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- "नेहा चिट्ठी ख़रीदती है ।"
33 Comments
Does ख़ really sound different here than ख? It should sound like a fricative consonant but for me they both sound the same.
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According to my wife who is a native speaker, ख़ is commonly pronounced as ख in Hindi. The fricative sound is mainly used in Urdu.
Yep. Adding a little nuance: There's also variation based on region, urban vs. rural background, level of education, religion, other languages spoken, etc. India has 22 official languages so for many people Hindi is their second or third language, and which sounds they actually say can depend on what their first language is. :)
You'll hear the original fricative pronunciation more often in cities in the north, in communities where there are large Urdu-bolnewale populations, etc., and less in rural areas or wherever there's a very strong preference for Sanskrit-origin words and pronunciations.
Same happens to most letters with the nuqta (the little dot under the letter); e.g. people from rural areas or different Indian language background are likely to say "sabji" instead of "sabzi" for vegetables.
Interestingly I've heard that the opposite is happening with फ -- more and more people in India are pronouncing it always as an "f" sound rather than "ph".
But that's still strange. You might buy a stamp or an envelope or writing paper, but why would you buy a letter that someone else has written?
I guess you could be buying some kind of important correspondence of historical or cultural interest, but that's pretty niche.
Some googling tells me there was a brief instance of Wheel of Fortune in India in the 90s tho I couldn't find any info about it. Was it in English? Were the most common letters RSTLNE? How could a Hindi Wheel of Fortune be designed? Fun stuff.
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It would be interesting seeing it adapted for a non-alphabetic system.
Do you have separate spaces for the attached vowels? What if you buy a vowel and its corresponding consonant isn't yet revealed? How do you not give away ि when showing blanks, since it's the only vowel that comes before the consonant when writing?
I would like to know the answer to this as well - we were taught female plural is the same as female singular but Duo says 'letters' is wrong.
Female plural is not the same as singular. For nouns ending in ई it gets replaced by इयाँ so चिट्ठी becomes चिट्ठियाँ.
No. Infact all feminine nouns have different plural forms than singular. The plural of चिट्ठी is चिट्ठियाँ.
I think what you are getting confused with is that verbs have the same form for feminine singulars and plurals.
Yes, you're right of course, that's what confused me. A little after I had typed the question (too late at night) I suddenly realized I had asked something dumb. Couldn't for the life of me find the post again. Sorry!
What is this strange letter in the word letter? We didn't study that letter ?!
ट्ठ is the conjunct consonant made up of ट and ठ.
ट्ठ= ट - अ + ठ
Conjuncts made from ट, ठ, ड and ढ are stacked vertically.
E.g., Julian Lennon had to buy the letters he wrote to his father, John Lennon, because Yoko Ono wouldn't give them to him
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Maybe in India there are prestamped forms that you can write on and fold over then post; similar to what used to be called an aerogramme used up to the 1980s ...?
I suppose "buying a letter" refers to a service not available in a U.S. post office. What does it entail exactly?
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See this from Wikipedia on an "aerogramme" which is a letter-form that you had to buy, write up and send via airmail without having to enclose in an envelope, buy stamps etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerogram.
See my comment above: Maybe in India there are prestamped forms that you can write on and fold over then post; similar to what used to be called an aerogramme used up to the 1980s ...?
Thanks, Krishendat, you jogged my memory of buying a sheet of blue paper at a post office in France that folded into a letter with the postage already on it. It was long ago.
There used to be something called an 'inland letter' in India that was similar. I don't know if they are still around or if people use them.
If Neha buys a letter (one letter), then why there is no EK CHITTHEE instead of CHITTHEE?
