Devanagari conjuncts explained

Conjunct consonants are a form of orthographic ligature characteristic of the Brahmic scripts. They are constructed of more than two consonant letters. Biconsonantal conjuncts are common, but longer conjuncts are increasingly constrained by the languages' phonologies and the actual number of conjuncts observed drops sharply. Ulrich Stiehl includes a five-letter Devanagari conjunct र्त्स्न्य (rtsny)^[1] among the top 360 most frequent conjuncts found in Classical Sanskrit; the complete list appears below. Another five-letter conjunct, ङ्क्ष्ण्व (ṅkṣṇv) is possible.^[2] Conjuncts often span a syllable boundary, and many of the conjuncts below occur only in the middle of words, where the coda consonants of one syllable are conjoined with the onset consonants of the following syllable.

Biconsonantal conjuncts

The table below shows all 1296 combinations of two Sanskrit letters. The table is formed by collating the 36 consonants of Sanskrit plus Undetermined: ळ (which is not used in Sanskrit), as listed in . Not all of these form conjuncts (these instead show a halanta under the first letter), and the number that do will vary with the Devanagari font installed. There is variation in the conjuncts that are in use for any given language. Some of the combinations below that do not form conjuncts may not be viable combinations in any language.

The romanization (in ISO 15919^[3]) and IPA of each conjunct will appear with mouseover.

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Tri-, tetra- and penta-consonantal conjuncts

Letter	Triconsonantal conjuncts	Tetra-consonantal conjuncts	Penta-consonantal conjuncts
क	क्त्र ktr क्त्व ktv क्ष्ण kṣṇ क्ष्म kṣm क्ष्य kṣy	क्ष्ण्य kṣṇy
ग	ग्ध्र gdhr ग्न्य gny ग्र्य gry
ङ	ङ्क्त ṅkt ङ्क्र ṅkr ङ्क्ष ṅkṣ	ङ्क्ष्य ṅkṣy
च	च्छ्य cchy च्छ्र cchr
ज	ज्ज्य jjy ज्ज्व jjv
ण	ण्ड्य ṇḍy ण्ड्र ṇḍr ण्ड्व ṇḍv
त	त्क्र tkr त्क्व tkv त्क्ष tkṣ त्त्न ttn त्त्र ttr त्त्व ttv त्प्र tpr त्प्ल tpl त्र्य try त्स्न tsn त्स्य tsy त्स्व tsv
द	द्ग्र dgr द्द्य ddy द्द्र ddr द्ध्म ddhm द्ध्व ddhv द्ब्र dbr द्व्य dvy
न	न्त्य nty न्त्र ntr न्द्ध nddh न्द्र ndr न्ध्य ndhy न्ध्र ndhr
प	प्त्र ptr प्स्य psy
म	म्प्र mpr
र	र्ग्य rgy र्ग्र rgr र्घ्य rghy र्ङ्ग rṅg र्ज्य rjy र्ढ्य rḍhy र्ण्य rṇy र्त्त rtt र्त्म rtm र्त्य rty र्त्र rtr र्त्स rts र्द्ध rddh र्द्र rdr र्द्व rdv र्ध्म rdhm र्ध्र rdhr र्ध्व rdhv र्म्य rmy र्स्व rsv र्ष्ण rṣṇ र्ष्म rṣm र्ष्य rṣy	र्त्त्र rttr र्ष्ट्र rṣṭr	र्त्स्न्य rtsny
ष	ष्क्र ṣkr ष्क्व ṣkv ष्ट्व ṣṭv ष्ठ्य ṣṭhy ष्प्य ṣpy ष्म्य ṣmy
स	स्त्य sty स्त्र str

Most frequent conjuncts

These are the 360 most-frequent conjuncts in Sanskrit:^[4]

References

Works cited

• Book: Masica, Colin P. . The Indo-Aryan Languages . 1991 . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge . 0-521-29944-6.

Notes and References

1. As in Sanskrit word कार्त्स्न्य (In Bengali Script কার্ৎস্ন্য), meaning "the whole, entirety"
2. When the "mordaceous" meaning adjective दङ्क्ष्णु (daṅkṣṇu) becomes दङ्क्ष्ण्वोः (daṅkṣṇvoḥ) if inflected through Dual Masculine/Feminine Genitive & Locative cases. A close example is found in śloka 15, chapter 15 of Vājasaneyi-saṃhitā, from Śukla Yajurveda.
   पुञ्जिकस्थला च क्रतुस्थला चाप्सरसौ दङ्क्ष्णवः पशवो हेतिः पौरुषेयो वधः प्रहेतिस्तेभ्यो नमो अस्तु ते नोऽवन्तु ते नो मृडयन्तु ते यं द्विष्मो यश्च नो द्वेष्टि तमेषां जम्भे दध्मः
   puñjikasthalā ca kratusthalā cāpsarasau daṅkṣṇavaḥ paśavo hetiḥ pauruṣeyo vadhaḥ prahetistebhyo namo astu te no'vantu te no mṛḍayantu te yaṃ dviṣmo yaśca no dveṣṭi tameṣāṃ jambhe dadhmaḥ
3. The romanization shown is identical to IAST, except that Undetermined: ळ has the ISO value ḷ, whereas IAST duplicates l for it.
4. Web site: Stiehl. Ulrich. Devanagari-Schreibübungen. www.sanskritweb.net. 24 July 2017.