'''Devan?gar?''' (????????), sometimes called Nagari for short, is a writing system of about 52 primary letters which combine to form syllables. Devanagari was designed for the Prakrit language c. 13th century CE, an intermediate language between Sanskrit and Hindi, and later elaborated for Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, and other languages.

Structure

Devanagari writing is often likened to a washing line: a line is drawn above the words, and the letters are hung out to dry below the line. A break in the line indicates a break between words.

Devanagari is classified as an ''abugida'', which means that each character represents a '''syllable''', not a single letter as in English. If the character is a consonant, the implicit vowel following it is assumed to be ''a'', unless modified by special vowel signs added above, below, after or even before the character.

Vowels

Each vowel has two forms: an "isolated" form when beginning a word or following another vowel; and another used within a word by use of diacritics called ?????? ''m?tra''. As an example, the forms used with consonants are placed with the letter ??. Note that if there is no vowel sign, the vowel is assumed to be ''a''.

{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Devanagari !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Transliteration !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Equivalent !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Within Word

Consonants

{| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Devanagari !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Transliteration !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Equivalent/Comments

Modifiers

? is used here for demonstrative purposes: {| border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Devanagari !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Transliteration !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Name !bgcolor=#EEEEEE|Equivalent/Comments

Ligatures

One of the things which appears daunting to most beginners are the over 100 conjunct characters. These happen when two or more consonants are joined together (with no vowel between). Upon seeing all these, the new learner might gasp, thinking that they will have to memorize each one as if they were Chinese ideograms. The good news is that most of these are quite simple and merely involve dropping the inherent 'a' stem. e.g.:

  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • <br>

    However there are a few special constructions. For many of these, you may also use the previous method though. e.g.

  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ??? (is fairly rare and occurs only in Sanskrit loan words)
  • <br>

    Most often odd forms arise, in consonants without a stem. e.g.

  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • <br>

    Do not worry to much about conjuncts though, you may always suppress the inherent 'a' with a halant. <br> <br> Another thing which causes problems for new learners is the use of ?, which is treated as a vowel as in Hindi it is a "semi-vowel." There are three forms for conjuncting ?, and one for ?:

    1. After a consonant with a stem add a slash from the lower half of the stem (top-down, right-left). e.g.:

  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • note: ?+ ? = ??? and ?? + ? = ???.

    2. After a vowel and before a consonant ? is written as a small hook (a good mnemonic trick is to picture a stylized lower case ''r''). This conjunct cannot occur alone, nor begin a word. Therefore, an example shall be given within the context of words:

  • ???? ''hot''
  • ?????? ''only''
  • ???? ''karma'' (In Sanskrit, the last inherent vowel is not written long as it is in Hindi)
  • If followed by ''?'', ''?'', ''e'', ''o'', or ''ai'' the "hook" is moved one letter to the right, e.g. the name ''Marco'' would be written: ??????.

    3. In most letters without stems, the ? is joined to the consonant by placing a circumflex-like diacritic below the letter, e.g.:

  • ?? + ? = ???
  • ?? + ? + ???
  • ?? + ? = ???
  • 4. ? when preceded by a consonant is written as a small hook resembling the Polish ogonek attached to the stem. Only occurs in Sanskrit loan words, most notably the word ''Sanskrit" itself: ???????.

    Finally, ? has two special forms when followed by '''u''', and '''?''' respectively:

  • ?? ''ru''
  • ?? ''r?''
  • Punctuation

    Punctuation is the same as in English, except for the period, or ''full stop'' called the ????? ''vir?m'': "?". When a question is used with a question marker like ???? ''kya'', meaning ''what''; no question mark is needed. In speech when no question marker is used, there is a rise in intonation towards the end of the sentence. Example, ''is he a good boy?'':

    ???? ?? ????? ????? ??? — kya voh accha la?ka hai? <br> ???? ?? ????? ????? ??? — kya voh accha la?ka hai? <br> ?? ????? ????? ??? — voh accha la?ka hai?

    Exceptions

    Devanagari is quite regular, but there are a few pronunciation quirks to watch out for when using it to read Hindi.

    "-a" though usually pronounced short, is always written long at the end of a masculine word (the exception are Sanskrit loan words) as a visible mas. marker ''-?''. The feminine "-?" marker is pronounced as written.

    When ? follows an inherent vowel as in ??? ??? (t?j mahal), the 'a' preceding the 'h' becomes an 'e', as in ?? (yeh = this), thus pronounced t?j mehal. Thus the transliteration in such cases is deliberate and not a typo! Another noteworthy aberration is ?? (voh = that). Fortunately these are a few of the only words that aren't phonetically pronounced in Hindi. There is also a diphthong -?? which is pronounced as the 'i' in 'high', e.g. ??? (c?y) = ''tea'''. And a double consonant isn't just there to look pretty, hold that consonant's sound a little longer. Finally, the final -? is purposefully written without the macron, as this is misleading as to the pronunciation, which is more like a schwa sound. If this were Sanskrit, it would be practical, but not here. Just remember the inherent 'a' is always written at the end of a mas. word in Hindi. <br> <br> The semi-vowel "?" is normally transliterated in Roman as an "r" with a diacritical ring below. This semi-vowel is pronounced like "ri", but slightly trilled as in ''rip''. Unfortunately, the proper Roman diacritic doesn't appear to be supported yet by unicode. It can be found in ???? ????? (?r? k???a) - "Lord Krishna"). For now the diacritical bindi (dot) will have to suffice for both of the flapped ''r's''. Ambiguity shouldn't cause too much problems, as the trilled ''r'' in ????? (k???a) or ??? (?i?i) occurs only in Sanskrit loan words, and is very rare in Hindi. In addition; if you are familiar with Devanagari, that should resolve any remaining confusion.