Hindi: Labial Consonants: प, फ, ब, भ, म

The fifth consonants -- प, फ, ब, भ, म -- are labial consonants (Wikipedia Labial consonants). Labial consonants are articulated with the lips. Labial consonants are easy to say because they are analogous with sounds in the English language. This group of five consonants corresponds with p, b, and m in English. The trick is saying प and फ, ब and भ, with the proper aspiration. Even if it is easy for me to create the sounds, I have to concentrate on not aspirating प and ब because my innate tendency is to aspirate everything.


pa, /p/


pha, /ph/

प is said with no aspiration, फ is said with aspiration.


ba, /b/


bha, /bh/

ब is said with no aspiration, भ is said with aspiration.


ma, /m/

म is a nasal consonant that sounds like the m in milk.

  Stop Nasal Approximant Fricative
  Unvoiced Voiced Unvoiced Voiced
  Unaspirated Aspirated Unaspirated Aspirated Unaspirated Aspirated
Guttural
ka
/k/

kha
/kh/

ga
/g/

gha
/gh/
ṅa
/ŋ/
   
ha

/h,ɦ/
Palatal
ca
/c,ʧ/

cha
/chh/

ja
/ɟ,ʤ/

jha
hh/

ña
/ɲ/

ya
/j/

śa
/ɕ,ʃ/
 
Cerebral
ṭa
/ʈ/

ṭha
h/

ḍa
/ɖ/

ḍha
h/

ṇa
/ɳ/

ra
/r/

ṣa
/ʂ/
 
Dental
ta
/t̪/

tha
/t̪h/

da
/d̪/

dha
/d̪h/

na
/n/

la
/l/

sa
/s/
 
Labial
pa
/p/

pha
/ph/

ba
/b/

bha
/bh/

ma
/m/

va
/ʋ/
   

I am archiving this information about the alphabet on the Hindi page: kirkkittell.com/language/hindi. More information from Wikipedia:

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