Letter Combinations

Welcome! Ready to use through chapter 4!

COMBINATIONS OF VOWELS AND CONSONANTS

Letters are by their very nature social beings. You don't find them standing around alone all too often. In English, the word with which you refer to yourself, "I," is pretty much a loner. But even the humble indefinite article "a" often seeks the company of "n" so that together they can do their job as "an" before words that start with a vowel.

Most of the letters of the Devanagari alphabet in Sanskrit are even more socially inclined. The vowels only stand up in their full form at the beginning of a word. Most of the time, they cling to consonants in greatly reduced forms. Moreover, the consonants, once they have overcome the hurdle of the all-intrusive "a" sound, take their socialization to an even greater level. Usually, when two consonants are standing right next to it, they merge into a combined form.

So, on this page we have another two videos. The first one explains the internal use of vowels, viz. how they usually appear in the middle or at the end of a word. The second describes the patterns that consonants follow when they are in direct proximity to each other.

Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions.