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 torch; फ़ट बॉल 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 and 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
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:
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 and 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 and 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:
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 and 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 phrasebook|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) and 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 interesting 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 and 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 and 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.
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