Lesson 1

· 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.

· Hindi distinguishes between the retroflex ”t” sound (ट) and the dental “t” sound (त).

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.

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

स	= sa
न	= na
य	= ya
म	= ma
ह	= ha
ल	= la
क	= ka
र	= ra
व	= va
ब	= ba
श	= sha
ट	= ta (retroflex “t”)
त	= ta (dental “t”)
द	= da (unaspirated dental “da”)
ध	= dha
प	= pa
फ	= pha (aspirated “p,” NOT “f”)
फ़	= fa
च	= cha
छ	= chha (aspirated cha)
ज	= 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
मैं (“I”)	pronounced like the French word “main” (“hand”)
दाईं (“right”)	two syllables: the second syllable is a nasalized long "ee" sound.

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

Examples

हूँ (“am”)

like "hoo" with the vowel nasalized

कहाँ (“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 what’s left to the second consonant.

Examples

क्या("what")

half क is attached to the following य

अच्छा(“good”)

half च is attached to the following छ

Another way of indicating a “half” or “schwa-less” consonant is the “halant” sign, as shown here under the letter स्. 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
अ	up	आ	father
इ	it	ई	green
उ	put	ऊ	boot
ऋ	ri
ए	make	ऐ	dad
ओ	over	औ	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.)

क	ख	ग	घ	ङ
k (unasp.)	kha (asp.)	ga (unasp.)	gha (asp.)
क़	ख़	ग़
qa (uvular)	kha (fricative)	gha (fricative)

च	छ	ज	झ	ञ
cha (unasp.)	chha (asp.)	ja (unasp.)	jha (asp.)
		ज़
		za

ट	ठ	ड	ढ	ण
retro. ta (unasp.)	retro. tha (asp.)	retro. da (unasp.)	retro. dha (asp.)	retro. na
		ड़	ढ़
		retro. ra (flap, unasp.)	retro. rha (flap, asp.)

त	थ	द	ध	न
dental ta (unasp.)	dental ta (asp.)	dental da (unasp.)	dental dha (asp.)	na

प	फ	ब	भ	म
pa (unasp.)	pha (asp.)	ba (unasp.)	bha (asp.)	ma
	फ़
	fa

य	र	ल	व
ya	ra	la	va

श	ष	स	ह
sha	sha	sa	ha

Some special consonant combination characters:

क्ष	त्र	ज्ञ	श्र
ksha	tra (dental)	gya	shra

A Door Into Hindi: Devanagari Writing System

A Door Into Hindi

Introduction to the Hindi Writing System (Devanagari)