Devanagari
देवनागरी
Abugida · 57 letters
Each consonant carries an implied vowel — ka, not k — and marks hung above, below or around it change that vowel. You learn the consonants, then the vowel marks, then the combinations: three steps instead of one. Every script of India, plus Thai and Khmer.
What pays off on the road
- A bar along the top of the words: northern India, or Nepal. Telling Devanagari from Bengali and Gurmukhi, which carry it too, rules out the east and the Punjab.
- प्रदेश closes the name of several states — उत्तर प्रदेश, the north, मध्य प्रदेश, the centre — and of Nepal's provinces. With मार्ग, नगर and जिला, the sign falls apart.
- Reading a name: the ten vowel signs first. They make up nearly three signs in ten of our names, and ा is the commonest of all.
How it works
A bar on top, and everything hangs beneath
The horizontal line running along the top of words — the shirorekha — is not decoration: it joins the signs of one word, and it is what cuts the sentence up.
So Devanagari is recognised from afar, before a single sign can be made out, and that alone tells you northern India or Nepal. It serves Hindi, Marathi, Nepali and a dozen other languages.
A consonant carries its vowel
This is what separates these scripts from an alphabet. क does not read "k" but "ka": the consonant arrives with an "a", and a sign is needed to change it or silence it.
The vowel signs sit around the consonant — above, below, after, and some to the left — and replace the "a". The virama silences it without putting anything in its place: that is how two consonants in a row get written.
The final "a" is not pronounced: नेपाल reads "nepal", not "nepala". The rule has mid-word exceptions no table renders, and that is why this section has no place-name quiz.
The consonant order is a classification, not an alphabet
The thirty-three consonants are not arranged at random but by place of articulation, from the back of the throat to the lips: velars, palatals, retroflexes, dentals, labials, then semivowels and sibilants.
It is a phonetic classification two and a half thousand years old, and it holds for every script of India. Learning the first makes the next ones twice as fast: you already know where you are going, only the shapes remain.
Retroflexes, a sound Europe does not have
A whole series is pronounced with the tongue curled back to the palate. A European does not hear the difference from the dental series, and that is fine: both transliterate the same way on signs and maps.
What matters is knowing they exist — otherwise you wonder why two different signs give the same sound.
Cheat sheet
The consonants
Thirty-three signs arranged by place of articulation, from the back of the throat to the lips. Each carries an "a" that only a vowel sign or the virama replaces.
| क | ka | k | the sound k, velar, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ख | kha | kh | the sound kh, velar, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ग | ga | g | the sound g, velar, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| घ | gha | gh | the sound gh, velar, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ङ | nga | ng | the sound ng, velar, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| च | cha | ch | the sound ch, palatal, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| छ | chha | chh | the sound chh, palatal, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ज | ja | j | the sound j, palatal, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| झ | jha | jh | the sound jh, palatal, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ञ | nya | ny | the sound ny, palatal, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ट | ta | t | the sound t, retroflex, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ठ | tha | th | the sound th, retroflex, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ड | da | d | the sound d, retroflex, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ढ | dha | dh | the sound dh, retroflex, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ण | na | n | the sound n, retroflex, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| त | ta | t | the sound t, dental, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| थ | tha | th | the sound th, dental, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| द | da | d | the sound d, dental, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ध | dha | dh | the sound dh, dental, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| न | na | n | the sound n, dental, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| प | pa | p | the sound p, labial, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| फ | pha | ph | the sound ph, labial, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ब | ba | b | the sound b, labial, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| भ | bha | bh | the sound bh, labial, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| म | ma | m | the sound m, labial, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| य | ya | y | the sound y, semivowel, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| र | ra | r | the sound r, semivowel, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ल | la | l | the sound l, semivowel, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| व | va | v | the sound v, semivowel, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| श | sha | sh | the sound sh, sibilant, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ष | sha | sh | the sound sh, sibilant, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| स | sa | s | the sound s, sibilant, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ह | ha | h | the sound h, sibilant, with an "a" if nothing follows |
| ड़ | ra | r | a quick r, the tongue flapped against the palate: सड़क, "street" |
| ढ़ | rha | rh | the same, aspirated |
| ज़ | za | z | the sound z, which Sanskrit did not have: बाज़ार, "market" |
| फ़ | fa | f | the sound f |
| ख़ | kha | kh | a scraped k, from Persian |
| ग़ | gha | gh | its voiced counterpart |
The full vowels
Eleven signs, used when the vowel has no consonant to carry it — at the start of a word, most often. Everywhere else the vowel sign does the work.
| अ | a plein | a | the sound a, when no consonant carries it |
| आ | a plein longue | a | the sound a long, when no consonant carries it |
| इ | i plein | i | the sound i, when no consonant carries it |
| ई | i plein longue | i | the sound i long, when no consonant carries it |
| उ | u plein | u | the sound u, when no consonant carries it |
| ऊ | u plein longue | u | the sound u long, when no consonant carries it |
| ऋ | ri plein | ri | the sound ri, when no consonant carries it |
| ए | e plein | e | the sound e, when no consonant carries it |
| ऐ | ai plein | ai | the sound ai, when no consonant carries it |
| ओ | o plein | o | the sound o, when no consonant carries it |
| औ | au plein | au | the sound au, when no consonant carries it |
The vowel signs
Ten signs that sit around the consonant and replace its "a". Some are drawn to its left but read after it: it is the rendering that moves them, not the reading.
| ा | signe a long | a | the sound a long, set on the consonant |
| ि | signe i | i | the sound i, set on the consonant |
| ी | signe i long | i | the sound i long, set on the consonant |
| ु | signe u | u | the sound u, set on the consonant |
| ू | signe u long | u | the sound u long, set on the consonant |
| ृ | signe ri | ri | the sound ri, set on the consonant |
| े | signe e | e | the sound e, set on the consonant |
| ै | signe ai | ai | the sound ai, set on the consonant |
| ो | signe o | o | the sound o, set on the consonant |
| ौ | signe au | au | the sound au, set on the consonant |
The marks
Three, and the last is the most useful: the virama silences the inherent vowel, which is how a lone consonant or two consonants in a row get written.
| ं | anusvara | n | nasalises the vowel before it: "n", or "m" before p, b, m |
| ः | visarga | h | a breath at the end of a syllable |
| ़ | nukta | a dot under the letter that changes its sound: ड becomes ड़ "r" in सड़क, "street", and ज becomes ज़ "z" in बाज़ार | |
| ँ | candrabindu | n | nasalises the vowel, with no consonant: गाँव, "village" |
| ् | virama | silences the inherent vowel: क् is "k", not "ka" |
The words on signs
| भारत | bharat | India |
| नेपाल | nepal | Nepal |
| मार्ग | marg | avenue |
| सड़क | sarak | road |
| नगर | nagar | town |
| पुर | pur | city |
| गाँव | gaon | village |
| जिला | jila | district |
| उत्तर | uttar | north |
| दक्षिण | dakshin | south |
| पूर्व | purv | east |
| पश्चिम | paschim | west |
| मध्य | madhya | central |
| प्रदेश | pradesh | province |
| रेलवे | relve | railway |
| स्टेशन | steshan | station |
| अस्पताल | aspatal | hospital |
| बाज़ार | bazar | bazaar |
| मंदिर | mandir | temple |
| पुलिस | pulis | police |