Lesson 3: Conjuncts

In this lesson you will learn how to write conjuncts in Gujarati:

Gujarati consonant letters could be divided into two classes as under:

With vertical stroke	Without vertical stroke
` g 3 c 8 t 9 0 n p b - m y l v = q s X x ã	k 2 j z 4 5 6 7 r h

If the C1 is from (i) in a cluster, its vertical stroke is deleted. Examples:

`

~

~yal

idea

g

G

muG0

naive

3

#

iv#n

obstacles

c C vaCy intended to be spoken

8 * vI*ya cleaned

t T sTy truth

9 ( im(ya useless

0 ) v)ya increased

n N Nyay justice

p P Pyalo glass

b B Byan narration

- _ s_y member

m M rMy beautiful

y Y =Yya bed

l L ALp small

v V kaVy poem

= + ASp<+y untouchable

q Q s&tuQ4 satisfied

s S haSy laughing

X â mâya met

x å -å y worth eating

=, however has a different pattern as the examples bellow show:

+ + c is written as ¾ , as in p¾at ‘afterwards’

+ + n is written as ½ , as in p/½ ‘question’

+ + l is written as ¿l , as in ¿la3a ‘praise’

+ + v is written as ¼, as in ¼an ‘dog’

If the C1 is from (ii), proximity of the letters is strategy is used: Examples:

k k\ vaky sentence

2 2\ 2yasI eighty six

j j\ wjvl clean, bright

z z\ dazya burnt

4 4\ fa4ya torn

5 5\ h5ya moved

6 6\ p6ya fell

7 7\ v7ya scolded

f f\ ha&fya panted

d and r, however have their own patterns.
Example of d in C1:

d acquires various shapes with various letters:
With g, it is written as d\ as in wd\gar 'utterance'

With y, it is written as V as in mV 'wine'
With m, it is written as Â as in pÂ 'lotus'
With v, it is written as µ as in µar 'door'

Look at the word µar . The d\ and v do not follow the order of the spoken form. Remember, Gujarati writing system is fundamentally syllabic and therefore we perceive the letters not as a sequence but a unit.

h\ in C1 has the following shapes:
With m, it is written as as in b/a 'name of a Deva'
With y, it is written as ¬ as in ba¬ 'outer side'

The most interesting letter is r. You need to remember three facts concerning this letter.

(1) When r\ is in C1 position it is written as X$, where X is any letter in C2 position. Examples:

sp$ ‘snake’

vg$ ‘class’

nk$ ‘hell’

tk$ ‘reasoning/logic’

Ak$ ‘essence’

(2) When it is in C2 position it is written as / if the C1 is a letter with angular space. To make this easier, we can divide Gujarati letters in two groups, (a) the letters with angular space and (b) the letters without angular space.

(a) with angular space (b) without angular space

k ` g 3

c 2 j z

4 5 6 7

t 9 0 n d

p f b - m

y v r

x ã

Examples:

k Þr is k/ as in k/m ‘order’

G Þr is g/ as in ivg/h ‘battle, war’

) Þr is 0/ as in 0/uj.vu& ‘to tremble’

P Þr is p// as in p/git ‘progress’

_ Þr is -/ as in -/m ‘illusion’

However, T Þr is not t/, but {a.

If C1 is from (2) the C2 is marked as ^ , as the following examples show:

4^e;n 'train'

6^aw& 6^aw& 'frog's noise'

As you notice the d does not have any angular space, but the d of Devanagari script has an angular space. Gujarati orthography maintains Sanskritism here and writes d + r as ². Examples:

±iQ4 ‘sight’ which has a variant with d^iQ4.
However, notice the ‘shirorekha’ of Devanagari d is deleted.