The Consonants II — Outside the Grid

The Eleven Outside the Grid

14.The five vargas account for twenty-five consonants (¶9). Eleven more complete the thirty-six: the four semivowels య ర ల వ (ya ra la va), the four sibilants and h శ ష స హ (śa ṣa sa ha), and three that stand alone — ళ (ḷa), ఱ (ṟa) and క్ష (kṣa). They are grouped by kind but not arranged in a grid, because their sounds do not fall into rows and columns as the stops do.

య ర ల వ

ya ra la va

ya ra la va — the semivowels

శ ష స హ

śa ṣa sa ha

śa ṣa sa ha — the sibilants and h

The Semivowels — అంతస్థాలు

15.య, ర, ల, వ (ya, ra, la, va) are called those that stand between, being neither quite consonants nor quite vowels: each is close kin to a vowel — య (ya) to ఇ, వ (i, va) to ఉ, ర (u, ra) and ల (la) to the vocalic ఋ (r̥) and ఌ (l̥) met in ¶5. ర (ra) is a single tap of the tongue, not the English r; వ (va) lies between English v and w and is neither.

య

ya

ya — kin to the vowel ఇ

వ

va

va — kin to the vowel ఉ

ర

ra

ra — one tap, as in Spanish 'pero', never the English r

The Sibilants — ఊష్మాలు

16.Three sibilants and an h make up the ఊష్మాలు (ūṣmālu). The three sibilants differ only in place, and in exactly the way the vargas differ: స (sa) is dental, శ (śa) palatal, ష (ṣa) retroflex. An English speaker hears శ and ష as one sound, sh, and must learn them apart as they learned త (ta) from ట (ṭa).

శ / ష

śa / ṣa

śa / ṣa — palatal against retroflex

స

sa

sa — the plain s

ళ — Retroflex *l*

17.ళ (ḷa) is a retroflex l, a Dravidian sound with no counterpart in Sanskrit and very common in Telugu.

ళ

ḷa

ḷa — retroflex l; Dravidian, not Sanskrit

ఱ — *Baṇḍi ra*

18.ఱ (ṟa) — baṇḍi ra, 'cart r' — was once a separate trilled r; it is obsolete, and modern Telugu writes ర (ra) for it.

ఱ

ṟa

ṟa — baṇḍi ra, obsolete

క్ష — The Thirty-sixth Letter

19.క్ష (kṣa) is the conjunct of క (ka) and ష (ṣa), admitted to the alphabet by tradition and counted as its thirty-sixth letter.

క్ష

kṣa

kṣa — a conjunct counted as a letter

• [1] That the alphabet's last letter is a conjunct and its penultimate a dead one is a reminder that a traditional letter-count records the history of a script rather than its present state.

The Anusvāra — ం

20.ం (ṁ) is a small circle written after a vowel and stands for a nasal. Before a consonant it takes the nasal of that consonant's own varga; at the end of a word it is sounded m.

పుస్తకం

pustakaṁ

book — pustakaṃ — the final ం sounded m

పండు

paṇḍu

fruit — paṇḍu — ం before the retroflex డ is sounded ṇ

అంబ

amba

mother (literary) — amba — ం before the labial బ is sounded m

• [1] The mark is common on Telugu nouns, many of which end in -ం (ṁ).
• [2] This is why the separate nasal letters ఙ (ṅa) and ఞ (ña) are so rarely written (¶13): where their sound occurs, the anusvāra does the work.

The Visarga — ః

21.ః (ḥ), written as two dots after a vowel, is a voiceless breath — an echo of the vowel before it. It belongs almost entirely to words borrowed from Sanskrit and is rare in native Telugu. With the anusvāra it makes up the ఉభయాక్షరాలు (ubhayākṣarālu), the two letters of both kinds, counted neither with the vowels nor with the consonants because each is a mark upon a vowel rather than a letter of its own.

ః

ḥ

visarga — a breath after the vowel

దుఃఖం

duḥkhaṁ

sorrow — duḥkhaṃ — a Sanskrit loan, with both marks in one word