Vowels

Each vowel has two forms: an "isolated" form when beginning a word or following another vowel; and another used within a word by use of diacritics called मात्रा mātra. As an example, the forms used with consonants are placed with the letter त्. Note that if there is no vowel sign, the vowel is assumed to be a.

Arranged with the vowels is a consonantal diacritic - the final nasal anusvāra ं ṃ (called अं aṃ). ं is written above a syllable to denote that the vowel has to be pronounced using both nose and mouth.

Consonants

Ligatures

One of the things which appears daunting to most beginners are the over 100 conjunct characters. These happen when two or more consonants are joined together (with no vowel between). Upon seeing all these, the new learner might gasp, thinking that they will have to memorize each one as if they were Chinese ideograms. The good news is that most of these are quite simple and merely involve dropping the inherent 'a' stem. e.g.:

• त् + म = त्म
• न् + द = न्द
• स् + क = स्क

However there are a few special constructions. For many of these, you may also use the previous method though. e.g.

• त् + त = त्त
• क् + ल = क्ल

Most often odd forms arise, in consonants without a stem. e.g.

• द् + भ = द्भ
• ह् + ल = ह्ल
• ट् + ठ = ट्ठ

Do not worry too much about conjuncts though, you may always suppress the inherent 'a' with a halant.

Another thing which causes problems for new learners is the use of र, which is treated as a vowel as in Hindi it is a "semi-vowel." There are three forms for conjuncting र, and one for ऋ:

1. After a consonant with a stem add a slash from the lower half of the stem (top-down, right-left). e.g.:

• प् + र = प्र
• क् + र = क्र
• ग् + र = ग्र

note:

• श+ र = श्र
• त् + र = त्र.

2. After a vowel and before a consonant र is written as a small hook (a good mnemonic trick is to picture a stylized lower case r). This conjunct cannot occur alone, nor begin a word. Therefore, an example shall be given within the context of words:

• गर्म hot
• सिर्फ़ only
• कर्म karma (In Sanskrit, the last inherent vowel is not written long as it is in Hindi)

If followed by ā, ī, e, o, or ai the "hook" is moved one letter to the right, e.g. the name Marco would be written: मॉर्को.

3. In most letters without stems, the र is joined to the consonant by placing a circumflex-like diacritic below the letter, e.g.:

• द् + र = द्र
• ट् + र + ट्र
• ड् + र = ड्र

4. ऋ, when preceded by a consonant, is written as a small hook resembling the Polish ogonek attached to the stem. Only occurs in Sanskrit loan words, most notably the word Sanskrit itself: संस्कृत.

Finally, र has two special forms when followed by u, and ū respectively:

• रु ru
• रू rū

Avagraha

The avagraha ऽ अऽ (usually transliterated with an apostrophe) is a Sanskrit punctuation mark for the elision of a vowel in sandhi: एकोऽयम् eko'yam ( ← ekas + ayam) "this one". It is used to pronounce the vowel a little longer. It is usually found at the end of the words in Dogri : त्राऽ (tra) "shock" .

Vowels

At the beginning of a word alif serves as a placeholder for the diacritical mark. Due to directional issues with unicode the medial/final occurs before the initial example, when they should appear after, i.e., to the left of the letter. A final ﻪ is sometimes used do represent an inherent 'a' at the end of a word (c.f. Arabic usage). When choṭī ye and baṛī ye occur in the middle, both take the ﻴ form. For further reference, in Urdu transliteration ai is ae and au is ao.

Vowels

The initial form is followed by non-initial form.

Consonants

Ligatures

Clock time

कड़ी दा टैम

Duration

Days

The Dogri days of the week are derived from Hindi names of week and are a deviation of them. Most of them are named after the planets like mangalwar(Mars day), buddhwar(mercury day) etc but some are different like Saturday-sunday are called Vaar-Taar.

Months

There are three main calendar systems followed in the Duggar Belt : the Georgian calendar, the Hindu calendar and the Islamic calendar. The Georgian calendar in used for all administrative purposes. The Hindu calendar and the Islamic calendar are used for religious purposes and mark many official holidays.

Bus and train

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Directions