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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Manasi: [Namaste hindipod101.com mein swagat hai]
Maya: Welcome to all about lesson 4. Hindi pronunciation made easy. In this lesson, we will show you how easy it is to start speaking Hindi.
Manasi: You will be focusing on pronunciations.
Maya: We will give you tips on how to perfect your pronunciation.
Manasi: The Hindi language is a non-Roman script.
Maya: Exactly. For people who learn Hindi as their second or third language, it is easier and faster to be able to speak it if we transcribe the various sounds of Hindi language to the Latin alphabet.

Lesson focus
Manasi: For Hindi language, there are 40 consonants and 10 vowels.
Maya: That’s a lot.
Manasi: I know. There are many consonants with the same English pronunciation but again there are many differences.
Maya: We will guide you to help you pronounce Hindi correctly.
Manasi: So let’s start with Hindi consonants with the same pronunciation as English.
Manasi: [k,g,gh,p,ph, t,tha,d,dh,na]
Maya: Can you give us some examples?
Manasi: Sure. For example, [k] sounds like K in kite.
Maya: Also we have the [d] sound.
Manasi: Yes for example, [danda] which means a stick in English. The pronunciation would be similar to the D sound in Duck.
Maya: That means we can find most of the consonant pronunciations in English.
Manasi: Exactly. Now let’s take a look at Hindi sounds that have different pronunciations than in English.
Maya: Like [dh] which is not found in English.
Manasi: For example [dhyan] which means meditation or concentration.
Maya: And how do we pronounce it?
Manasi: The [dh] sound is pronounced by coupling soft D and H [dh]
Maya: Can you give us some more of similar sounds?
Manasi: Sure. For example [bh] which is not available in English.
Maya: We pronounce it like [bh] is pronounced in Bharath which means India.
Manasi: Or [bhalu] which means a Bear.
Maya: Yes it is a coupled sound of B and H [bh]
Manasi: [bh]
Maya: They are called voice aspirated consonants [gh,bh] et cetera right?
Manasi: Yes. They are considered the hardest sounds for the English speaker to learn.
Maya: So how do we make them?
Manasi: Don’t worry. With some practice, they are not going to be very difficult.
Maya: Next sound is
Manasi: like in [un] which means important.
Maya: It is a nasal sound made when the tongue touches a bit away from the teeth. When Romanized, it is written as N which is similar to [n]
Manasi: But in [n] the tongue touches the root of the teeth.
Maya: Oh I see! That is the difference between [un] and [n].
Manasi: Do you know dental consonants?
Maya: No. Can you please give examples?
Manasi: Sure. They are [ta] and [da] like in [talab] which means a pond or a lake and [dawa] which means medicine.
Maya: And how do we pronounce them?
Manasi: Exactly like the [ta] and [da] in Spanish with the tongue touching the back of the upper teeth.
Maya: Next we will be looking at modified sounds. Maybe this sounds scary but believe me, everyone can do it.
Manasi: Let’s try the modified sounds together. There are many sounds found in Hindi that do not directly correspond to any Devanagari letter.
Maya: Let’s look at some examples.
Manasi: Sure. [ka]
Maya: Is it the same as the Arabic word [ku] which begins with this letter?
Manasi: Yes. That’s correct and it is pronounced further back in the throat than [ku].
Maya: What about [z]
Manasi: Well it’s similar to the pronunciation as in [bazar]
Maya: Also we have [ph]
Manasi: Yes it’s the same as the English sound in buffer.
Maya: It sounds really easy.
Manasi: Yes.
Maya: Next let’s talk about vowels.
Manasi: Hindi vowels have quite similar pronunciation as English.
Maya: Well that’s really good. It should be I think simple.
Manasi: Yeah. Let’s see one by one.
Maya: Just like in the previous lesson, we’re going to give you the word one time at natural native speed and then we will give you the example. Let’s start.
Manasi: First is [a] and it is pronounced as a default vowel similar to A in about.
Maya: And next one is
Manasi: [Aa]same as in father.
Maya: And next is
Manasi: E the same as the pronunciation of the word I in image.
Maya: Also we have a longer E.
Manasi: Yes that’s correct. The first is E and the second is E…The pronunciation is the same as the word E in See.
Maya: Next is [ou]
Manasi: The pronunciation is similar to the letters O in the word book.
Maya: Next is [uu]
Manasi: It’s same as the pronunciation of the letters O in the word tools.
Maya: Next is [ri]
Manasi: The same as in the word [rishi] which means a sage in English.
Maya: Next is [a]
Manasi: Like the pronunciation of the letter A in May.
Maya: Next is long A…
Manasi: It’s one of the only two diphthong vowels in Hindi and it’s pronounced differently depending on regional accent. Often it is pronounced as the ei sound in the word Eighteen.
Maya: Next is O.
Manasi: Like the pronunciation of the letter O in the word hole.
Maya: Last but not least, we have Au.
Manasi: It’s the other diphthong vowel also with varying pronunciation. So it’s more like the sound you make when you stub your toe au!
Maya: Oh that’s easy. That sounds like fun too ou! Please keep in mind that listening and repeating is really the key to improving your pronunciation. Listen to and copy native speakers as much as you can.
Manasi: That’s right. Keep listening and repeating. Listeners, can you understand Hindi TV shows, movies or songs?
Maya: How about friends and loved ones conversations in Hindi?
Manasi: If you want to know what’s going on, we have a tool just for your help.
Maya: Line by line audio.
Manasi: Listen to the lesson conversations line by line and learn to understand natural Hindi fast.
Maya: And it’s pretty simple, really.
Manasi: With just the click of a button, listen to each line of the conversation.
Maya: Listen again and again and tune your ear to natural Hindi.
Manasi: Rapidly understand natural Hindi with this powerful tool.
Maya: Find this feature on the lesson page under premium member resources at hindipod101.com.

Outro
Manasi: Phir milenge, goodbye!
Maya: Goodbye.

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