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Appendix 1: Complete varṇmālā chart

This chart follows the traditional order, also indicating ISO romanization.

स्वर svar vowels

a

ā

i

ī

u

ū

e

ai

o

au

ô

अयोगवाह ayōgavāh auxiliaries

अनुस्वार anusvār

अं

aṃ

विसर्ग

visarga

अः

aḥ

चन्द्रबिन्दु

candrabindu

अँ

am̐

व्यंजन vyañjan consonants

स्पर्श

sparś

stops/plosives

अल्पप्राण अघोष

alpaprāṇ aghōṣ

voiceless unaspirated

महाप्राण अघोष

mahāprāṇ aghōṣ

voiceless aspirated

अल्पप्राण घोष

alpaprāṇ ghōṣ

voiced unaspirated

महाप्राण घोष

mahāprāṇ ghōṣ

voiced aspirated

नासिक्य

nāsikya

nasal

कंठ्य / क वर्ग

kaṇṭhya/ka varg velar series

ka

तालव्य / च वर्ग

tālavya/ca varg

palatal series

मूर्धन्य / ट वर्ग

retroflex series

दन्त्य / त वर्ग

dental series

द्वयोष्ठ्य / प वर्ग

bilabial series

स्पर्शरहित

अन्तस्थ

ऊष्म/

सङ्घर्षी

संयुक्त व्यंजन

क्ष, त्र, ज्ञ, श्र

1 However, we have largely dispensed with representing final short a as this is not usually pronounced in Hindi and has the potential to cause confusion.
2 In a handful of words the character ॹ or झ़ may be is used to represent the sound z̈ (IPA: ʒ), found in Persian and Avestan derived words such as अझ़दहा or झ़ाला. However, most learners are highly unlikely to come across this character.
3 You may find many examples of tables with rows and rows of multi-consonant conjuncts, some with 3 or more letters conjoined, but these are fairly rare in everyday Hindi vocabulary. For some examples see: https://www.omniglot.com/writing/devanagari.htm, https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hindi/Consonant_combinations

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A Practical Guide to Hindi Script Copyright © 2025 by Gwendolyn S. Kirk and Shobha SV. All Rights Reserved.