Nepali Consonants and Vowels: A Detailed Guide on Pronunciation

For our first Nepali language lesson, we will start with the alphabet and its pronunciation! The Nepali letters follow Devanagari scripts shared by other Sanskrit-based languages and Sanskrit itself. Information on Sanskrit is more widely available, so we will focus on Nepali here!

The Nepali alphabet consists of 36 consonants and 13 vowels, each representing a unique sound. Furthermore, each consonant can be modified by 13 vowels to produce other unique sounds. While the thought of learning the sheer number of alphabets and their permutations may seem like a daunting prospect for a beginner, fear not, there's a silver lining! Once you master the sounds of the foundational characters, learning becomes much easier, as Nepali is pronounced just as it is written. Honestly, there are no surprises!

Briefly, Nepali sounds can be categorized as guttural (from the throat), palatal (from the roof of the mouth), retroflex (from the front roof of the mouth), dental (from the back of upper teeth), labial (from lips only).

Consonants

The 36 consonants are as follows.

Sound Origin

1. क (ka)        cough (Guttural/ throat)

2. ख (kha)      khaki   (Guttural/ throat)

3. ग (ga)        gone     (Guttural/ throat)

4. घ (gha)       dogma (Guttural/ throat)

5. ङ (nga)       song (Guttural/ throat)

6. च (cha)     chalk (Palatal/ back roof)

7. छ (chha)   aspirate च (Palatal/ back roof)

8. ज (ja)        junk    (Palatal/ back roof)

9. झ (jha)      aspirate ज   (Palatal/ back roof)

10. ञ (nya)     canyon (Palatal/ back roof)

11. ट (ta)         tom (Retroflex/ front roof)

12. ठ (tha)       aspirate ट (Retroflex/ front roof)

13. ड (da)         dog (Retroflex/ front roof)

14. ढ (dha)      madhouse (Retroflex/ front roof)

15. ण (na)       panda (Retroflex/ front roof)

16. त (ta)       bonita(spanish) (Dental/ back top-teeth)

17. थ (tha)     thunder (Dental/ back top-teeth)

18. द (da)       thus (Dental/ back top-teeth)

19. ध (dha)     aspirate द (Dental/ back top-teeth)

20. न (na)       nun (Dental/ back top-teeth)

21. प (pa)       pop (Labial/ lips)

22. फ (pha)     fun (Labial/ lips)

23. ब (ba)         bus (Labial/ lips)

24. भ (bha)       volume (Labial/ lips))

25. म (ma)       mom (Labial/lips)

26. य (ya)         yummy (Palatal/ back roof)

27. र (ra)         run (Retroflex/ front roof)

28. ल (la)         love (Dental/ back top-teeth)

29. व (wa)        one (Labial/lips)

30. श (sha)      chandelier (Palatal/ back roof)

31. ष (sa)         shun (Retroflex/ front roof)

32. स (sa)         son   (Dental/ back top-teeth)  

33. ह (ha)         hum (Guttural/ throat)

34. क्ष (ksha)    mokshya (Retroflex/ front roof)

35. त्र (tra)       tres (spanish) (Dental/ back top-teeth)

36. ज्ञ (gya)     guess (Palatal/ back roof)

Vowels

Here is a list of the13 vowel sounds

Sound Origin

1. अ (a)         uncle (Guttural/ throat)

2. आ (aa)      arm (Guttural/ throat)

3. इ (i)          grit (Palatal/ back roof)

4. ई (ee)       greet (Palatal/ back roof)

5. उ (u)          put (Labial/ lips)

6. ऊ (oo)       loot (Labial/ lips)

7. ऋ (ri)        string (Retroflex/ front roof)

8. ए (e)          angel (Guttural- palatal)

9. ऐ (ai)         chain (Guttural- palatal)

10. ओ (o)        orange (Guttural- labial)

11. औ (au)      proud (Guttural- labial)

12. अं (am)      umm (Guttural/ throat)

13. अ: (aha)     ah (Guttural/ throat)

Not all of the sounds of the Nepali language are part of the English language, so they may be slightly tricky in the beginning. Here, we provide the closest-sounding English words as guides to what the letter should sound like. Learning the proper placement of your tongue, and understanding where a particular sound originates from will be very helpful in pronouncing like a native speaker! Happy Learning!