The fifth consonants -- प, फ, ब, भ, म -- are labial consonants (
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.
प
pa, /p/
फ
pha, /ph/
प is said with no aspiration, फ is said with aspiration.
ब
ba, /b/
भ
bha, /bh/
ब is said with no aspiration, भ is said with aspiration.
म
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 | 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:
- Labial 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.