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Devanāgarī
Rigveda manuscript in Devanāgarī (early 19th century)
Type	abugida
Spoken languages	Several Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Kurukh, Nepal Bhasa and sometimes Sindhi and Kashmiri. Formerly used to write Gujarati.
Time period	c. 1200–present
Parent systems	Proto-Canaanite alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brāhmī Gupta Nāgarī Devanāgarī
Child systems	Gujarati Moḍī Ranjana Canadian Aboriginal syllabics
Sister systems	Sharada, Eastern Nāgarī
Unicode range	U+0900–U+097F
ISO 15924	Deva
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

This article contains Indic text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks or boxes, misplaced vowels or missing conjuncts instead of Indic text.

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Devanagari (pronounced [ˌdeːvəˈnɑːɡəriː]; देवनागरी, Devanāgarī), also called Nagari (Nāgarī, the name of its parent writing system), is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together. Devanāgarī is the main script used to write Hindi, Marathi, and Nepali. Since the 19th century, it has been the most commonly used script for Sanskrit. Devanāgarī is also employed for Gujari, Bhili, Bhojpuri, Konkani, Magahi, Maithili, Marwari, Newari, Pahari (Garhwali and Kumaoni), Santhali, Tharu, and sometimes Sindhi, Punjabi, and Kashmiri. It was formerly used to write Gujarati.

Contents 1 Origins 2 Principles 3 Letters 3.1 Vowels 3.2 Consonants 3.3 Conjuncts 3.3.1 Biconsonantal conjuncts 3.4 Accent marks 3.5 Punctuation 3.6 Numerals 4 Transliteration 4.1 ISO 15919 4.2 IAST 4.3 Harvard-Kyoto 4.4 ITRANS 4.5 ALA-LC Romanization 5 Encodings 5.1 ISCII 5.2 Devanāgarī in Unicode 6 Devanāgarī Keyboard Layouts 6.1 INSCRIPT layout 6.2 Typewriter 6.3 Phonetic 6.4 Alphabetic (देवनागरी) 7 See also 8 Software 9 References 10 Bibliography 11 External links 11.1 Devanagari / Hindi Keyboard 11.2 Electronic typesetting 11.2.1 Fonts 11.2.2 Documentation 11.2.3 Tools and applications

Origins

Devanāgarī is part of the Brahmic family of scripts of Nepal, India, Tibet, and South-East Asia. It is a descendant of the Gupta script, along with Siddham and Sharada. Eastern variants of Gupta called Nāgarī are first attested from the 8th century; from c. 1200 these gradually replaced Siddham, which survived as a vehicle for Tantric Buddhism in East Asia, and Sharada, which remained in parallel use in Kashmir.

Sanskrit nāgarī is the feminine of nāgara "urban(e)", a vrddhi adjectival form of nagaram, called establishment. It is feminine from its original phrasing with lipi ("script") as nāgarī lipi "urban(e) script", that is, the script of the cultured establishment. There are several varieties of Nāgarī in use, one of which was distinguished by affixing Deva "god" or "deity" to form a tatpurusha compound meaning the "urban(e) [script] of the gods", or "divine urban(e) [script]".

The use of the name Devanāgarī is relatively recent, and the older term Nāgarī is still common. The rapid spread of the term Devanāgarī may be related to the almost exclusive use of this script to publish sacred Sanskrit texts in colonial times. This has led to such a close connection between Devanāgarī and Sanskrit that Devanāgarī is now widely thought to be the Sanskrit script; however, before the colonial period there was no standard script for Sanskrit, which was written in whichever script was familiar to the local populace.

Principles

As a Brahmic abugida, the fundamental principle of Devanāgarī is that each letter represents a consonant, which carries an inherent vowel a [ə].^[1] For example, the letter क is read ka, the two letters कन are kana, the three कनय are kanaya, etc. Other vowels, or the absence of vowels, require modification of these consonants or their own letters:

• Consonant clusters are written with ligatures (saṃyuktākṣara "conjuncts"). For example, the three letters कनय kanaya may be joined to form क्नय knaya, कन्य kanya, or क्न्य knya.
• Vowels other than the inherent a are written with diacritics (termed matras). For example, using क ka, the following forms can be derived: के ke, कु ku, की kī, का kā, etc.
• For vowels as an independent syllable (in writing, unattached to a consonant), either at the beginning of a word or after another vowel, there are full-letter forms. For example, while the vowel ū is written with the diacritic ू in कू kū, it has its own letter ऊ in ऊक ūka and कऊ kaū.
• A final consonant is marked with the diacritic ्, called the virāma in Sanskrit, halanta in Hindi, and a "killer stroke"^{[citation needed]} in English. This cancels the inherent vowel, so that from क्नय knaya is derived क्नय् knay. The halanta will often be used for consonant clusters when typesetting ligatures is not feasible.^{[citation needed]}

Such a letter or ligature, with its diacritics, is called an akṣara "syllable". For example, कनय kanaya is written with what are counted as three akshara, whereas क्न्य knya and कु ku are each written with one.

As far as handwriting is concerned, letters are usually written without the distinctive horizontal bar, which is only added once the word is finished being written.^{[2][citation needed]}

Letters

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

The letter order of Devanāgarī, like nearly all Brahmi scripts, is based on phonetic principles which consider both the manner and place of articulation of the consonants and vowels they represent. This arrangement is usually referred to as the varṇamālā "garland of letters".^[3] The format of Devanāgarī for Sanskrit serves as the prototype for its application, with minor variations or additions, to other languages.^[4]

Vowels

The vowels and their arrangement are:^[5]

	Independent form	Romanized	As diacritic with प		Independent form	Romanized	As diacritic with प
kaṇṭhya (Guttural)	अ	a	प		आ	ā	पा
tālavya (Palatal)	इ	i	पि		ई	ī	पी
oṣṭhya (Labial)	उ	u	पु		ऊ	ū	पू
mūrḍhanya (Retroflex)	ऋ	ṛ	पृ		ॠ	ṝ	पॄ
dantya (Dental)	ऌ	ḷ	पॢ		ॡ	ḹ	पॣ
kaṇṭhatālavya (Palato-Guttural)	ए	e	पे		ऐ	ai	पै
kaṇṭhoṣṭhya (Labio-Guttural)	ओ	o	पो		औ	au	पौ

• Arranged with the vowels are two consonantal diacritics, the final nasal anusvāra ं ṃ and the final fricative visarga ः ḥ (called अं aṃ and अः aḥ). Masica (1991:146) notes of the anusvāra in Sankrit that "there is some controversy as to whether it represents a homorganic nasal consonant [...], a nasalized vowel, a nasalized semivowel, or all these according to context". The visarga represents post-vocalic voiceless glottal fricative [h], in Sanskrit an allophone of s, or less commonly r, usually in word-final position. Some traditions of recitation append an echo of the vowel after the breath:^[6] इः [ihi]. Masica (1991:146) considers the visarga along with letters ङ ṅa and ञ ña for the "largely predictable" velar and palatal nasals to be examples of "phonetic overkill in the system".
• Another diacritic is the candrabindu/anunāsika ँ. Salomon (2003:76-77) describes it as a "more emphatic form" of the anusvāra, "sometimes [...] used to mark a true [vowel] nasalization". In a New Indo-Aryan language such as Hindi the distinction is formal: the candrabindu indicates vowel nasalization^[7] while the anusvār indicates a homorganic nasal preceding another consonant:^[8] e.g. हँसी [ɦə̃si] "laughter", गंगा [ɡəŋɡɑ] "Ganges". When an akshara has a vowel diacritic above the top line, that leaves no room for the candra ("moon") stroke candrabindu, which is dispensed with in favour of the lone dot:^[9] हूँ [ɦũ] "am", but हैं [ɦɛ̃] "are". Some writers and typesetters dispense with the "moon" stroke altogether, using only the dot in all situations.^[10]
• The avagraha ऽ (usually transliterated with an apostrophe) is a Sanskrit punctuation mark for the elision of a vowel in sandhi: एकोऽयम् ekoyam (< ekas + ayam) "this one". An original long vowel lost to coalescence is sometimes marked with a double avagraha: सदाऽऽत्मा sadātmā (< sadā + ātmā) "always, the self".^[11] In Hindi, Snell (2000:77) states that its "main function is to show that a vowel is sustained in a cry or a shout": आईऽऽऽ! āīīī!. In Magahi, which has "quite a number of verbal forms [that] end in that inherent vowel" Verma (2003:501), the avagraha is used to mark the non-elision of word-final inherent a, which otherwise is a modern orthographic convention: बइठऽ baiṭha "sit" versus *बइठ baiṭh
• The syllabic consonants ṝ, ḷ, and ḹ are specific to Sanskrit and not included in the varṇamālā of other languages. The sound represented by ṛ has been lost as well, and its pronunciation now ranges from [ɾɪ] (Hindi) to [ɾu] (Marathi).
• ḹ is not an actual phoneme of Sanskrit, but rather a graphic convention included among the vowels in order to maintain the symmetry of short–long pairs of letters.^[4]
• There are non-regular formations of रु ru and रू rū.

Consonants

The consonants and their arrangement are:^[12]

	sparśa (Stop)								anunāsika (Nasal)		antastha (Approximant)		ūṣma/saṃghashrī (Fricative)
Voicing →	aghoṣa				ghoṣa								aghoṣa		ghoṣa
Aspiration →	alpaprāṇa		mahāprāṇa		alpaprāṇa		mahāprāṇa		alpaprāṇa				mahāprāṇa
kaṇṭhya (Guttural)	क	ka /k/	ख	kha /kʰ/	ग	ga /ɡ/	घ	gha /ɡʱ/	ङ	ṅa /ŋ/					ह	ha /ɦ/
tālavya (Palatal)	च	ca /c,t͡ʃ/	छ	cha /cʰ,t͡ʃʰ/	ज	ja /ɟ,d͡ʒ/	झ	jha /ɟʱ,d͡ʒʱ/	ञ	ña /ɲ/	य	ya /j/	श	śa /ɕ,ʃ/
mūrdhanya (Retroflex)	ट	ṭa /ʈ/	ठ	ṭha /ʈʰ/	ड	ḍa /ɖ/	ढ	ḍha /ɖʱ/	ण	ṇa /ɳ/	र	ra /r/	ष	ṣa /ʂ/
dantya (Dental)	त	ta /t̪/	थ	tha /t̪ʰ/	द	da /d̪/	ध	dha /d̪ʱ/	न	na /n/	ल	la /l/	स	sa /s/
oṣṭhya (Labial)	प	pa /p/	फ	pha /pʰ/	ब	ba /b/	भ	bha /bʱ/	म	ma /m/	व	va /ʋ/

• Rounding this out where applicable is ळ ḷa /ɺ̡/, which represented the intervocalic lateral flap allophone of the voiced retroflex stop in Vedic Sanskrit, and which is a phoneme in languages such as Marathi and Rajasthani.
• Beyond the Sanskritic set new shapes have rarely been formulated. Masica (1991:146) offers the following, "In any case, according to some, all possible sounds had already been described and provided for in this system, as Sanskrit was the original and perfect language. Hence it was difficult to provide for or even to conceive other sounds, unknown to the phoneticians of Sanskrit." Where foreign borrowings and internal developments did inevitably accrue and arise in New Indo-Aryan languages, they have been either ignored in writing, or dealt through means such as diacritics and ligatures (ignored in recitation).
  • The most prolific diacritic has been the subscript nuqtā ़. Hindi uses it for the Persian sounds क़ qa /q/, ख़ xa /x/, ग़ ġa /ɣ/, ज़ za /z/, and फ़ fa /f/, and for the allophonic developments ड़ ṛa /ɽ/ and ढ़ ṛha /ɽʱ/. (Although ऴ ḷha /ɺ̡ʱ/ could also exist but there is no use of it in Hindi.)
  • Sindhi's implosives are accommodated with underlining ॒ : ग॒ [ɠə], ज॒ [ʄə], ड॒ [ɗə], ब॒ [ɓə].
  • Aspirated sonorants may be represented as conjuncts/ligatures with ह ha: म्ह mha, न्ह nha, ण्ह ṇha, व्ह vha, ल्ह lha, ळ्ह ḷha, र्ह rha.
  • Masica (1991:147) notes Marwari as using a special symbol for ḍa [ɗə] (while ड = [ɽə]).

Conjuncts

You will only be able to see the ligatures if your system has a Unicode font installed that includes the required ligature glyphs (e.g. one of the TDIL fonts, see "external links" below).

As mentioned, successive consonants lacking a vowel in between them may physically join together as a conjunct or ligature. The government of these clusters ranges from widely to narrowly applicable rules, with special exceptions within. While standardized for the most part, there are certain variations in clustering, of which the Unicode used on this page is just one scheme. The following are a number of rules:

• 24 out of the 36 consonants contain a vertical right stroke (ख, घ, ण etc.). As first or middle fragments/members of a cluster, they lose that stroke. e.g. त + व = त्व, ण + ढ = ण्ढ, स + थ = स्थ. श ś(a) appears as a different, simple ribbon-shaped fragment preceding व va, न na, च ca, ल la, and र ra, causing these second members to be shifted down and reduced in size. Thus श्व śva, श्न śna, श्च śca श्ल śla, and श्र śra.

• र r(a) as a first member takes the form of a curved upward dash above the final character or its ā-diacritic. e.g. र्व rva, र्वा rvā, र्स्प rspa, र्स्पा rspā. As a final member with ट ठ ड ढ ङ छ it is two lines below the character, pointed downwards and apart. Thus ट्र ठ्र ड्र ढ्र ङ्र छ्र. Elsewhere as a final member it is a diagonal stroke extending leftwards and down. e.g. क्र ग्र भ्र. त ta is shifted up to make त्र tra.

• As first members, remaining characters lacking vertical strokes such as द d(a) and ह h(a) may have their second member, reduced in size and lacking its horizontal stroke, placed underneath. क k(a), छ ch(a), and फ ph(a) shorten their right hooks and join them directly to the following member.

• The conjuncts for kṣ and gñ are not clearly derived from the letters making up their components. The conjunct for kṣ is क्ष (क् + ष)and for jñ it is ज्ञ (ज् + ञ).

The table below shows all the 1296 viable symbols for the biconsonantal clusters formed by collating the 36 fundamental symbols of Sanskrit as listed in Masica (1991:161-162). Scroll your cursor over the conjuncts to reveal their romanizations (in IAST) and IPA pronunciations.

Biconsonantal conjuncts

	क	ख	ग	घ	ङ	च	छ	ज	झ	ञ	ट	ठ	ड	ढ	ण	त	थ	द	ध	न	प	फ	ब	भ	म	य	र	ल	व	श	ष	स	ह	ळ	क्ष	ज्ञ
क	क्क	क्ख	क्ग	क्घ	क्ङ	क्च	क्छ	क्ज	क्झ	क्ञ	क्ट	क्ठ	क्ड	क्ढ	क्ण	क्त	क्थ	क्द	क्ध	क्न	क्प	क्फ	क्ब	क्भ	क्म	क्य	क्र	क्ल	क्व	क्श	क्ष	क्स	क्ह	क्ळ	क्क्ष	क्ज्ञ
ख	ख्क	ख्ख	ख्ग	ख्घ	ख्ङ	ख्च	ख्छ	ख्ज	ख्झ	ख्ञ	ख्ट	ख्ठ	ख्ड	ख्ढ	ख्ण	ख्त	ख्थ	ख्द	ख्ध	ख्न	ख्प	ख्फ	ख्ब	ख्भ	ख्म	ख्य	ख्र	ख्ल	ख्व	ख्श	ख्ष	ख्स	ख्ह	ख्ळ	ख्क्ष	ख्ज्ञ
ग	ग्क	ग्ख	ग्ग	ग्घ	ग्ङ	ग्च	ग्छ	ग्ज	ग्झ	ग्ञ	ग्ट	ग्ठ	ग्ड	ग्ढ	ग्ण	ग्त	ग्थ	ग्द	ग्ध	ग्न	ग्प	ग्फ	ग्ब	ग्भ	ग्म	ग्य	ग्र	ग्ल	ग्व	ग्श	ग्ष	ग्स	ग्ह	ग्ळ	ग्क्ष	ग्ज्ञ
घ	घ्क	घ्ख	घ्ग	घ्घ	घ्ङ	घ्च	घ्छ	घ्ज	घ्झ	घ्ञ	घ्ट	घ्ठ	घ्ड	घ्ढ	घ्ण	घ्त	घ्थ	घ्द	घ्ध	घ्न	घ्प	घ्फ	घ्ब	घ्भ	घ्म	घ्य	घ्र	घ्ल	घ्व	घ्श	घ्ष	घ्स	घ्ह	घ्ळ	घ्क्ष	घ्ज्ञ
ङ	ङ्क	ङ्ख	ङ्ग	ङ्घ	ङ्ङ	ङ्च	ङ्छ	ङ्ज	ङ्झ	ङ्ञ	ङ्ट	ङ्ठ	ङ्ड	ङ्ढ	ङ्ण	ङ्त	ङ्थ	ङ्द	ङ्ध	ङ्न	ङ्प	ङ्फ	ङ्ब	ङ्भ	ङ्म	ङ्य	ङ्र	ङ्ल	ङ्व	ङ्श	ङ्ष	ङ्स	ङ्ह	ङ्ळ	ङ्क्ष	ङ्ज्ञ
च	च्क	च्ख	च्ग	च्घ	च्ङ	च्च	च्छ	च्ज	च्झ	च्ञ	च्ट	च्ठ	च्ड	च्ढ	च्ण	च्त	च्थ	च्द	च्ध	च्न	च्प	च्फ	च्ब	च्भ	च्म	च्य	च्र	च्ल	च्व	च्श	च्ष	च्स	च्ह	च्ळ	च्क्ष	च्ज्ञ
छ	छ्क	छ्ख	छ्ग	छ्घ	छ्ङ	छ्च	छ्छ	छ्ज	छ्झ	छ्ञ	छ्ट	छ्ठ	छ्ड	छ्ढ	छ्ण	छ्त	छ्थ	छ्द	छ्ध	छ्न	छ्प	छ्फ	छ्ब	छ्भ	छ्म	छ्य	छ्र	छ्ल	छ्व	छ्श	छ्ष	छ्स	छ्ह	छ्ळ	छ्क्ष	छ्ज्ञ
ज	ज्क	ज्ख	ज्ग	ज्घ	ज्ङ	ज्च	ज्छ	ज्ज	ज्झ	ज्ञ	ज्ट	ज्ठ	ज्ड	ज्ढ	ज्ण	ज्त	ज्थ	ज्द	ज्ध	ज्न	ज्प	ज्फ	ज्ब	ज्भ	ज्म	ज्य	ज्र	ज्ल	ज्व	ज्श	ज्ष	ज्स	ज्ह	ज्ळ	ज्क्ष	ज्ज्ञ
झ	झ्क	झ्ख	झ्ग	झ्घ	झ्ङ	झ्च	झ्छ	झ्ज	झ्झ	झ्ञ	झ्ट	झ्ठ	झ्ड	झ्ढ	झ्ण	झ्त	झ्थ	झ्द	झ्ध	झ्न	झ्प	झ्फ	झ्ब	झ्भ	झ्म	झ्य	झ्र	झ्ल	झ्व	झ्श	झ्ष	झ्स	झ्ह	झ्ळ	झ्क्ष	झ्ज्ञ
ञ	ञ्क	ञ्ख	ञ्ग	ञ्घ	ञ्ङ	ञ्च	ञ्छ	ञ्ज	ञ्झ	ञ्ञ	ञ्ट	ञ्ठ	ञ्ड	ञ्ढ	ञ्ण	ञ्त	ञ्थ	ञ्द	ञ्ध	ञ्न	ञ्प	ञ्फ	ञ्ब	ञ्भ	ञ्म	ञ्य	ञ्र	ञ्ल	ञ्व	ञ्श	ञ्ष	ञ्स	ञ्ह	ञ्ळ	ञ्क्ष	ञ्ज्ञ
ट	ट्क	ट्ख	ट्ग	ट्घ	ट्ङ	ट्च	ट्छ	ट्ज	ट्झ	ट्ञ	ट्ट	ट्ठ	ट्ड	ट्ढ	ट्ण	ट्त	ट्थ	ट्द	ट्ध	ट्न	ट्प	ट्फ	ट्ब	ट्भ	ट्म	ट्य	ट्र	ट्ल	ट्व	ट्श	ट्ष	ट्स	ट्ह	ट्ळ	ट्क्ष	ट्ज्ञ
ठ	ठ्क	ठ्ख	ठ्ग	ठ्घ	ठ्ङ	ठ्च	ठ्छ	ठ्ज	ठ्झ	ठ्ञ	ठ्ट	ठ्ठ	ठ्ड	ठ्ढ	ठ्ण	ठ्त	ठ्थ	ठ्द	ठ्ध	ठ्न	ठ्प	ठ्फ	ठ्ब	ठ्भ	ठ्म	ठ्य	ठ्र	ठ्ल	ठ्व	ठ्श	ठ्ष	ठ्स	ठ्ह	ठ्ळ	ठ्क्ष	ठ्ज्ञ
ड	ड्क	ड्ख	ड्ग	ड्घ	ड्ङ	ड्च	ड्छ	ड्ज	ड्झ	ड्ञ	ड्ट	ड्ठ	ड्ड	ड्ढ	ड्ण	ड्त	ड्थ	ड्द	ड्ध	ड्न	ड्प	ड्फ	ड्ब	ड्भ	ड्म	ड्य	ड्र	ड्ल	ड्व	ड्श	ड्ष	ड्स	ड्ह	ड्ळ	ड्क्ष	ड्ज्ञ
ढ	ढ्क	ढ्ख	ढ्ग	ढ्घ	ढ्ङ	ढ्च	ढ्छ	ढ्ज	ढ्झ	ढ्ञ	ढ्ट	ढ्ठ	ढ्ड	ढ्ढ	ढ्ण	ढ्त	ढ्थ	ढ्द	ढ्ध	ढ्न	ढ्प	ढ्फ	ढ्ब	ढ्भ	ढ्म	ढ्य	ढ्र	ढ्ल	ढ्व	ढ्श	ढ्ष	ढ्स	ढ्ह	ढ्ळ	ढ्क्ष	ढ्ज्ञ
ण	ण्क	ण्ख	ण्ग	ण्घ	ण्ङ	ण्च	ण्छ	ण्ज	ण्झ	ण्ञ	ण्ट	ण्ठ	ण्ड	ण्ढ	ण्ण	ण्त	ण्थ	ण्द	ण्ध	ण्न	ण्प	ण्फ	ण्ब	ण्भ	ण्म	ण्य	ण्र	ण्ल	ण्व	ण्श	ण्ष	ण्स	ण्ह	ण्ळ	ण्क्ष	ण्ज्ञ
त	त्क	त्ख	त्ग	त्घ	त्ङ	त्च	त्छ	त्ज	त्झ	त्ञ	त्ट	त्ठ	त्ड	त्ढ	त्ण	त्त	त्थ	त्द	त्ध	त्न	त्प	त्फ	त्ब	त्भ	त्म	त्य	त्र	त्ल	त्व	त्श	त्ष	त्स	त्ह	त्ळ	त्क्ष	त्ज्ञ
थ	थ्क	थ्ख	थ्ग	थ्घ	थ्ङ	थ्च	थ्छ	थ्ज	थ्झ	थ्ञ	थ्ट	थ्ठ	थ्ड	थ्ढ	थ्ण	थ्त	थ्थ	थ्द	थ्ध	थ्न	थ्प	थ्फ	थ्ब	थ्भ	थ्म	थ्य	थ्र	थ्ल	थ्व	थ्श	थ्ष	थ्स	थ्ह	थ्ळ	थ्क्ष	थ्ज्ञ
द	द्क	द्ख	द्ग	द्घ	द्ङ	द्च	द्छ	द्ज	द्झ	द्ञ	द्ट	द्ठ	द्ड	द्ढ	द्ण	द्त	द्थ	द्द	द्ध	द्न	द्प	द्फ	द्ब	द्भ	द्म	द्य	द्र	द्ल	द्व	द्श	द्ष	द्स	द्ह	द्ळ	द्क्ष	द्ज्ञ
ध	ध्क	ध्ख	ध्ग	ध्घ	ध्ङ	ध्च	ध्छ	ध्ज	ध्झ	ध्ञ	ध्ट	ध्ठ	ध्ड	ध्ढ	ध्ण	ध्त	ध्थ	ध्द	ध्ध	ध्न	ध्प	ध्फ	ध्ब	ध्भ	ध्म	ध्य	ध्र	ध्ल	ध्व	ध्श	ध्ष	ध्स	ध्ह	ध्ळ	ध्क्ष	ध्ज्ञ
न	न्क	न्ख	न्ग	न्घ	न्ङ	न्च	न्छ	न्ज	न्झ	न्ञ	न्ट	न्ठ	न्ड	न्ढ	न्ण	न्त	न्थ	न्द	न्ध	न्न	न्प	न्फ	न्ब	न्भ	न्म	न्य	न्र	न्ल	न्व	न्श	न्ष	न्स	न्ह	न्ळ	न्क्ष	न्ज्ञ
प	प्क	प्ख	प्ग	प्घ	प्ङ	प्च	प्छ	प्ज	प्झ	प्ञ	प्ट	प्ठ	प्ड	प्ढ	प्ण	प्त	प्थ	प्द	प्ध	प्न	प्प	प्फ	प्ब	प्भ	प्म	प्य	प्र	प्ल	प्व	प्श	प्ष	प्स	प्ह	प्ळ	प्क्ष	प्ज्ञ
फ	फ्क	फ्ख	फ्ग	फ्घ	फ्ङ	फ्च	फ्छ	फ्ज	फ्झ	फ्ञ	फ्ट	फ्ठ	फ्ड	फ्ढ	फ्ण	फ्त	फ्थ	फ्द	फ्ध	फ्न	फ्प	फ्फ	फ्ब	फ्भ	फ्म	फ्य	फ्र	फ्ल	फ्व	फ्श	फ्ष	फ्स	फ्ह	फ्ळ	फ्क्ष	फ्ज्ञ
ब	ब्क	ब्ख	ब्ग	ब्घ	ब्ङ	ब्च	ब्छ	ब्ज	ब्झ	ब्ञ	ब्ट	ब्ठ	ब्ड	ब्ढ	ब्ण	ब्त	ब्थ	ब्द	ब्ध	ब्न	ब्प	ब्फ	ब्ब	ब्भ	ब्म	ब्य	ब्र	ब्ल	ब्व	ब्श	ब्ष	ब्स	ब्ह	ब्ळ	ब्क्ष	ब्ज्ञ
भ	भ्क	भ्ख	भ्ग	भ्घ	भ्ङ	भ्च	भ्छ	भ्ज	भ्झ	भ्ञ	भ्ट	भ्ठ	भ्ड	भ्ढ	भ्ण	भ्त	भ्थ	भ्द	भ्ध	भ्न	भ्प	भ्फ	भ्ब	भ्भ	भ्म	भ्य	भ्र	भ्ल	भ्व	भ्श	भ्ष	भ्स	भ्ह	भ्ळ	भ्क्ष	भ्ज्ञ
म	म्क	म्ख	म्ग	म्घ	म्ङ	म्च	म्छ	म्ज	म्झ	म्ञ	म्ट	म्ठ	म्ड	म्ढ	म्ण	म्त	म्थ	म्द	म्ध	म्न	म्प	म्फ	म्ब	म्भ	म्म	म्य	म्र	म्ल	म्व	म्श	म्ष	म्स	म्ह	म्ळ	म्क्ष	म्ज्ञ
य	य्क	य्ख	य्ग	य्घ	य्ङ	य्च	य्छ	य्ज	य्झ	य्ञ	य्ट	य्ठ	य्ड	य्ढ	य्ण	य्त	य्थ	य्द	य्ध	य्न	य्प	य्फ	य्ब	य्भ	य्म	य्य	य्र	य्ल	य्व	य्श	य्ष	य्स	य्ह	य्ळ	य्क्ष	य्ज्ञ
र	र्क	र्ख	र्ग	र्घ	र्ङ	र्च	र्छ	र्ज	र्झ	र्ञ	र्ट	र्ठ	र्ड	र्ढ	र्ण	र्त	र्थ	र्द	र्ध	र्न	र्प	र्फ	र्ब	र्भ	र्म	र्य	र्र	र्ल	र्व	र्श	र्ष	र्स	र्ह	र्ळ	र्क्ष	र्ज्ञ
ल	ल्क	ल्ख	ल्ग	ल्घ	ल्ङ	ल्च	ल्छ	ल्ज	ल्झ	ल्ञ	ल्ट	ल्ठ	ल्ड	ल्ढ	ल्ण	ल्त	ल्थ	ल्द	ल्ध	ल्न	ल्प	ल्फ	ल्ब	ल्भ	ल्म	ल्य	ल्र	ल्ल	ल्व	ल्श	ल्ष	ल्स	ल्ह	ल्ळ	ल्क्ष	ल्ज्ञ
व	व्क	व्ख	व्ग	व्घ	व्ङ	व्च	व्छ	व्ज	व्झ	व्ञ	व्ट	व्ठ	व्ड	व्ढ	व्ण	व्त	व्थ	व्द	व्ध	व्न	व्प	व्फ	व्ब	व्भ	व्म	व्य	व्र	व्ल	व्व	व्श	व्ष	व्स	व्ह	व्ळ	व्क्ष	व्ज्ञ
श	श्क	श्ख	श्ग	श्घ	श्ङ	श्च	श्छ	श्ज	श्झ	श्ञ	श्ट	श्ठ	श्ड	श्ढ	श्ण	श्त	श्थ	श्द	श्ध	श्न	श्प	श्फ	श्ब	श्भ	श्म	श्य	श्र	श्ल	श्व	श्श	श्ष	श्स	श्ह	श्ळ	श्क्ष	श्ज्ञ
ष	ष्क	ष्ख	ष्ग	ष्घ	ष्ङ	ष्च	ष्छ	ष्ज	ष्झ	ष्ञ	ष्ट	ष्ठ	ष्ड	ष्ढ	ष्ण	ष्त	ष्थ	ष्द	ष्ध	ष्न	ष्प	ष्फ	ष्ब	ष्भ	ष्म	ष्य	ष्र	ष्ल	ष्व	ष्श	ष्ष	ष्स	ष्ह	ष्ळ	ष्क्ष	ष्ज्ञ
स	स्क	स्ख	स्ग	स्घ	स्ङ	स्च	स्छ	स्ज	स्झ	स्ञ	स्ट	स्ठ	स्ड	स्ढ	स्ण	स्त	स्थ	स्द	स्ध	स्न	स्प	स्फ	स्ब	स्भ	स्म	स्य	स्र	स्ल	स्व	स्श	स्ष	स्स	स्ह	स्ळ	स्क्ष	स्ज्ञ
ह	ह्क	ह्ख	ह्ग	ह्घ	ह्ङ	ह्च	ह्छ	ह्ज	ह्झ	ह्ञ	ह्ट	ह्ठ	ह्ड	ह्ढ	ह्ण	ह्त	ह्थ	ह्द	ह्ध	ह्न	ह्प	ह्फ	ह्ब	ह्भ	ह्म	ह्य	ह्र	ह्ल	ह्व	ह्श	ह्ष	ह्स	ह्ह	ह्ळ	ह्क्ष	ह्ज्ञ
ळ	ळ्क	ळ्ख	ळ्ग	ळ्घ	ळ्ङ	ळ्च	ळ्छ	ळ्ज	ळ्झ	ळ्ञ	ळ्ट	ळ्ठ	ळ्ड	ळ्ढ	ळ्ण	ळ्त	ळ्थ	ळ्द	ळ्ध	ळ्न	ळ्प	ळ्फ	ळ्ब	ळ्भ	ळ्म	ळ्य	ळ्र	ळ्ल	ळ्व	ळ्श	ळ्ष	ळ्स	ळ्ह	ळ्ळ	ळ्क्ष	ळ्ज्ञ
क्ष	क्ष्क	क्ष्ख	क्ष्ग	क्ष्घ	क्ष्ङ	क्ष्च	क्ष्छ	क्ष्ज	क्ष्झ	क्ष्ञ	क्ष्ट	क्ष्ठ	क्ष्ड	क्ष्ढ	क्ष्ण	क्ष्त	क्ष्थ	क्ष्द	क्ष्ध	क्ष्न	क्ष्प	क्ष्फ	क्ष्ब	क्ष्भ	क्ष्म	क्ष्य	क्ष्र	क्ष्ल	क्ष्व	क्ष्श	क्ष्ष	क्ष्स	क्ष्ह	क्ष्ळ	क्ष्क्ष	क्ष्ज्ञ
ज्ञ	ज्ञ्क	ज्ञ्ख	ज्ञ्ग	ज्ञ्घ	ज्ञ्ङ	ज्ञ्च	ज्ञ्छ	ज्ञ्ज	ज्ञ्झ	ज्ञ्ञ	ज्ञ्ट	ज्ञ्ठ	ज्ञ्ड	ज्ञ्ढ	ज्ञ्ण	ज्ञ्त	ज्ञ्थ	ज्ञ्द	ज्ञ्ध	ज्ञ्न	ज्ञ्प	ज्ञ्फ	ज्ञ्ब	ज्ञ्भ	ज्ञ्म	ज्ञ्य	ज्ञ्र	ज्ञ्ल	ज्ञ्व	ज्ञ्श	ज्ञ्ष	ज्ञ्स	ज्ञ्ह	ज्ञ्ळ	ज्ञ्क्ष	ज्ञ्ज्ञ

New Indo-Aryan languages may use the above forms for their Sanskrit loanwords (or otherwise).

Accent marks

The pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit is written with various symbols depending on shakha. In the Rigveda, anudātta is written with a bar below the line (॒), svarita with a stroke above the line (॑) while udātta is unmarked.

Punctuation

The end of a sentence or half-verse may be marked with a vertical line known as a pūrṇa virām or a danda: ।. The end of a full verse may be marked with a two vertical lines: ॥. A comma, or alpa virām, is used to denote a natural pause in speech.

Numerals

Devanāgarī numerals

०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९
0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Transliteration

There are several methods of transliteration from Devanāgarī into Roman scripts. The most widely used transliteration method is IAST. However, there are other transliteration options.

The following are the major transliteration methods for Devanāgarī:

ISO 15919

A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard of 2001. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic graphemes to the Latin script. See also Transliteration of Indic scripts: how to use ISO 15919. The Devanāgarī-specific portion is nearly identical to the academic standard for Sanskrit, IAST.

IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is the academic standard for the romanization of Sanskrit. IAST is the de-facto standard used in printed publications, like books and magazines, and with the wider availability of Unicode fonts, it is also increasingly used for electronic texts. It is based on a standard established by the Congress of Orientalists at Athens in 1912.

The National Library at Kolkata romanization, intended for the romanization of all Indic scripts, is an extension of IAST.

Harvard-Kyoto

Compared to IAST, Harvard-Kyoto looks much simpler. It does not contain all the diacritic marks that IAST contains. This makes typing in Harvard-Kyoto much easier than IAST. Harvard-Kyoto uses capital letters that can be difficult to read in the middle of words.

ITRANS

ITRANS is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanāgarī into ASCII that is widely used on Usenet. It is an extension of the Harvard-Kyoto scheme. In ITRANS, the word Devanāgarī is written as "Devanaagarii". ITRANS is associated with an application of the same name that enables typesetting in Indic scripts. The user inputs in Roman letters and the ITRANS pre-processor displays the Roman letters into Devanāgarī (or other Indic languages). The latest version of ITRANS is version 5.30 released in July, 2001.

ALA-LC Romanization

ALA-LC romanization is a transliteration scheme approved by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association, and widely used in North American libraries. Transliteration tables are based on languages, so there is a table for Hindi, one for Sanskrit and Prakrit, etc.

Encodings

ISCII

ISCII is a fixed-length 8-bit encoding. The lower 128 codepoints are plain ASCII, the upper 128 codepoints are ISCII-specific.

It has been designed for representing not only Devanāgarī, but also various other Indic scripts as well as a Latin-based script with diacritic marks used for transliteration of the Indic scripts.

ISCII has largely been superseded by Unicode, which has however attempted to preserve the ISCII layout for its Indic language blocks.

Devanāgarī in Unicode

The Unicode ranges for Devanāgarī are available in the three blocks U+0900 .. U+097F, U+1CD0 .. U+1CFF and U+A8E0 .. U+A8FF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.

Devanagari Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+090x

ऀ

ँ

ं

ः

ऄ

अ

आ

इ

ई

उ

ऊ

ऋ

ऌ

ऍ

ऎ

ए

U+091x

ऐ

ऑ

ऒ

ओ

औ

क

ख

ग

घ

ङ

च

छ

ज

झ

ञ

ट

U+092x

ठ

ड

ढ

ण

त

थ

द

ध

न

ऩ

प

फ

ब

भ

म

य

U+093x

र

ऱ

ल

ळ

ऴ

व

श

ष

स

ह

़

ऽ

ा

ि

U+094x

ी

ु

ू

ृ

ॄ

ॅ

ॆ

े

ै

ॉ

ॊ

ो

ौ

्

ॎ

U+095x

ॐ

॑

॒

॓

॔

ॕ

क़

ख़

ग़

ज़

ड़

ढ़

फ़

य़

U+096x

ॠ

ॡ

ॢ

ॣ

।

॥

०

१

२

३

४

५

६

७

८

९

U+097x

॰

ॱ

ॲ

ॹ

ॺ

ॻ

ॼ

ॽ

ॾ

ॿ

Devanagari Extended Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+A8Ex

꣠

꣡

꣢

꣣

꣤

꣥

꣦

꣧

꣨

꣩

꣪

꣫

꣬

꣭

꣮

꣯

U+A8Fx

꣰

꣱

ꣲ

ꣳ

ꣴ

ꣵ

ꣶ

ꣷ

꣸

꣹

꣺

ꣻ

Vedic Extensions Unicode.org chart (PDF)

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

U+1CDx

᳐

᳑

᳒

᳓

᳔

᳕

᳖

᳗

᳘

᳙

᳚

᳛

᳜

᳝

᳞

᳟

U+1CEx

᳠

᳡

᳢

᳣

᳤

᳥

᳦

᳧

᳨

ᳩ

ᳪ

ᳫ

ᳬ

᳭

ᳮ

ᳯ

U+1CFx

ᳰ

ᳱ

ᳲ

Devanāgarī Keyboard Layouts

Microsoft Windows supports the INSCRIPT layout (using the Mangal font), which can be used to input unicode Devanāgarī characters.

INSCRIPT layout

A Devanāgarī INSCRIPT bilingual keyboard. See Devanagari Keyboards, below.

Typewriter

Computer keyboard with the Hindi typewriter layout is available as product. See Devanagari Keyboards, below.

Phonetic

See Bolnagri Home Page

Alphabetic (देवनागरी)

The aA Hindi keyboard (अ आ हिन्दी कुंजीपटल) is based on the Devanāgarī alphabet set more fully detailed here: http://hi.wikipedia.org/wiki/अ_आ_कुंजीपटल for image - (click here)

The Mac OS X operating system supports convenient editing for the Devanāgarī script by insertion of appropriate Unicode characters with two different keyboard layouts available for use. The layout is the same as for INSCRIPT/KDE Linux.

See also

• ISCII
• Nagari Pracharini Sabha
• Devanagari transliteration

Software

• Itranslator. Free program to convert Itrans to Devanagari. Uses 16-bit Unicode-compatible fonts. Works only on Windows 2000 / XP / Server 2003.
• To write Devanagari or Gujarati Script Devised by Dayashankar Joshi
• Nepali Font Converter/Deconverter 0.3- Java Based Nepali Font Converter/Deconveter. Supports Preeti, Kantipur & Jaga - FontConverter0.3 is the software based on java language and is used to convert non-unicode to the Unicode .This software is basically focused on Devanagari non-unicode fonts (only for nepali language). It works well on Preeti, Kantipur and Jaga HImali.
• Indic script IME s (keyboard layouts) and other Indic-language software by Microsoft - Windows.
• Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging - Macintosh
• HindiWriter - The Phonetic Hindi Writer with AutoWord lookup and Spellcheck for MS Word and OpenOffice.org for Windows.
• Pango - open source (GNOME)
• Uniscribe - Windows
• WorldScript - Macintosh, replaced by the Apple Type Services for Unicode Imaging, mentioned above
• Baraha - Devanāgarī Input using English Keyboard
• Lipikaar - The indic script typing tool with support for Devanāgarī through a Windows desktop executable or Firefox Extension.
• Devawriter - Comprehensive Devanagari input for Windows and Macintosh.

References

Bibliography

• Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 9780521299442, http://books.google.com/books?id=J3RSHWePhXwC&printsec=frontcover&dq=indo-aryan+languages .
• Snell, Rupert (2000), Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 9780071419840 .
• Salomon, Richard (2003), "Writing Systems of the Indo-Aryan Languages", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 67–103, ISBN 9780415772945 .
• Verma, Sheela (2003), "Magahi", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh, The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 498–514, ISBN 9780415772945 .
• Wikner, Charles (1996), A Practical Sanskrit Introductory, http://sanskritdocuments.org/learning_tutorial_wikner/index.html .

External links

• Online tool for English (Roman Script) to Hindi (Devanagari script) Transliteration by CDAC Mumbai
• Online tools for typing in Unicode Devanagari for the Nepali language
• Romanized Nepali Unicode Keyboard developed by OOPSLite Technologies
• Microsoft BhashaIndia - Indic Language Computing resources
• Marathi Devanagari Web Portal
• Hindi Computing Wiki - Sarvagya (सर्वज्ञ)
• Omniglot.com - Devanāgarī Alphabets including classical/northern variant forms of अ (a) and related letters, झ (jh), ण (ṇ)
• Devanagari/Sanskrit alphabet with Unicode values and an extensive list of conjuncts
• AncientScripts.com - Devanāgarī Intro
• IS13194:1991 [1]
• Nepali Traditional keyboard Layout
• Nepali Romanized keyboard Layout

Devanagari / Hindi Keyboard

• TVS Devanagari Hindi keyboard with details of keyboard layout, installation instructions for Windows/Linux, shops and online purchase
• TVS Devanagari Hindi keyboard, company website
• Intex Technologies Swadeshi bilingual Hindi keyboard, keyboard layout is Hindi Typewriter

Electronic typesetting

Fonts

• Unicode Compliant Open Type Fonts including ligature glyphs (TDIL Data Centre)
• Unicode Devanagari font gallery
• Download Free Marathi Fonts
• Chandas, Unicode font with all attested ligatures, Vedic signs, and northern/southern variants, with links to other fonts
• Mangal font (article in Sandbox)
• Nepali Devanagari fonts free download

Documentation

• The official Devanāgarī Document (pdf) from Govt. Of India.
• Unicode Chart for Devanāgarī
• Resources for typing in the Nepali language in Devanāgarī
• Resources for viewing and editing Devanāgarī
• Unicode support for Web browsers
• Creating and Viewing Documents in Devanāgarī
• Hindi/Devanāgarī Script Tutor
• A compilation of Tools and Techniques for Hindi Computing

Tools and applications

• List of Hindi Typing Tools
• IndiX, Indian language support for Linux, a site by the Indian National Centre for Software Technology
• Devanāgarī Tools: Wiki Sandbox, Devanāgarī Mail, Yahoo/Google Search & Devanāgarī Transliteration
• EnTrans - Entrans is an online, collaborative translation tool
• Online Latin to Devanāgarī transliteration tool

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(Redirected to Learning Devanagari article)

From Wikitravel

Devanāgarī (देवनागरी), 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 मात्रा mātra. As an example, the forms used with consonants are placed with the letter त्. Note that if there is no vowel sign, the vowel is assumed to be a.

Devanagari	Transliteration	Equivalent	Within Word
अ	a	as in about	त (implicit)
आ	ā	as in father	ता
इ	i	as in sit	ति
ई	ī	as in elite	ती
उ	u	as in put	तु
ऊ	ū	as in flute	तू
ऋ	ṛ	as in Scottish heard, trip.	तृ
ए	e	long e as in German "zehn". It is not a diphthong; the tone does not fall.	ते
ऐ	ai	as in Mail, sometimes a longer ए. In Eastern dialects as in bright (IPA ıj).	तै
ओ	o	as in German Kohle, not a diphthong; tone does not fall.	तो
औ	au	as in oxford. In Eastern dialects as in German lauft, or English town.	तौ

Devanagari	Transliteration	Equivalent/Comments
क	k	as in skip.
ख	kh	as in sinkhole.
ग	g	as in go.
घ	gh	as in doghouse.
ङ	ṅ	as in sing. Used only in Sanskrit loan words, does not occur independently.
च	c	as in church.
छ	ch	as in pinchhit.
ज	j	as in jump.
झ	jh	as in dodge her.
ञ	ñ	as in canyon. Used only in Sanskrit loan words, does not occur independently.
ट	ṭ	as in tick. Retroflex, but still a "hard" t sound similar to English.
ठ	ṭ	as in lighthouse. Retroflex
ड	ḍ	as in doom. Retroflex
ढ	ḍ	as in mudhut. Retroflex
ण	ṇ	retroflex n. Used only in Sanskrit loan words.
त	t	does not exist in English. more dental t, with a bit of a th sound. Softer than an English t.
थ	th	aspirated version of the previous letter, not as in thanks or the.
द	d	dental d.
ध	dh	aspirated version of the above.
न	n	dental n.
प	p	as in spin.
फ	ph	as in uphill.
ब	b	as in be.
भ	bh	as in abhor.
म	m	as in mere.
य	y	as in yet.
र	r	as in Spanish pero, a tongue trip. Don't roll as in Spanish rr, German or Scottish English.
ल	l	as in lean.
व	v	as in Spanish vaca, between English v and w, but without the lip rounding of an English w. (IPA: ʋ).
श	ś	as in shoot.
ष	ṣ	almost indistinguishable retroflex of the above. slightly more aspirated. Used only in Sanskrit loan words.
स	s	as in see.
ह	h	as in him.

Modifiers

त is used here for demonstrative purposes:

Devanagari	Transliteration	Name	Equivalent/Comments
तँ	tan, or 'tã'	candrabindu (lit. moon-dot)	nasalizes the vowel as in French sans. Sometimes shortened to a bindu, in which it can be mistaken for the anusvāra
तं	taṃ, tan, tam	anusvāra (lit. after-sound)	Makes the preceding vowel nasal, as in "count" or "Sam". In writing it can substitute for the appropriate nasal consonant when the nasal consonant comes just before one of the first 25 consonants. For ex. in पंजाब (Punjab) the appropriate nasal consonant ञ, instead of being written in full, is represented by the dot (anusvāra) above the प. Thus the anusvāra automatically makes the n sound that comes before the j.
तः	taḥ	visarga	produces a "puff" of air after the consonant, and makes the inherent vowel shift towards "e" as in jet. Used in Sanskrit loan words like शान्तिः- peace, छः - six.
त्	t	virama	removes the vowel attached to a consonant.
तॅ, तॉ	tă (there is no standard transliteration)	cand	This is a modern invention which shortens or modifies the Devanagari vowel, and is used to write foreign; particularly English, loan words, e.g. टॉर्च flashlight/torch; फ़ट बॉल soccer/football.

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.:

• त् + म = त्म
• न् + द = न्द
• स् + क = स्क

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

• त् + त = त्त
• ष् + ट = ष्ट
• क् + ल = क्ल
• क् + ष = क्ष (is fairly rare and occurs only in Sanskrit loan words)

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

• द् + भ = द्भ
• ह् + ल = ह्ल
• ट् + ठ = ट्ठ

Do not worry to much about conjuncts though, you may always suppress the inherent 'a' with a halant.

Another thing which causes problems for new learners is the use of र, which is treated as a vowel as in Hindi it is a "semi-vowel." There are three forms for conjuncting र, and one for ऋ:

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

• प् + र = प्र
• क् + र = क्र
• ग् + र = ग्र

note: श+ र = श्र and त् + र = त्र.

2. After a vowel and before a consonant र 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:

• गर्म hot
• सिर्फ़ only
• कर्म karma (In Sanskrit, the last inherent vowel is not written long as it is in Hindi)

If followed by ā, ī, e, o, or ai the "hook" is moved one letter to the right, e.g. the name Marco would be written: मॉर्को.

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

• द् + र = द्र
• ट् + र + ट्र
• ड् + र = ड्र

4. ऋ 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: संस्कृत.

Finally, र has two special forms when followed by u, and ū respectively:

• रु ru
• रू rū

Punctuation

Punctuation is the same as in English, except for the period, or full stop called the विराम virām: "।". When a question is used with a question marker like क्या 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?:

क्या वह अच्छा लड़का है? — kya voh accha laṛka hai?
क्या वह अच्छा लड़का है। — kya voh accha laṛka hai?
वह अच्छा लड़का है? — voh accha laṛka 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 -ā. The feminine "-ī" marker is pronounced as written.

When ह follows an inherent vowel as in ताज महल (tāj mahal), the 'a' preceding the 'h' becomes an 'e', as in यह (yeh = this), thus pronounced tāj mehal. Thus the transliteration in such cases is deliberate and not a typo! Another noteworthy aberration is वह (voh = that). Fortunately these are a few of the only words that aren't phonetically pronounced in Hindi. There is also a diphthong -आय which is pronounced as the 'i' in 'high', e.g. चाय (cāy) = tea'. And a double consonant isn't just there to look pretty, hold that consonant's sound a little longer. Finally, the final -ā 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.

The semi-vowel "ऋ" 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 श्री कृष्ण (śrī kṛṣṇa) - "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 कृष्ण (kṛṣṇa) or ऋषि (ṛiṣi) 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.

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Wikipedia

Contents 1 English 1.1 Etymology 1.2 Pronunciation 1.3 Adjective 1.4 Proper noun 1.4.1 Translations 1.5 See also

English

Etymology

From Sanskrit देवनागरी (Devánāgarī), compound of देव (devá), “‘divine’”) + नगर (nágara), “‘city’”); literally “divine city writing”.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˌdeɪvəˈnɑːɡəriː/
•  Audio (US)^{help, file}

Adjective

Devanagari (not comparable)

1. Of the Devanagari script or of a Devanagari alphabet.

Proper noun

Singular Devanagari

Plural -

Devanagari

1. An abugida script used to write several Indian languages, mainly Sanskrit and Hindi, but also Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, and Bhojpuri. It is also used to write Nepali in Nepal.

Translations

See also

• Nagari / नागरी

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

Hindi Devanagari Combinations (Conjuncts) Grammar Gender Honorifics Plurals Parts of speech Conjugation Questions Word order Negation Vocabulary Everyday Phrases Numbers Colors Family relations Time

Template:Sanskrit

The devanagari, the alphabet (script) used in some Indian languages such as Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi and Nepali, is a phonetic system. In principle, one letter always represents the same sound, which is relatively convenient. The sounds eu (like the French word "cheveu") and ü (like the French word "rue") don't exist.

The consonants are followed by the vowel अ (short a) by default, but this is not written out. The sign ् is used to indicate that a consonant is not followed by the default vowel. Consonants may be modified by each of the other vowels and in this case the dependent form of the vowel is written.

There are two main difficulties:

1. most consonants can be combined to form combinations.
2. the vowels are written differently depending on their position in a word - whether they are in the beginning or not and whether they follow a vowel or another consonant.

Overview

Devanagari is an Abugida system, having 12 vowels and 34 consonants.^[1]

Being Abugida basically means that when writing consonant followed by vowel, instead of writing them as two characters, vowel is "mixed" into character.

Thus, writing in Devanagari yields a much compressed way of expression, while at the same time it is hard to write due to complex formations ("mixtures"). Well, at first, at least.

Important difference:

Vowels and consonants in Devanagari can be pronounced in only 1 way. Thus, a word written in Devanagari cannot have two different ways of pronunciation. For example, in crude terms, "cut" and "put" will use different vowels in Devanagari.

For example:

ka = का (as in Kampf. Those who know German will read this correctly)

ki = कि (as in Kill)

kee = की (as in Key)

ke = के (as in Kate Winslate)

ko = को (as in Cone)

ku= कु (as in Could)

cut = कट

put = पुट

Don't worry about the symbols right now! Just note one important thing: that a similar symbol (क) is repeated everytime, just with different "attachments". It follows from it that this symbol represents the sound of k. Rest of the attachments represent vowel addition.

The last two symbols are given just for comparison:

1. "cut" and "put", in English, have three different characters, while in Devanagari, only two.
2. "cut" and "put" not only have different characters, but also different "attachments" (vowels) in them.

Ligatures

As an example to difficulty #2, the combinations of the consonant क (k) with the different vowels are:

• क् + अ = क (ka)
• क् + आ = का (kā)
• क् + इ = कि (ki)
• क् + ई = की (kī)
• क् + उ = कु (ku)
• क् + ऊ = कू (kū)
• क् + ऋ = कृ (kri)
• क् + ए = के (ke)
• क् + ऐ = कै (kai)
• क् + ओ = को (ko)
• क् + औ = कौ (kau)

Special cases:

• र् + उ = रु (ru)
• र् + ऊ = रू (rū)

Some consonants may combine with each other to form other consonants (termed as conjunct consonants or संयुक्त् वर्ण)

X	आ	इ	ई	उ	ऊ	ऋ	ऍ	ए	ऐ	ऑ	ओ	औ
	ा	ि	ी	ु	ू	ृ	ॅ	े	ै	ॉ	ो	ौ
क	का	कि	की	कु	कू	कृ	कॅ	के	कै	कॉ	को	कौ
क़	क़ा	क़ि	क़ी	क़ु	क़ू	क़ृ	क़ॅ	क़े	क़ै	क़ॉ	क़ो	क़ौ
ख	खा	खि	खी	खु	खू	खृ	खॅ	खे	खै	खॉ	खो	खौ
ख़	ख़ा	ख़ि	ख़ी	ख़ु	ख़ू	ख़ृ	ख़ॅ	ख़े	ख़ै	ख़ॉ	ख़ो	ख़ौ
ग	गा	गि	गी	गु	गू	गृ	गॅ	गे	गै	गॉ	गो	गौ
ग़	ग़ा	ग़ि	ग़ी	ग़ु	ग़ू	ग़ृ	ग़ॅ	ग़े	ग़ै	ग़ॉ	ग़ो	ग़ौ
घ	घा	घि	घी	घु	घू	घृ	घॅ	घे	घै	घॉ	घो	घौ
च	चा	चि	ची	चु	चू	चृ	चॅ	चे	चै	चॉ	चो	चौ
छ	छा	छि	छी	छु	छू	छृ	छॅ	छे	छै	छॉ	छो	छौ
ज	जा	जि	जी	जु	जू	जृ	जॅ	जे	जै	जॉ	जो	जौ
ज़	ज़ा	ज़ि	ज़ी	ज़ु	ज़ू	ज़ृ	ज़ॅ	ज़े	ज़ै	ज़ॉ	ज़ो	ज़ौ
झ	झा	झि	झी	झु	झू	झृ	झॅ	झे	झै	झॉ	झो	झौ
ञ	ञा	ञि	ञी	ञु	ञू	ञृ	ञॅ	ञे	ञै	ञॉ	ञो	ञौ
ट	टा	टि	टी	टु	टू	टृ	टॅ	टे	टै	टॉ	टो	टौ
ठ	ठा	ठि	ठी	ठु	ठू	ठृ	ठॅ	ठे	ठै	ठॉ	ठो	ठौ
ड	डा	डि	डी	डु	डू	डृ	डॅ	डे	डै	डॉ	डो	डौ
ड़	ड़ा	ड़ि	ड़ी	ड़ु	ड़ू	ड़ृ	ड़ॅ	ड़े	ड़ै	ड़ॉ	ड़ो	ड़ौ
ढ	ढा	ढि	ढी	ढु	ढू	ढृ	ढॅ	ढे	ढै	ढॉ	ढो	ढौ
ढ़	ढ़ा	ढ़ि	ढ़ी	ढ़ु	ढ़ू	ढ़ृ	ढ़ॅ	ढ़े	ढ़ै	ढ़ॉ	ढ़ो	ढ़ौ
ण	णा	णि	णी	णु	णू	णृ	णॅ	णे	णै	णॉ	णो	णौ
त	ता	ति	ती	तु	तू	तृ	तॅ	ते	तै	तॉ	तो	तौ
थ	था	थि	थी	थु	थू	थृ	थॅ	थे	थै	थॉ	थो	थौ
द	दा	दि	दी	दु	दू	दृ	दॅ	दे	दै	दॉ	दो	दौ
ध	धा	धि	धी	धु	धू	धृ	धॅ	धे	धै	धॉ	धो	धौ
न	ना	नि	नी	नु	नू	नृ	नॅ	ने	नै	नॉ	नो	नौ
प	पा	पि	पी	पु	पू	पृ	पॅ	पे	पै	पॉ	पो	पौ
फ	फा	फि	फी	फु	फू	फृ	फॅ	फे	फै	फॉ	फो	फौ
फ	फ़ा	फ़ि	फ़ी	फ़ु	फ़ू	फ़ृ	फ़ॅ	फ़े	फ़ै	फ़ॉ	फ़ो	फ़ौ
ब	बा	बि	बी	बु	बू	बृ	बॅ	बे	बै	बॉ	बो	बौ
भ	भा	भि	भी	भु	भू	भृ	भॅ	भे	भै	भॉ	भो	भौ
म	मा	मि	मी	मु	मू	मृ	मॅ	मे	मै	मॉ	मो	मौ
य	या	यि	यी	यु	यू	यृ	यॅ	ये	यै	यॉ	यो	यौ
र	रा	रि	री	रु	रू	रृ	रॅ	रे	रै	रॉ	रो	रौ
ल	ला	लि	ली	लु	लू	लृ	लॅ	ले	लै	लॉ	लो	लौ
व	वा	वि	वी	वु	वू	वृ	वॅ	वे	वै	वॉ	वो	वौ
श	शा	शि	शी	शु	शू	शृ	शॅ	शे	शै	शॉ	शो	शौ
ष	षा	षि	षी	षु	षू	षृ	षॅ	षे	षै	षॉ	षो	षौ
स	सा	सि	सी	सु	सू	सृ	सॅ	से	सै	सॉ	सो	सौ
ह	हा	हि	ही	हु	हू	हृ	हॅ	हे	है	हॉ	हो	हौ

The Devanagari alphabet

In Devanagari, there are 14 vowels and 33 consonants (conjunct consonants included).

The alphabet written with pronunciation

Here are the symbols in an "alphabetic" order. The vowels are on top, followed by the consonants.

phoneme	pronunciation, transcription	example (in English)	example (in Hindi)
Vowels
अ	a (short)	fun	अब (ab, now)
आ	â (long)	father	आठ (âth, eight)
इ	i (short)	sick	इमली (imlï, Tamarind)
ई	î (long)	sheer	मिठाई (mithâï, sweets)
उ	ou (short)	put	उर्दू (Urdu)
ऊ	oû (long)	shoot	ऊन (oûn, wool)
ऋ	ri	crystal	ऋषि (rishi, wise (person))
ऍ	e	spend	ऍडवर्द (Edward, English pronunciation)
ए	é	(French) née	एक (ék, one)
ऐ	éï	hi	ऐनक (éïnak, glasses)
ऑ	o (long, open)	robot	ऑक्सिजन (oxygen)
ओ	ô (closed)	loaf	ओड़िया (Oriya)
औ	aô (long)	scout	औरत (aôrat, woman)
ा	â (long, middle of a word)		सामान (sâmân, baggage)
ि	i (short, middle of a word)		पिता (pitâ, father)
ी	i (long, middle of a word)		घी (ghî, butter)
ु	ou (short, middle of a word)		दुकान (doukân, shop)
ू	oû (long, middle of a word)		जूता (joûtâ, shoe)
ृ	ri (middle of a word)		कृषि (krichi, agriculture)
ॅ	e (middle of a word)		क्रॅडिट (credit, credit)
े	é (middle of a word)		देना (dénâ, to give)
ै	éï (middle of a word)		है (héï, is (verb "to be"))
ॉ	o (long, open, middle of a word)		कॉलेज (koléj, college, university)
ो	ô (closed, middle of a word)		सोमवार (sômvâr, Monday)
ौ	aô (middle of a word)		नौ (naô, nine)
ं	(anusvâr, nasalises the preceding vowel)		रंग (rang, color)
ँ	(chandrabindu, nasalises the preceding vowel)	on, an	फ़्राँसीसी (fransîsî, French)
अः	ah (in the middle of a word, only the two points are used)		दुःख (duhkh, sadness)
Consonants
क	k	come	कमरा (kamrâ, room)
क़	k (words of arabic origin)	crisp	क़मीज़ (kamîz, shirt)
ख	kh	khaki	लिखना (likhnâ, write)
ख़	kh	khaki	अख़बार (akhbâr, journal)
ग	g	girl	गाना (gânâ, song, to sing)
ग़	g	gum	ग़रीब (garîb, poor)
घ	gh		घर (ghar, flat, dwelling)
ङ्	unu	finger
च	tch	Tchechen	चार (tchâr, four)
छ	tchh		छे (tchhé, six)
ज	dj	gene	जाना (djânâ, to go)
ज़	z (words of arabic origin)	zero	मेज़ (méz, table)
झ	djh		झूठ (djhoûth, lie)
ञ	gn (only in combination with च छ ज झ)
ट	t	Tommy	पेट (pét, stomach)
ठ	th		मराठी (Marathi)
ड	d		एडी (édî, ankle)
ड़	r (rolling)		भेड़ (bhér, sheep)
ढ	dh		ढेर (dhér, accumulation)
ढ़	rh		डेढ़ (dérh, one and a half)
ण	n		अणु (anou, atome, molecula)
त	t		तमिल (tamil, Tamil)
थ	th	thick	हाथ (hâth, hand)
द	d		दो (dô, two)
ध	dh		दूध (doûdh, milk)
न	n	name	नमक (namak, salt)
प	p	papa	पित (pati, husband)
फ	ph, f		सफेद (safed, white)
फ़	f (words of foreign origin)	failure	फ़ारसी (Farsi)
ब	b	balloon	बीस (bîs, twenty)
भ	bh		भारत (bhârat, India)
म	m	mom	माथा (mâthâ, forehead)
य	y	yac	चाय (tchây, tea/chai)
र	r	rate	रिववार (ravivâr, Sunday)
ल	l	lake	लाना (lânâ, bring)
व	v, w		हवा (hawâ, air)
श	sh (wet ch)	(German) mich	शनिवार (shanivâr, Saturday)
ष	ch	shell	भाषा (bhâchâ, language)
स	s	silk	सात (sât, seven)
ह	h	hill	होना (honâ, to be)
़
्	(to supress the implicit vowel)
ॐ	Ôm
।	. (end of phrase)
॥	(marks the end of the rhyme in poetry)

Vowels (स्वर)

In Devanagari, vowels can be classified into five types:

1. ह्रस्व or short vowels
   1. अ
   2. इ
   3. उ
   4. ऋ
   5. ऌ
2. दीर्घ or long vowels.
   1. आ
   2. ई
   3. ऊ)
   4. ॠ)
   5. ॡ)
3. संयुक्त or conjunct vowels.
   1. अ + इ = ए
   2. अ + ई = ऐ
   3. अ + उ = ओ
   4. अ + ऊ = औ
4. अनुनासिक or nasal vowels
   1. अं
5. विसर्ग
   1. अः

Vowels in alphabetical order

अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ॠ

ऌ ॡ ए ऐ ओ औ अं अः

Consonants

Independently, all consonants are written with a हलन्त or विराम (i.e. a '_\' underneath). When a vowel is attached to a consonant, the हलन्त is removed.

Consonants in alphabetical order

In Devanagari, the placement of consonants in alphabetical order are horizontally grouped in accordance with the body part where their sounds originate from.

velar	क् ख् ग् घ् ङ्
palatal	च् छ् ज् झ् ञ्
cerebral/retroflex	ट् ठ् ड् ढ् ण्
dental	त् थ् द् ध् न्
labial	प् फ् ब् भ् म्
half-vowels	य् र् ल् व्
sibilants	श् ष् स्
empty aspirant	ह्

The corresponding row for the letters (or any letter in a row) from क् to म् can be individually referenced by the first member of the row suffixed by "अवर्ग्".

Example:

The line त् थ् द् ध् न् can be referenced as त वर्ग.

Exercises

• Lesson 1
• Lesson 2