The Devanagari Script

INTRODUCTION

When learning a language, it is often important to learn how to read and write in that language as well, as it helps us communicate more effectively. Like many other languages, Nepali also uses a written script to facilitate record keeping and conversation. Just as how English uses the Latin alphabet, Nepali uses a script called the Devanagari script. This script is unique in the sense that it features a characteristic horizontal line above the letters. 

However, unlike the Latin script, Devanagari does not use alphabets per se. In an alphabet-based system like the Latin script, vowels and consonants are written separately, by giving them equal weight. It is not like an Abjad (like Arabic) either, where vowels are usually or almost always omitted. It is also not logographic (like Chinese), or syllabic (like the Japanese hiragana) where one character has one (or a few) possible syllable values. Rather, Devanagari is an alphasyllabary, where there are vowels and consonants (like in an alphabet-based system), but also combinations of the two to yield a unit. There are three base values a unit can take:

• Vowel (like “o“)
• Consonant (like “k“)
• Consonant + Vowel (like “ko“)

Note | Other variations like CCV are combinations of the three above.

The fundamental building block of the Devanagari Script is the syllable. Syllables in Devanagari are usually built around either one or multiple consonants (i.e. in a consonant cluster) modified by diacritics to indicate the vowel they carry. Rarely, a syllable can also consist of only a vowel without any consonants; in this case, the vowel is written out fully in its base form.

It is important to understand that the characters within a syllable interact with each other, changing their shape and position depending on the other characters present in the syllable. This is different from the Latin script for example, where a ‘t’ always looks like a ‘t’, regardless of what other letters it is paired with. We will explore this later.

Devanagari has no Capital Letters and is written left-to-right horizontally (→).

Note | Traditionally, Nepali has 12 vowels and 36 consonants, but linguists agree that this does not portray all of Nepali phonology. The last two traditional vowels are really just consonant modifiers and not really ‘vowels’ in their own right. Also, the last three consonants included in the traditional chart are conjuncts, thus we will be skipping these three until later.

CHART

VOWELS

There are 12 vowels in Nepali. IAST (International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration) is a transliteration method used to represent Devanagari using the Latin script, and we will be using for all transliterations (with a few modifications). Note that the following are the base form of the vowels; if you want to combine vowels with consonants, you have to use diacritics which we will explore later.

Vowel	IAST	Approximate Sound	IPA	Audio
अ	a	shut	ʌ
आ	ā	father	a
इ	i	free	i
ई	ī	free	i
उ	u	boot	u
ऊ	ū	boot	u
ए	e	may	e
ऐ	ai	a+i (like night)	ʌi
ओ	o	oh	o
औ	au	a+u (like yowl)	ʌu
अं	ṃ	uncle	ã
अ:	:/ḥ	uh

Note | Due to vowel shifts, Nepali no longer distinguishes between the long ī and the short i. The same goes for the long ū and the short u. In both cases, the short vowel is usually the preferred length. Thus, इ (i) and ई (ī) are both pronounced as इ (i), while उ (u) and ऊ (ū) are both pronounced as उ (u).

CONSONANTS

There are 33 consonants in Nepali, not counting the 3 clusters mentioned before. Note that the consonants listed here all carry an inherent “a” sound (like a of ago) called schwa for easy pronunciation. This is the base form of consonants, as the schwa “a” vowel conveniently has no diacritic. In the IPA section, the schwa has been omitted. Remember that the sounds are only approximations.

Consonant	IAST	Approximate Sound	IPA (schwa omitted)	Audio
क	k(a)	alcohol	k
ख	kh(a)	Khalifa	kʰ
ग	g(a)	gun	g
घ	gh(a)	Ghana	ɡʱ
ङ	ṅ(a)	sing	ŋ
च	c(a)	cats	ts
छ	ch(a)	cats (with more aspiration)	tsʰ
ज	j(a)	jug	dz
झ	jh(a)	jug (with more aspiration)	dzʱ
ञ	ñ(a)	canyon	ɲ
ट	ṭ(a)	master	ʈ
ठ	ṭh(a)	Thomas	ʈʰ
ड	ḍ(a)	dog	ɖ
ढ	ḍh(a)	dog (with more aspiration)	ɖʱ
ण	ṇ(a)	panda	ɳ
त	t(a)	like the Spanish ’t’	t̪
थ	th(a)	thunder	t̪ʰ
द	d(a)	the (rhymes with uh)	d̪
ध	dh(a)	the (with more aspiration)	d̪ʱ
न	n(a)	nun	n
प	p(a)	spun	p
फ	ph(a)	fun	pʰ
ब	b(a)	bun	b
भ	bh(a)	vault	bʱ
म	m(a)	mall	m
य	y(a)	yawn	j
र	r(a)	run	ɾ
ल	l(a)	lawn	l
व	w(a)/v(a)	want	w
श	ś(a)	shawl	ʃ
ष	ṣ(a)	shawl	ʃ/s
स	s(a)	sun	s
ह	h(a)	hum	ɦ

Note | श (śa), ष (ṣa) and स (sa) are allophonic, thus interchanging their sounds will not result in a change of meaning. The three s-es are mostly a holdover from Sanskrit, which did differentiate between the three. In modern Nepali, स (sa) is the preferred pronunciation, though the other s-es may be preferred in certain words. | ङ (ṅa), ञ (ña), ण (ṇa) and न (na) are nasals that complement their consonant counterparts, but can be approximated as न (na).

NUMBERS

Nepali uses a base-10 number system. We will learn their names in Vocabulary: Numbers (1-30).

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

WA/VA ALLOPHONY

The character व can be pronounced either as ‘wa‘ or ‘va‘, depending on the word. When multiple spoken sounds can be represented by a single phoneme (or character), it is known as allophony. Note that in Nepali, the ‘v’ sound really is a ‘b’ sound (of ब) than an actual ‘v’. However, this would lead to ambiguity: if I only used IAST as it was meant to, then suddenly you would be saying vakil and van, even though these words are really pronounced as wakil and ban. However, if I were to just preserve the true sound instead, wakil would be fine, but how would you tell that ban and ban are actually two different words?

In my transliterations, I have taken a slightly different approach: keep the sound value of the word, but use a ‘v‘ whenever the word is pronounced with a ‘b‘. This helps keep transliterations relatively accurate to pronunciation while also reducing ambiguity.

Thus, transliterations here will be done as follows: if a transliterated word is written with a ‘w’, then it will be pronounced with a w-sound. However, if a transliterated word is written with a ‘v’, then the word is always pronounced with a ‘b‘ sound, and the ‘v‘ is only there to let you know that it is written as व and not ब in Devanagari.

EXERCISE

IDENTITY THE CHARACTERS BELOW.

1. ध
2. ष
3. त
4. छ
5. औ
6. ऐ
7. ङ
8. ल
9. द
10. अ

ANSWERS

1. dha
2. ṣa
3. ta
4. cha
5. au
6. ai
7. ṅa
8. la
9. da
10. a