Candrabindu ँ

Candrabindu (the first letter makes the same sound as, champion) is a sign written above a vowel to indicate that the vowel is nasalized (Snell, 11). The name candrabindu literally means moon-dot, and it is easy to see why: the symbol has two parts, a curve that looks like a half moon on its side, with a single dot hovering over it.

When discussing the consonants म (ma) and न (na), I stressed the fact that these letters are always nasal—to pronounce these two letters, you must force air up through the nose.

Most of the Devanagari vowels can either be nasalized or unnasalized. To see the difference, first say the English word hock. Now say the English word honk. Say them together: hock honk. The difference is that in the first word, hock, virtually no air is forced up through the nose. However, with honk you instinctively allow much of the breath to pass through your nasal cavities. Thus, the ā sound in honk is nasalized, while it is not in hock.

Don't think that nasalization simply means the presence of the letter n, because the vowel in honk is nasalized without pronouncing the n at all. I simply provide the word for you to practice making a nasalized ā sound. In fact, you should be able to pronounce the first part of honk without pronouncing nk at all (that is, without your tongue ever touching the top of your mouth) and still be able to hear the difference between the sounds of the nasalized and unnasalized vowel sound. A nasalized vowel does not mean that you end it by making the English n sound with your tongue.

A nasalized vowel, then, sounds exactly like the normal vowel except that air is forced through the nose. To indicate a nasalized vowel, the sign ँ or candrabindu is placed above the horizontal line from which the vowel hangs. (Remember that your browser may use a dotted circle to indicate that candrabindu is meant to be combined with another letter; this dotted circle is not part of the symbol.)

Thus, if the vowel of our two English words hock and honk were to be transliterated into Hindi, the words would appear as हाक and हाँक, which means that the mātrā ा (ā) has been nasalized by adding a ँ (candrabindu).

Anusvār ं

If the letter above which the candrabindu is placed already has marks above its horizontal line, a modified form of candrabindu is used: ं (a single dot), called anusvār. (Once again the dotted circle, if shown in your browser, is not part of the letter.) For example, to show the nasalized form of the letter औ (au), we would add an anusvār above the horizontal line, creating औँ. Either form—either the full candrabindu or the anusvār dot—means the same thing: the vowel is pronounced by forcing the breath through the nose. In fact the use of anusvār is becoming more prevalent, and it is never incorrect to use just the dot, whether or not there are other marks above the letter (Snell, The Hindi Script, 23).

In this tutorial, I have chosen to indicate vowels that have candrabindu/anusvār by placing a tilde ~ over the vowel. Thus, we will transliterate हाँ as hā̃. (This follows ISO 15919 8.1 Rule 5 and Snell, Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script, 45.) There are several common ways to indicate nasalized vowels, including capitalization of the vowel (hĀ) and the use of an m with a dot (hāṃ). I have chosen the tilde as it can be added to vowels, functioning in transliterated sentences similar to candrabindu, without artificially adding a new letter.