Devanagari/Lesson 1
- For Table of contents and other quick links, see Devanagari/Quick jump
As it was told, we have 12 vowels and 34 consonants to learn. Traditional way is to mug-up the list, starting with all the vowels and then ending with consonants. Since it requires a teacher to constantly tell how to speak each character, and since we don't have a teacher here, we will start with the basics.
Important note edit
There is one very important part to note before we proceed. All the characters in Devanagari have a horizontal line on their top! All the characters!!
Just for comparison, we will show you some characters:
क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ
Notice how every character has a horizontal line on top of it. It is very important to drive this point home, since it will be required later!!
Your first character edit
So here is your first consonant:
क
This symbol represent the sound of K.
Note the emphasis on sound. क is NOT "K". In English "C" is also used sometimes for this same sound. For example: Coal, Kill, Crack, Wikibook and so on.
The pronunciation of क is C as in come.
Exercise edit
1. Mark the occurrence of sound of K in the following sentence and replace them with equivalent letter of Devanagari:
Jesus Christ. Kate. Christopher. Come. Cart. Crack. Kart-racing.
Jesus कrist. कate. कristopher. कome. कart. कraक. कart-racing.
Lesson to be learned edit
- All of the characters in Devanagari have a horizontal line on top.
- What is क.
Now let us proceed to your first vowel, because consonants have no life of their own :)
References edit
NOTE: Most of the time the first reaction to this symbol is: it is hard to draw! In Devanagari, most of the characters are curvy. Although a pattern can be found on closer look, it is left for the reader - of course after all the characters are have been introduced.