Devanagari

Definition: Devanagari

Devanagari

Noun

1. A syllabic script used in writing Sanskrit and Hindi.

Specialty Definition: Devanagari

(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)

Devanāgarī is a script used to write many Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, as well as Nepali. It is a close descendant of the Brāhmī script that has been traced back to 500 BC. The Brahmi script, in turn, is derived from the Indus-Sarasvati script of the 3rd millennium BC.
Indian languages written in scripts other than Devanagari include Gujarati (Gujarati script is however similar to Devanagari), Tamil, Urdu and Telugu.
Deva is the Sanskrit for "god", and Nagari is "a city"; together they mean, literally, "City of the Gods" (the humanbody) (when the compound is read as a shashtitatpurusha). This refers to the legend that the script was one used in such a city. The philosophy behind it being that when one meditates on the specific sounds of the Devanagari alphabet, the written forms appear spontaneously in the mind. The compound really functions as a bahuvrihi. An often-used transcription variant is "Devnagri".
Devanagari is written from left to right. Words are written together without spaces, so that the top bar is unbroken (there are some exceptions to this rule). The break of the top line primarily marks breath groups. Devanagari knows no distinction of case, i.e. no majuscule and minuscule letters.
The spelling of languages written in Devanagari is partly phonetic in the sense that a word written in it can only be pronounced in one way, but not all possible pronunciations can be written perfectly. Devanagari has 34 consonants (vyanjan), and 12 vowels (svar). A syllable (akshar) is formed by the combination of zero or one consonants and one vowel.

Devanagari Vowels and Related Symbols
Vowel Transliteration Pronunciation/Note

अ a 'a' as in about

आ aa 'a' as in art

इ i 'i' as in pit

ई ii 'ee' as in wheel

उ u 'u' as in put

ऊ uu 'oo' as in soot

ऋ RRi

ॠ RRI

ऌ LLi

ॡ LLI

ए e 'a' as in rate

ऐ ai

ओ o

औ au

ः aH visarga

् halant suppresses inherent vowel

Note: Unicode support is required to display these fonts, which may be found here.
When no vowel is written, 'a' is assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a halant (also called virama) is used.

Devanagari Consonants

क k

ख kh

ग g

घ gh

च ch

छ chh

ज j

झ jh

ट T

ठ Th

ड D

ढ Dh

ण N

त t

थ th

द d

ध dh

न n

प p

फ ph

ब b

भ bh

म m

य y

र r

ल l

व v/w

श sh

shh

स s

ह h

ळ L

ksh

gy/dny

The letters above are pronounced as in English, with the exceptions of:

Consonant Pronunciation

ण N
'n' with the tongue bent back

त t
'th' as in thin, but it's a stop

थ th
aspirated version of 't'

द d
'th' as in the, but it's a stop

ध dh
aspirated version of above

ळ L
'l' with the tongue bent back

Among these, ळ is not used in Hindi. The entire set is used in Marathi.
Devanagari digits are written as follows:

Devanagari Digits

० 0

१ 1

२ 2

३ 3

४ 4

५ 5

६ 6

७ 7

८ 8

९ 9

The ITRANS notation [1] is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanagari into English. The letters used to represent Devanagari alphabets in this notation have approximately the same pronunciation in English. It is widely used on Usenet. In ITRANS, the word Devanagari is written as "devanaagarii".
Note: "Devanagari" is the most common transliteration. Others are "Devnagri", "Devanagri", "Deonagri" (rare).

External links

IndiX, Indian language support for Linux, a site by the Indian National Centre for Software Technology
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Devanagari."

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Synonyms: Devanagari

Synonyms: Devanagari script (n), Nagari (n), Nagari script (n). (additional references)

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Synonyms within Context: Devanagari

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Writing	Letter; uncial writing, cuneiform character, arrowhead, Ogham, Runes, hieroglyphic; contraction; Brahmi, Devanagari, Nagari; script.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Devanagari

English words defined with "Devanagari": Hindi ♦ Mahratti, Marathi. (references)

Specialty definitions using "Devanagari": Basic Multilingual Plane ♦ zigamorph. (references)

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Commercial Usage: Devanagari

Domain	Title
Books	A Collection of Telugu Proverbs Translated, Illustrated and Explained Together With Some Sanskrit Proverbs Printed in the Devanagari and Telugu Characters (reference) A Crash Course to Learn the Devanagari Script (For Hindi, Marathi and Sanskrit Languages) (reference) An Anthology of Urdu Verse in English: With the Original Poems in Devanagari (Oxford India Paperbacks Series) (reference) Encyclopaedia of Indian Art, References, Symbols & Evolution of Devanagari Script: Rekha (Rev) (reference) Saundaryalahari of Sankaracarya: Sanskrit Text in Devanagari With Roman Transliteration, English Translation, Explanatory Notes, Yantric Diagrams and (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Expression: Devanagari

Expression using "Devanagari": Devanagari script. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Expressions: Devanagari

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Expression	Frequency per Day
devanagari	7
devanagari font	3
devanagari script	3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Anagrams: Devanagari

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-a-d-e-g-i-n-r-v"
	-2 letters: drainage, gardenia, gravidae.
	-3 letters: anergia, angaria, araneid, deaving, deraign, evading, gradine, grained, gravida, invader, ravaged, ravined, reading, reaving, vaginae, veranda, vinegar.
	-4 letters: agenda, danger, daring, denari, dinger, driven, earing, engird, gained, gainer, gander, garden, girned, gradin, graved, graven, gravid, invade, naiver, navaid, radian, rained, ranged, ravage, ravine, raving, reagin, reding, regain, regina, ringed.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.