CHAPTER I

1. The Hindi language, in common with Marathi, Nepali and many north Indian dialects, is written in the Nagari (or the Devanagari) script which is also the accepted all-India script for Sanskrit.

Recently, this script has been standardisedby Central Hindi Directorate, Ministry of Education and Youth Services, with a view to bringing about unifromity in writing and improving the shape of some of its characters. This `Standardised Devanagari' can be seen at Appendix V.

2. The alphabet consists of II vowels and 35 consonants, as follows:-

� a, �� a , � i, �� i, � u, � u, � r, � e, �� ai, �ܽ o, �ܾ au.

Note:- (i) ` �' (Answara) and ` : ' (Visarga) are often included in the list of vowel-letter (and are usually written as �� and �:). But, so far as Hindi is concerned, they are consonants. See below under (d) and (e).

(ii) The vowel � occurs only in Sanskrit words borrowed into Hindi.

�� ka, �� kha, �� ga, �� gha, � na,

�� ca, � cha, �� ja, �� jha, �� na,

� ta, � tha, � da, � dha, �� na,

�� ta, �� tha, � da, �� dha, �� na,

�� pa, �� pha, �� ba, �� bha, �� ma,

�� ya, � ra, �� la, �� va,

�� sa, �� sa, �� sa, � ha, �� ra�, �� rha.

Note:- (i) An � `a' is inherent in each consonant letter. See 28.

(ii) �� occurs only in Sanskrit words borrowed into Hindi.

(iii) �, ��, ��, �� and }�� never occur in the beginning of a word; and � and �� never occur by themselves, they are always combined with a following consonant.