Team Ahimsa Blog Relay, Various Contests

Bard's Hall Blog Contest June 2025 - Entry #10

For "The Bard's Hall Contest"  Ẃeβ࿚Ẃỉtcĥ StephBee

Writing In Hindi

Recently, I started writing to my cousin in Hindi. I haven't used that script in a while so I have to remember how to form the letters and spell the words. But I enjoy the lilt of the language and so I make the effort.

My cousin (age 77) phoned yesterday to say she reads the letters to her Mom (age 100 in July! ). My aunt is thrilled that I remember how to use Hindi phrases and wanted to speak to me.

My cousin also corrected a small error that I had made and told me which spelling was correct when I didn't remember and put two alternative spellings of a word.

So there are some obvious differences between the Hindi script and English script. There are no upper or lowercase letters in Hindi, all are the same.

It's basically a phonetic language, and there are half-letters, so you can have one half-letter and one full-letter join up. Also, vowels are written either by themselves (full vowels) or as symbols when they go with a particular consonant. The letter 'r' can be shortened to a symbol and there are various versions of the letter 'd' one of which gets a dot under it to give a slightly different sound. The letter 'j' with a dot under becomes 'z'.

Just felt like writing this down today!