…101
Devnagari Script
Common Vowels
A : Sound of ‘u’ in up or Sound of ‘a’ in are; not as sound of ‘a’ in add
AA: Sound of ‘a’ in are
E : Sound of ‘e’ in elephant
EE : Sound of ‘ee’ in Cheese (Long e sound)
I : Sound of ‘i’ in it
O: Sound of ‘o’ in go; not as Sound of ‘o’ in of
OO: Sound of ‘oo’ in food (Long u sound)
U: Sound of ‘u’ in Put
AI : Sound of ‘ei’ in Eikman
Au : Sound of ‘ow’ in Cow or Sound of ‘ou’ in out when pronounced as a single syllable
Most of the Indian languages have at least 12 common vowels.
Most of them don’t have sound of A as in Add or sound of O as in Odd.
Vowel pairs
•
•
•
•
•
Ai: is pronounced as quick like Eikman – Laila
Aa: is pronounced as sound of ‘a’ in are
Ee : cheese - Jeevan, Deepak, Rajeev
Oo : noon – Pooja, Krishnamoorthy
Au : quick aoo like saying cow in one syllable.
– Gautam, Gaurav
Consonents
Most of the Indian languages have more that 34 consonants..
Bh : aspirated B - ABHOY, BHIDE
Ch : as in “Churn” - SACH
D : as in “dumb” or as in “the”
In most Indian first names, when you see letter “D” pronounce it as “th”– DEEPAK; DEVESH
D is pronounced as in “dumb” in some last names – BHIDE
Dh : aspirated the or aspirated “D” – BUDDHA, GANDHI
Dny : th in the + N + Y, pronounced as one syllable - DNYANADA
Gh : as in ghost - GHOSH
Kh : as in Khaki – REKHA
Ph : as in graph
T : as in tub or unaspirated T
In most first names T is pronounced as soft T (touch tip of tongue to the back of upper teeth) – MANGAT, ADEETEE
T is pronounced as in tub in some last names – PATEL
Sr : S in Sun + R in run - SRI
Sh : as in shut – SHAH, SHREYA
Th : as in path or aspirated “T” - SANTHOSH, MARATHE
Tr : unaspirated T + R – TRISHA, MANTRA
Alphasyllabary
• Look for consonants and vowels.
Consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit. If an
Indian name is broken at the vowels and then sounded
it out, a person will be able to guess the pronunciation.
Kri-shna-moo-rthy
Bhi-de
Dnya-na-da
Ko-chu-mme-n
Sa-ra-va-na-ku-ma-r
Cheat Sheet
A
up/arm
B
bun
F
fur
G
gum
K
karate
C
D
the/dumb
E
elk
H
hut
I
ink
J
junk
L
lung
M
mum
N
numb
O
open
P
Q
R
S
T
pun
quality
rug
Sun
U
V, W
X
Y
Z
put
wait
flux
yes
lazy
No corresponding vowel sound
turn/tamale
Cheat Sheet continued…
D in first name, Don’t be dumb, just pronounce them
T in first name, have Tamale and not hot tea.
G in a name, think of a game
Th don’t go there, follow the path
V or W wait and don’t ride in a Van
Y Yes we did it!