Introduction

The Devanagari Script

Hindi has a long and interesting history. The immense evolution of North Indian culture can easily be seen in how the language has developed. It has had more than one script (writing system) used for the written language. At the time of India's independence, article 343 of the Indian constitution stated that "the official language of the Union [of India] (since India was considered a union of various unrelated states at that time) should become Hindi in Devanagari script." This variety of Hindi is called Modern Standard Hindi, which you will learn through this course.

The Devanagari script is an abugida, i.e. it consists of individual ‘units’ that represent a single vowel sound along with a few supporting consonant sounds.

• Each unit consists of a base consonant which is written fully.

• The vowel sound followed by the base consonant is expressed as a vowel mark (which can be understood as a diacritic, somewhat like the accents in European languages).

वर्णमाला varṇamālā (Hindi's The Alphabet)

The order in which Hindi letters are memorised and generally presented is called the वर्णमाला (garland of letters). Both vowels and consonants are divided into groups, where each one is characterised by the placement of the tongue in the mouth. The groups are presented in an order where the tongue placement moves from the posterior to the anterior part of the buccal cavity.

First, let's learn all letters in their distinct forms. Hindi has 11 vowels. 9 of them are:

manner of articulation	short	long
guttural	अ a	आ ā
palatal	इ i	ई ī
labial	उ u	ऊ ū
retroflex	ऋ ṛ	-

• अ a - like the u in fun.

• आ ā - like the a in father.

• इ i - like the i in pit.

• ई ī - like the ee in feet.

• उ u - like the oo in book.

• ऊ ū - like the ui in suit.

• ऋ ṛ - this vowel does not have a wide usage in Hindi and was more significant in Sanskrit - Hindi's parent language. Its correct pronunciation has not been retained by Hindi. Nowadays, it is pronounced like the ri in brick. (Sanskrit also had a long version of ऋ - the ॠ ṝ, which is a tale history seldom recites)

• ए ē - This is something like the ea in break, albeit more uninterrupted, and is not followed by the short i sound as in English.

• ऐ ai - Originally, it was supposed to be a diphthong: a short a followed by a short i. However, nowadays, it is mostly pronounced like the a in black with the mouth more closed than in English.

Hindi has 33 basic consonants. Some of the plosives (sounds which are produced when the tongue hits any location in the mouth and restricts all the airflow) are:

manner of articulation	uv. ua.	uv. a.	v. ua.	v. a.	nasal
guttural	क k	ख kh	ग g	घ gh	ङ ṅ (ng)

(uv. - unvoiced, v. - voiced, ua. - unaspirated, a. - aspirated)

• The nasal ङ ṅ is never written in Modern Standard Hindi.

• Hindi has two sets of similar-sounding consonants - the unaspirated and the aspirated consonants. Aspiration refers to the quality of certain sounds which make you feel a puff of air coming out of your mouth while pronouncing them. When you say can, you feel the puff of air while pronouncing the c sound. On the other hand, you don’t feel it while pronouncing the k sound in park. So, the first /k/ sound is represented in Hindi through the aspirated ख (kh), whereas as the second, through the unaspirated क (k).

ई
इ	i	ई	ī
अ	a	आ	ā
		ए	ē
उ	u	ऊ	ū
क	ka	ख	kha
ग	ga	घ	gha
ऐ	ai