Gujarati Lesson 2 - Alphabets
The Gujarati Alphabet contains 13 vowels and thirty six consonants. The characters are an imperfect modifiction of the Sanskrit alphabet and are read from left to right.
The following are the 13 vowels
અ આ ઇ ઈ ઉ ઊ ઋ એ ઐ ઓ ઔ અઁ અ:
Of the 13 vowels in Gujarati 8 vowels have the same basic shape which is
અ (a) - the short vowel
When you learn the other vowels which have this basic shape, you can also learn the corresponding vowel sign.
For the long vowel aa -
આ (aa) - the long vowel
Take the consonant ka. For kaa you just have a vertical line(should say more like handwriting English smaller letter l) next to it.
ક(ka) કા(kaa)
મ(ma) મા(maa)
લ(la) લા(laa)
સ(sa) સા(saa)
Take the list of Gujarati consonants and practise writing the long vowel sign by adding a vertical line.
Also remember,
ક(ka) મ(ma) લ(la) સ(sa)
Try to remember the above consonants, as we will use these for practising our vowels and vowel
signs. All consonants have an inherent a vowel sound. So there is no sign for it. So
ક is ka rather than k as in English.
So read the following words
કામ - kaam
માલ - maal
માલા - maalaa
સાલ - saal
Try to make flashcards for each letter and try to add the vowel sign and with two consonants try
to make new words. Just join up the characters even if words need not have any meaning. It will help you familiarize the words.