Guide to learning
The Hindi Alphabet
The Hindi alphabet, known as Devanagari (देवनागरी), is an abugida script that originated from the ancient Brahmi script of India. It is used to write Hindi and several other Indian languages. The Devanagari script consists of 33 basic consonants and 11 vowels, with additional compound consonants formed by combining basic ones. Unlike some scripts, Devanagari does not use uppercase or lowercase letters. Each consonant has an inherent vowel sound, which can be changed or muted using diacritical marks. Vowel signs are placed above, below, before, or after the consonant they modify. The script is written from left to right and is highly phonetic, meaning words are generally spelled as they are pronounced, making it easier to learn correct pronunciation from the written form.
देवनागरी
Contents
Introduction
The Hindi script, known as Devanagari (देवनागरी), is an abugida writing system that traces its origins to the ancient Brahmi script of India, dating back to the 3rd century BCE. The name 'Devanagari' literally means 'script of the gods' (deva = god, nagari = city/script), reflecting its sacred status in Hindu tradition. This script evolved through various intermediate forms including Gupta script and Siddham script before taking its modern form around the 11th century. Devanagari became the standard script for Hindi during the medieval period and was further standardized during British colonial rule and Indian independence. The script is characterized by its horizontal line (शिरोरेखा/shirorekha) that runs along the top of most characters, connecting them in a continuous flow. Unlike Latin scripts, Devanagari does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase letters, and each consonant carries an inherent vowel sound 'a' (अ) that can be modified or suppressed using various diacritical marks called matras.
The logical structure of Devanagari reflects the systematic organisation of Sanskrit phonetics, with letters classified according to their place and manner of articulation. The alphabet has 11 vowels (स्वर/swar) and, depending on the language, 33 consonants in Sanskrit or 35 in standard Hindi. The vowels are divided into simple vowels (अ, आ, इ, ई, उ, ऊ, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ), to which is added the special vowel ऋ. In Sanskrit, the 33 consonants are classified into groups: 5 gutturals (क वर्ग), 5 palatal (च वर्ग), 5 cerebral (ट वर्ग), 5 dental (त वर्ग), 5 labial (प वर्ग), followed by semi-vowels (य, र, ल, व), sibilants (श, ष, स) and aspirates (ह). In standard Hindi, there are 35 consonants, as ड़ (ṛ) and ढ़ (ṛh), which belong to the retroflex series, are added to the above. This phonetic organisation makes Devanagari very logical and systematic, with consistent pronunciation rules. The syllabic nature of the script means that consonant-vowel combinations are written using composite characters, creating more than 400 possible syllabic combinations. This approach, combined with the phonetic precision of the script, where words are written as they are pronounced, makes Devanagari an excellent tool for preserving the pronunciation of Sanskrit and Hindi, thus contributing to its continued use in several Indian languages and to the preservation of ancient Indian literature and philosophy.
