Hindi: Dental Consonants: त, थ, द, ध, न
The fourth five consonants -- त, थ, द, ध, न -- are dental consonants (
Dental consonants). Just like it sounds, the dental consonants are related to your teeth. Dental consonants represent half of the strange d's and t's, cerebral consonants are the other half. Of course, by strange, I mean strange to me. The dental consonants are articulated by placing the tip of your tongue against the back of your teeth, whereas the cerebral consonants are made with the tip of the tongue against the roof of your mouth. Comparing the dental unaspirated ta, त, with the cerebral unaspirated ṭa, ट, is that ट sounds deeper and rounder than त.
त ta, /t̪/
थ tha, /t̪h/
त is said with no aspiration, थ is said with aspiration.
द da, /d̪/
ध dha, /d̪h/
द is said with no aspiration, ध is said with aspiration.
न na, /n/
न is the most common nasal consonant.
| Stop | Nasal | Approximant | Fricative | |||||
| Unvoiced | Voiced | Unvoiced | Voiced | |||||
| Unaspirated | Aspirated | Unaspirated | Aspirated | Unaspirated | Aspirated | |||
| Guttural | क ka /k/ | ख kha /kh/ | ग ga /g/ | घ gha /gh/ | ङ ṅa /ŋ/ | ह ha /h,ɦ/ | ||
| Palatal | च ca /c,ʧ/ | छ cha /ch,ʧh/ | ज ja /ɟ,ʤ/ | झ jha /ɟh,ʤh/ | ञ ña /ɲ/ | य ya /j/ | श śa /ɕ,ʃ/ | |
| Cerebral | ट ṭa /ʈ/ | ठ ṭha /ʈh/ | ड ḍa /ɖ/ | ढ ḍha /ɖh/ | ण ṇa /ɳ/ | र ra /r/ | ष ṣa /ʂ/ | |
| Dental | त ta /t̪/ | थ tha /t̪h/ | द da /d̪/ | ध dha /d̪h/ | न na /n/ | ल la /l/ | स sa /s/ | |
| Labial | प pa /p/ | फ pha /ph/ | ब ba /b/ | भ bha /bh/ | म ma /m/ | व va /ʋ/ | ||
I am archiving this information about the alphabet on the Hindi page: kirkkittell.com/language/hindi. More information from Wikipedia:
- Dental consonants
- Sounds represented within /.../, e.g., /k/, are symbols of the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), which is extremely useful for me to understand how Hindi sounds.
- Sounds such as ka are transliterations from the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST). It's simpler to understand than IPA.
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