What is significant about the Hindi alphabet?

Modern Hindi is written in Devanagari script, which is made of two Sanskrit word
s: Deva, meaning God and Nagari, meaning of urban origin. Devanagari has its origin
in Brahmi script. Writings in Brahmi script from across the Indian subcontinent
date back to the 5th century BC. More than ten Indian languages have evolved fro
m Brahmi.
Vowels and consonants
The standard Hindi alphabet, as agreed by the Government of India, has 11 vowels
and 35 consonants. However, the traditional Hindi alphabet is considered to be
made of 13 vowels and 33 consonants. The letters [am] and [ah] are counted as vowe
ls in traditional Hindi and as consonants in standard Hindi. It also includes tw
o letters [rr] and [rh] which are counted as consonants in the standard official H
indi alphabet.
In popular and traditional teachings, three extra consonants are used. They are
called conjuncts and are a combination of two consonants. This happens when succ
essive consonants with no vowel between them physically join together, for examp
le: [ksh] is a combination of and , [k] and [sh]
[tr] is a combination of and , [t] and [r]
[jna] or [gya] is a combination of and , [j] and [n]
Special characters
In some words, written vowels change their form in order to join up with consona
nts.
- With aa: - [kaa] is a combination of + (k + aa). The character is added to th
ht.
- With i: [ki] is a combination of + (k + i). The character is added to the
d above.
- With ee: [kee] is a combination of + (k + ee). The character is added to the
and above.
- With u: [ku] is a combination of + (k + u). The character is added below.
- With oo: - [koo] is a combination of + (k + oo). The character is added belo
- With ae: [kae] is a combination of + (k + ae). The character is added abov
- With aae: [kaae] is a combination of + (k + aae). The character is added a
- With o: [ko] is a combination of + (k + o). The character is added to the
nd above.
- With au: [kau] is a combination of + (k + au). The character is added to th
and above.
- With ri: [kri] is a combination of + (k + ri). The character is added below
For example, BBC is a combination of three vowels and three consonants in Hindi:
[b]+ [ee] - [b]+ [ee] - [c]+ [ee]
So, instead of writing it , BBC would be written as , using the character .
Similarly, the word radio would be a combination of three sets of vowels and con
sonants, for example:
 [r] + [ae] + [d] + [i] + [o]
So, instead of writing it , it would be written as using the characters , an
The horizontal line
The horizontal line on top of letters plays an important role in Hindi. Words fo
rmed by different letters are joined by this line, as in , [kalam], pen, which is
made of three consonant letters, [k], [l] and [m]. All letters have this line excep
t for two consonants: [dh] and [bh].
The right stroke
24 out of the 36 consonants contain a vertical right stroke, for example [kh], [
gh], [n]. Its purpose is to mark a full stop. But nowadays, a normal full stop i
s frequently used to end a sentence.
The dots
One dot above letters is used for nasal sounds, as in [bandar], which means monkey.
This dot is called [bindu], which means point in English. Two dots are used to the
ight of letters. The sound is [ah], as is [atah] meaning therefore. This double d
ot is called [visarg] in Hindi.
Similar but different
Although when transcribed phonetically into English, some Hindi letters look sim
ilar, they actually sound different. For instance, sounds like the [th] in this
, that but sounds like the [th] in think .
Email and website conventions
When giving an email or website address, the conventions are usually given in En
glish apart from one: . (full stop) This is a special character and is a simple
vertical right strole used at the end of a sentence. The name of this character
is [poorna viram], which means full stop.