A DOOR INTO HINDI

Introduction to the Hindi Writing System (Devanagari)

At any point you may wish to visit the SOAS Devanagari Learning Site for an
excellent introduction to the Hindi writing system.
The Hindi script (writing system) is called Devanagari.
In Devanagari, the letters in each word hang down from a "clothesline ."
Every consonant letter by itself automatically includes a short "a" vowel
sound unless otherwise specified. This short "a" sound is like the "a" in
English "about" or "career." In linguistics, this sound has a special name:
"schwa ." Thus the letter is pronounced like the first syllable of the word
"career" (consonant and vowel together).
A consonant's "schwa" can be changed to any other vowel by using a
" matra " sign. A matra sign is attached to the consonant letter. The matras
are also called thedependant forms of the vowels.Note : since schwa is the
consonant's "default vowel," there is no matra for schwa.
These three movies show how the vowel matras are used:
In addition to the matras, every vowel letter also has anindependent form.
Thus each vowel letter has two forms:
The dependent form (matra) is used to indicate that a vowel (other
than schwa) is attached to a consonant.
The independent form is used when the vowel occurs alone, at the
beginning of a word, or after another vowel. In other words, the
independent form is used whenever there is no consonant for the vowel
to attach to. This movie describes the independent forms of the
vowels:

The chart below gives the independent and dependent forms of each
vowel. the dependent vowel matras are shown attached to the letter
"sa" = .
Vowel
English
Equivalent
Independent
form
Dependent Form
(matra)
Dependent form
with consonant
Pronunciation of
consonant+matra
a as inabout



sa
a as in father

saa
i as in sin

si
i as in seen

see
u as in book

su
u as in food

soo
e as in

se
ai as in sad

sai
o as in soda

so
au as in saw

saw
Hindi has several consonant sounds that are not found in English. For
example, almost every consonant has an aspirated version as well as an
unaspirated version. Aspirated consonants are pronounced like normal
consonants with the addition of a simultaneous puff of breath.
Examples:
Unaspirated

Aspirated


Hindi distinguishes between the retroflex t sound ()and the dental t
sound ().
The retroflex t is pronounced with the tongue touching the roof of the
mouth further back than the English t sound.

The dental t is pronounced with the tongue touching the roof of the
mouth further forward than for the English t sound; the tongue should
touch the back of the teeth.

Each of these also has an aspirated version.

Hindi likewise distinguishes between the retroflex d sound () and the
dental d sound (), and each of these also has an aspirated version.

Here is a chart of all of the consonants you will need for Lesson 1.

= sa

= na

= ya

= ma

= ha

= la

= ka

= ra

= va

= ba

= sha

= ta (retroflex t)

= ta (dental t)

= da (unaspirated dental da)

= dha

= pa

= pha (aspirated p, NOT f)

= fa

= cha

= chha (aspirated cha)

= ja (as in English j, NOT as in French
j)


Hindi vowels can be nasalized, that is a nasal quality is added to the vowel
sound. The sign for nasalization is a small dot placed above the
clothesline.
Examples
(I)
pronounced like the French word main (hand)
(right)
two syllables: the second syllable is a nasalized long
"ee" sound.

In some words containing long vowels (e.g. and ) the nasalization
dot is accompanied by a small moon. This sign is called chandra bindi.
Examples

(am)

like "hoo" with the vowel nasalized
(where)
two syllables: the second syllable is a nasalized long
"aa" sound.
Remember, every consonant letter automatically is follwed by a "schwa"
sound. What if we want to write a consonant cluster, i.e. two consonants
lumped together without any intervening vowel? In such cases we can
literally chop off the trailing part of the first consonant letter and attach
whats left to the second consonant.
Examples
("what")

half is attached to the following
(good) half is attached to the following
Another way of indicating a half or schwa-less consonant is the halant
sign, as shown here under the letter . The halant sign is used mostly in words
borrowed from Sanskrit.

The following is a chart of the entire Devanagari alphabet. Don't try to
memorize it all at once. Memorize the letters only as you need them. Also note
the alphabetical order in Hindi. The vowels are listed first, followed by the
consonants. See if you can figure out how the consonant order is determined.

VOWELS
Vowel as in Vowel as in

up

father

it

green

put

boot

ri

make

dad

over

awful

CONSONANTS
(Note: Letters with dots below them were not part of the original Devanagari
alphabet. They mostly represent "imported" sounds. They are shown below
their "undotted" counterparts.)

k (unasp.) kha (asp.) ga (unasp.) gha (asp.)



qa (uvular) kha (fricative) gha (fricative)


cha (unasp.) chha (asp.) ja (unasp.) jha (asp.)




za


retro. ta
(unasp.)
retro. tha
(asp.)
retro. da
(unasp.)
retro. dha
(asp.)
retro. na




retro. ra
(flap, unasp.)
retro. rha
(flap, asp.)



dental ta
(unasp.)
dental ta
(asp.)
dental da
(unasp.)
dental dha
(asp.)
na


pa (unasp.) pha (asp.) ba (unasp.) bha (asp.) ma



fa


ya ra la va


sha sha sa ha

Some special consonant combination characters:


ksha tra (dental) gya shra