertical line that terminates a sentence. In modern typography, periods are often used in place of the purn viraam, and other punctuation, such as commas and question marks, is also borrowed from English.