Exercise 3
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Characters
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Notes
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Script Tutor 1
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Script Tutor 2
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HW 1
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The third installment of characters (followed by the conjunct consonants for the second installment):
- Consonants: क ka, ख kha, ञ ña, श śa, र ra, ल la, प pa. A few notes:
- ख — The most ambiguous character here is ख (kha), because it looks like ra + va (र + व). rava = रव ; kha = ख. Some fonts do not leave much space after the र, so rava can look like kha. Generally, however, there will be enough space left for them to be distinguished fairly easily.
- ञ — Another pair to distinguish carefully is ja (ज) and ña (ञ).
- प — The only thing to distinguish प (pa) from य (ya) is the curve in the latter, which therefore needs to be clearly delineated. And प (pa) is identical with ष (ṣa), except for the diagonal stroke of the latter.
- श — An easy way to remember श (śa) is the number “21,” which the strokes beneath the topbar resemble.
- Vowels: ऋ ṛ (ृ e.g., कृ), ॠ ṝ (ॄ e.g., कॄ), As before, various related vowels have related forms:
- Long ॠ (ṝ) is just the short ऋ (ṛ) plus an extra hook
- Their diacritics are always written below consonants (e.g., तृ नृ सृ etc.) with the exception of ह (ha), where it is written within it: हृ (hṛ)
- Note also that द् (d) usually loses its tail in combination with ृ (ṛ) and ॄ (ṝ): दृ (dṛ), दॄ (dṝ)
- Consonant vowel combinations: रु (ru), रू (rū) and रृ (rṛ)
- While the ु (u) and ू (ū) diacritics are always written below characters (तु यु सु etc.), they are written within the र् (r): रु (ru), रू (rū). Note also that रु has a truncated form of ु (u).
- Note the irregularity when writing r + ṛ (रृ). Here the full character for ṛ (ऋ) is used because it is beginning a new syllable. r in its hook form, which we’ll cover in the next assignment, is here ending the preceding syllable because rṛ is an unpronounceable syllable in Sanskrit. For example, the word, निरृति (nirṛti), breaks down into the syllables: nir-ṛ-ti. The same would be true for r+ṝ as well, if that combination actually existed in usage.
- Study the (2 page) handout for our new characters and conjunct consonants under the Characters tab.
- For the conjunct consonants in that handout, again pay special attention to the द् conjuncts (द्ध ddha द्ध्य ddhya, etc.), as they are not intuitive. The rest are fairly easily derivable from their distinctive elements.
- Read through the various notes to our new characters under the Notes tab.
- Using the script tutors above as models, practice writing the characters in the sheets attached below. Feel free to continue practicing these characters (with or without vowel diacritics) on lined paper for any that require more practice. It’s always a good idea to pronounce the sounds while you’re writing them—the more senses you engage in learning new material, the more quickly you’ll remember it.
- Practice your recognition of the characters and conjuncts we’ve learned so far in the flashcards at the bottom of the page.