Mouth-map alphabet
The Hindi alphabet, taught by where each sound is made
Devanagari looks like a long list of squiggles when you first meet it. It isn't. The alphabet was designed by phoneticians over a thousand years ago, and it's already organized by where in your mouth each sound comes from. Learn the map, and pronunciation stops being guesswork.
Five zones, back to front
Every consonant sits in one of five zones. Within a zone, you'll see four variants: soft, soft-aspirated, voiced, voiced-aspirated. Same tongue position, different puff of air and vocal cords.
Throat (velar)
क ख ग घ
k, kh, g, gh
Back of the tongue lifts to the soft palate. Same spot as English k and g.
Palate (palatal)
च छ ज झ
ch, chh, j, jh
Tongue body pushes up to the hard palate. Feels close to English 'ch' in 'church'.
Roof of mouth (retroflex)
ट ठ ड ढ
T, Th, D, Dh
Tongue tip curls back and touches the roof. English has no direct match. Sounds harder, more clipped.
Teeth (dental)
त थ द ध
t, th, d, dh
Tongue tip touches the back of the upper teeth. Softer than English t/d. दाल vs डाल.
Lips (labial)
प फ ब भ
p, ph, b, bh
Both lips close and release. Same spot as English p and b.
Why this beats flashcards
Flashcards teach you 33 unrelated shapes. The mouth map teaches you five positions and one rule (add aspiration, add voicing). Once you feel where a sound comes from, retroflex vs dental stops being a guess. The alphabet becomes a chart of your own mouth.