Your are at lesson : 3
Consonants
As we discussed earlier, the representations in telugu are
sound based. Consonants are divided into 'harsh', 'soft' and
'nasal' sounds. Harsh/Soft consonant are in turn divided
into Primary/Secondary. Observe, how all the consonants end
with the first vowel 'a', so that they rhyme when pronounced.
Harsh sounds : ka , cha , Ta , ta , pa
Soft sounds : ga , ja , Da , da , ba
Nasal sounds : ~ja* , ~na* , Na* , na , ma
Notice the difference between how english consonants 'b' (Pr: bee), 'c'(Pr: see)
'd' (Pr: dee), f' (Pr: eff), 'g' (Pr: gee), 'h' (Pr: etch) etc., differ from the way
telugu consonants are pronounced.. 'ba','cha','da','ta','pa'..etc., Telugu
consonants rhyme!
NB: '*' --> These are tongue-twisting, rarely used, nasal consonants.
We will ignore them for now.
The following shows the consonants in tabular format. Try reading them aloud, row by row
(Ex: "ka,kha,ga,gha,~ja"<pause>"cha,Cha,ja,jha,~na"<pause>.. so on).
| Harsh |
Soft |
Nasal |
| Primary |
Secondary |
Primary |
Secondary |
|
| ka |
kha |
ga |
gha |
~ja |
| cha |
Cha |
ja |
Ja |
~na |
| Ta |
Tha |
Da |
Dha |
Na |
| ta |
tha |
da |
dha |
na |
| pa |
pha |
ba |
bha |
ma |
| Harsh |
Soft |
Nasal |
| Primary |
Secondary |
Primary |
Secondary |
|
| NRP
(ka) |
ÅÁ
(kha) |
gRi
(ga) |
xmnsV
(gha) |
ÃÁ
(~ja) |
| ¿RÁ
(cha) |
¿³RÁ
(Cha) |
ÇÁ
(ja) |
LRi&V
(Ja) |
ÄÁ
(~na) |
| ÈÁ
(Ta) |
hRi
(Tha) |
²R¶
(Da) |
²³R¶
(Dha) |
ßá
(Na) |
| »R½
(ta) |
´R¶
(tha) |
µR¶
(da) |
µ³R¶
(dha) |
©«s
(na) |
| xms
(pa) |
xmns
(pha) |
ÊÁ
(ba) |
˳ÏÁ
(bha) |
ª«sV
(ma) |
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