Guest guest Posted November 13, 2009 Report Share Posted November 13, 2009 Please read on : WordReference Forums > Other Language Forums > Other Languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script albondiga albondiga is offline Senior Member Join Oct 2006 Location: on the road... Native language: English/USA Age: 28 Posts: 644 Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Hi all, I was wondering about the pronunciation of the Devanagari script in the different Indic languages that use Devanagari (as opposed to some other script)... How much do these differ in their pronunciation of the vowel sounds, consonants, etc.? Foe example, if I have learned to read Hindi, can I expect to be able to read a Nepali text out loud with the same pronunciation and be fully understood by a Nepali? Same for Marathi, etc... or would I have to learn the pronunciation of Nepali, Marathi, etc. separately? I have already noticed one difference; where Hindi deviates from strict phonetic pronunciation of the script (for example regarding the dropping of the final " a " sound, or words like रहना and कहना), not all Indic languages would do so. But do they have their own deviations from phonetic pronunciation of the script? Does anyone have any examples? I know it's a long shot, but worth a try... __________________ albondiga View Public Profile Send a private message to albondiga Find all posts by albondiga Old 1st December 2007, 01:18 PM panjabigator panjabigator is offline Senior Member Join May 2006 Native language: Am. English Age: 24 Posts: 3,768 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Panjabi is sometimes written in the Devanagari script, and so the letters are pronounced slightly differently. Some letters also carry a tone, and so you'd have to recognize difference too while reading Devanagari. Marathi pronounces their J as a zha (the French J) and the aspirated Jh as a z. It can be a bit perplexing for someone who isn't used to those letters with a different sound. Anyway, my advice is to familiarize yourself each time with the alphabet of every Indic language that uses Devanagari and look out for the exceptions. __________________ Correccions en qualsevol idioma sempre són agraïdes. panjabigator View Public Profile Send a private message to panjabigator Find all posts by panjabigator Old 1st December 2007, 10:26 PM albondiga albondiga is offline Senior Member Join Oct 2006 Location: on the road... Native language: English/USA Age: 28 Posts: 644 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Thanks, I guess that's probably good advice... (picking up vowel differences is especially kind of tough when you've only got a book in front of you, but I guess having audio is always necessary to get good pronunciation in any language, regardless of whether you can read the script...) __________________ albondiga View Public Profile Send a private message to albondiga Find all posts by albondiga Old 3rd December 2007, 02:34 PM Lugubert Lugubert is offline Senior Member Join Aug 2006 Location: Göteborg Native language: Swedish Age: 66 Posts: 817 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Already in Hindi, there can be problems. Some people disregard the difference between some dotted and undotted letters, and so they pronounce z ज़ as j ज, so for example zero beomes jeero. Lugubert View Public Profile Send a private message to Lugubert Find all posts by Lugubert Old 4th February 2008, 05:56 PM albondiga albondiga is offline Senior Member Join Oct 2006 Location: on the road... Native language: English/USA Age: 28 Posts: 644 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Specific follow-ups on two things mentioned in the original topic of this old thread: 1) The inherent अ sound associated with each consonant is generally not pronounced with the final consonant of a Hindi sentence... as mentioned, I know it is pronounced in some other languages though (including Nepali); can anyone tell me about other specific ones? 2) What about the typical pronunciation of रहना as if it actually started with रेह (and other such words with the inherent अ sound before an ह pronounced as if it had an à¤)... does this happen in any other languages too? __________________ albondiga View Public Profile Send a private message to albondiga Find all posts by albondiga Old 5th February 2008, 10:43 AM francois_auffret francois_auffret is offline Banned Join Jan 2008 Location: Lahore, Pakistan Native language: France, French Posts: 282 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Well, I know this won't be of much help, but I know that languages like Marathi pronounce the Ri (the old 'R' vowel, still written as a vowel in Devanagari), as Ru... So they would say Rushi (for standard Hindi Rishi)... That's all I can add on the topic... francois_auffret View Public Profile Find all posts by francois_auffret Old 5th February 2008, 11:43 AM lcfatima lcfatima is offline Senior Member Join Feb 2008 Native language: USA Posts: 734 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script hmmm, I don't know if one reads nepali with Hindi pronunciation cuz of devnagri. I know that Hindi is supposed to be very phonetic and the pronunciation should prescriptively match the writing but there is a lot of variation as you pointed out with kahna/rahna. also, the final " h " in jagah (place) or salaah (advice) are not pronounced. that doesn't answer your question, but still... lcfatima View Public Profile Send a private message to lcfatima Find all posts by lcfatima Old 19th June 2008, 05:44 PM Illuminatus Illuminatus is offline Senior Member Join Dec 2007 Location: Mumbai, India Native language: India, Hindi, English, Marathi Posts: 809 Re: Indic languages: pronunciation of Devanagari script Marathi pronounces their J as a zha (the French J) and the aspirated Jh as a z. It can be a bit perplexing for someone who isn't used to those letters with a different sound. Anyway, my advice is to familiarize yourself each time with the alphabet of every Indic language that uses Devanagari and look out for the exceptions. Correction: The french 'J' does not exist in any Indian language, I think, certainly not in Marathi. But Marathi has two different 'Ch' sounds written the same way, and the same goes for two 'z' sounds and also 'jh' sounds. Hindi spoken in UP and Bihar quite sticks to the correct pronunciation and doesn't drop the final a sound also Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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