Half-Letters in Nepali - and the "inherent vowel" problem

Nepali is written using the Devanagari script, like Hindi. This script uses an “alphabet” that is different from the English alphabet. 

As you can see in this image, the “consonants” come packaged with a vowel on the end - “a”.

So क, which is the basic K sound, is not “K”, but “ka” (pronounced “kuh”). The same is true for the other letters. Unless combined with another vowel (क ka +ओ o = को ko), the basic form of the consonant is going to be the consonant sound + “a”.

But… not always.

Yes, as with most languages, NOTHING can be as simple as it should be!

Many words in Nepali omit this “a” vowel sound at the end of some consonants, and to a new learner, it can be so frustrating to figure out where, how, and why that happens.

For example, take the word धन्यबाद - “thank you” in Nepali. This is a very common word, maybe even the first one you learned in Nepali. At the end there, we have द - which, if you refer to the chart up above, is “da”. But this word धन्यबाद is not pronounced “dha-nya-baa-da” - it’s simply “dha-nya-baad.” That last “a” vowel sound is omitted.

Since you hear this word so much and learned it so early on, this is probably easy for you to keep in mind and pronounce correctly when you read it. But when learning and reading new words in Nepali, it can be hard to figure out where that -a vowel ending is omitted and where it is kept in.

Half-Letters

So, Nepali script has a few ‘tricks’ to help you figure out when there are definitely no vowels hanging on the end of consonants. One way is through the use of a little mark called “hal” which looks like this:  ् and comes underneath a consonant.

So if क (normally “ka”) has a little ् under it, it becomes क् “k”. 

For example, take the word “झन्” (“jhan”) which means “more”. Since that little mark is there under the न, we know for certain it is “n” only - “jhan” and not “jhana”.

Now, this is fine and good for when the consonant at the END of the word omits that inherent “a.” But what about when the consonant comes in the MIDDLE of the word? Well, consider धन्यबाद again. That न्य (“nya”) is made up of न+य. 

न by itself is “na,” य by itself is “ya.” Put together, “नय” would probably be “naya”. But this isn’t the case here; the word calls for that “nya” sound. So न is “cut” in half and stuck to य - in effect, letting you know that there isn’t any vowel sound between them. It is clearly “nya,” not “naya.”

Here is what the Wikipedia page for Devanagari script says on this subject:

The government of these clusters ranges from widely to narrowly applicable rules, with special exceptions within. While standardised for the most part, there are certain variations in clustering, of which the Unicode used on this page is just one scheme. The following are a number of rules:24 out of the 36 consonants contain a vertical right stroke (ख kha, घ gha, ण ṇa etc.). As first or middle fragments/members of a cluster, they lose that stroke. e.g. त + व = त्व tva, ण + ढ = ण्ढ ṇḍha, स + थ = स्थ stha. In Unicode, these consonants without their vertical stems are called half forms.[48] श ś(a) appears as a different, simple ribbon-shaped fragment preceding व va, न na, च ca, लla, and र ra, causing these second members to be shifted down and reduced in size. Thus श्व śva, श्न śna, श्च śca श्ल śla, and श्र śra.र r(a) as a first member takes the form of a curved upward dash above the final character or its ā-diacritic. e.g. र्व rva, र्वा rvā, र्स्पrspa, र्स्पा rspā. As a final member with ट ṭa ठ ṭha ड ḍa ढ ḍha ड़ ṛa छ cha it is two lines below the character, pointed downwards and apart. Thus ट्र ṭra ठ्र ṭhra ड्र ḍra ढ्र ḍhra ड़्र ṛra छ्र chra. Elsewhere as a final member it is a diagonal stroke extending leftwards and down. e.g. क्र ग्र भ्र. त ta is shifted up to make त्र tra.As first members, remaining characters lacking vertical strokes such as द d(a) and ह h(a) may have their second member, reduced in size and lacking its horizontal stroke, placed underneath. क k(a), छ ch(a), and फ ph(a) shorten their right hooks and join them directly to the following member.The conjuncts for kṣ and jñ are not clearly derived from the letters making up their components. The conjunct for kṣ is क्ष (क् + ष) and for jñ it is ज्ञ (ज् + ञ).

Now, when we see these half-consonants stuck together, we are alerted right away that the inherent vowel is not included.

But there are many words in Nepali that omit the “a” vowel at the end of a consonant with NO indication whatsoever! So how can we know whether the inherent vowel is pronounced or not?

Here are a couple of resources that can help you determine how a word is pronounced in Nepali:

Google Translate - 

I know, I know, Google Translate has a very bad reputation for giving incorrect translations. The transliteration for Nepali words from Devanagari to Roman alphabet is often wrong because it always includes those inherent vowels regardless of whether they are pronounced or not. BUT recently, Google Translate added a text-to-speech feature for Nepali which is surprisingly accurate! Check the link below and click on the speech bubble to listen to an example: 

(Click here to see the example)

Here, the transliteration below the Nepali script writes out all of the inherent vowels (anuvāda for अनुवाद) but, clicking on the “Listen” button, the text-to-speech pronunciation is completely accurate (अनुवाद is “anuwaad”). 

So if you’re confused about a certain word, it seems like an easy solution to type it out into Google Translate and see how it is pronounced in text-to-speech.

Nepalilanguage.org’s website provides an in-depth explanation of when the inherent vowels are used or not. Here are some points from their article on this subject:

• The first letter of a word always has the inherent vowel pronounced (unless it is a half-letter or has another vowel attached). E.g., स /sa/ in समय /samaya/, प in पटक /patak/
• छ, य, ह - Inherent vowel in छ, य, ह is pronounced, e.g., छ is pronounced as छ /cʰa/ in छत /chhaṭ/, लाञ्छना /läɲ·cʰa·n̪ä/, रहेछ /rahecʰa/ and not as छ् /chh/. Similarly, य as य /ya/ in समय /samaya/, यस्तो /yas·t̪o/ and ह as ह /ha/ in सहयोग /sahayog/, समूह /samuha/.
• The letter before a half-letter always includes the inherent vowel. E.g.,  in the word कस्तो, the consonant letter क /ka/ is succeeded by the dead consonant स् /s/. In this case, the inherent vowel in /ka/ is pronounced, i.e., कस् is pronounced as कस् /kas/ and not as क्स् /ks/.
• When the letter has a “shirbindu” (ं) or “chandrabindu” (ँ) on top, the inherent vowel is pronounced. E.g., ह /ha/ in महँगो /mahã·go/, स /sa/ in सँग /sa~ga/
• Inherent vowel in ङ्ग is pronounced, e.g., ग is pronounced as ग /ga/ and not as ग् /g/ in सङ्गठन and अङ्ग.
• Inherent vowel in consonant conjuncts with त, द, ध, न, र, व and ह as the live consonant (the second half of a conjunct) is pronounced, e.g., त in परिवर्तन and उक्त, द in सुन्दर and बन्द, ध in बन्धन and सम्बन्ध, न in जर्नल and संलग्न, र in प्रयोग and मात्र, व in स्वर and पूर्व and ह in चिन्ह.
• When the dead consonant and the live consonant (the first and second half of a conjunct) are the same, the inherent vowel is pronounced, e.g., म /ma/ in सम्म /sam·ma/ and प /pa/ in टिप्पणी /ʈip·pa·ɳi/.
• When a conjunct comes in the middle of a word (not at the end), the second half of the conjunct’s inherent vowel is pronounced, e.g., ण /ɳa/ in निर्णय /n̪ir·ɳaya/ and ब /ba/ in नम्बर /nam·bar/.
• Consonant letters ञ, ण, श and ष are used only in writing Sanskrit loanwords. When a word ends in a consonant conjunct and when these letters are present in the consonant conjunct, either as a dead or a live consonant (the first or second half of the conjunct), the inherent vowel is pronounced, e.g., ठ in कण्ठ, ड in खण्ड, ण in पूर्ण and उत्तीर्ण, न in प्रश्न, व in विश्व, श in आदर्श and स्पर्श, ट in कष्ट, प in पुष्प, ष in वर्ष and हर्ष.
• ङ - Inherent vowel in ङ is NOT pronounced, e.g., ङ is pronounced as ङ् /ŋ/ in गुरुङ /gu·ruŋ/, रङ /raŋ/ and not as ङ /ŋa/.
• घ, ण, थ, फ, व, श, ष When a word ends in consonant letters घ, ण, थ, फ, व, श, ष and the consonant letter is not the live consonant of a consonant conjunct, the inherent vowel in the consonant letter is not pronounced, e.g., घ् /gʰ/ in माघ /mägʰ/, ण् in कारण, थ् in साथ, फ् in जवाफ, व् in मानव, श् in देश, ष् in विशेष.
• Inherent vowel in the last letter of a pronoun is not pronounced. e.g., स /sa/ in यस /yas/, न /n̪a/ in जुन /jun/, र /ra/ in हजुर /hajur/, etc. (Even though म is a pronoun, its inherent vowel is still pronounced because of the rule where inherent vowel in the first letter of a word is pronounced.)
• When a word ends in a consonant conjunct, the inherent vowel in the consonant conjunct is not pronounced if the word is a non-Sanskrit loanwords, e.g., क in पार्क /paark/ (English), च in मार्च /maarch/ (English), ट in पोस्ट /post/ (English) and सिर्फ /sirph/ (Arabic).
• In all other cases, the inherent vowel in the consonant conjunct at the end of the word is pronounced, e.g., म in जन्म /janma/, फ in तर्फ /tarpha/, प in भूकम्प /bhukampa/, etc.
• Inherent vowels in a conjugation (inflection of verbs) is pronounced, e.g., the inherent vowel in all three consonant letters in the word रहन /rahan̪a/ is pronounced. बनाउन /ban̪äun̪a/, भएर /bʰaera/ and नभएको /n̪abʰaeko/ are a few other examples.
• When ण does not occur at the end of a root word, the inherent vowel in ण is pronounced, e.g., गणना /gaNanaa/

Whew! That is a lot of rules!

It is hard to get the hang of at first, but I promise it will become easier and easier as you practice, especially because the words you use every day in Nepali are so common that you will get the hang of pronouncing them. If you keep up your reading practice, eventually you will be able make an educated guess about whether the inherent vowel is pronounced.

I hope this helps you, and as always, if you have any questions please leave them in the comments!