3. MāŧrāEn̐ (Vowel-Marks)
Every svar except अ has a mark or sign called māŧrā (मात्रा) or simply 'matra'. Because there is an inherent schwa in every consonant in ĐevaNāgarī, there is no separate māŧrā for अ.
The plural of māŧrā is māŧrāEn̐ (मात्राएँ; māŧrā/s).
These māŧrāEn̐ are applied to consonants to form syllables. To distinguish them from other vowel-related modifiers, we will call them mukh'ya māŧrāEn̐. Mukh'ya (मुख्य) means 'main' or 'prime'.
Some of these marks are applied above consonants, some below them, some before them, while the rest are applied after them. The māŧrāEn̐ which are applied after the consonants are the easiest, as their position follows the normal order of pronunciation.
A māŧrā which is applied before a consonant requires care while writing manually. As computers can re-order characters in a syllable automatically, we are required to type naturally (as per pronunciation), irrespective of where the māŧrā is to be applied. BTW, there is only one such māŧrā in ĐevaNāgarī — ि [chhotī Ī kī māŧrā]. Although it is displayed before the consonant, it is typed after the consonant in normal Unicode text.
In the following figure you can see svar/s (vowels and diphthongs) and their respective māŧrāEn̐. The dotted circles are just placeholders for base-letters (consonants). These dotted circles are only drawn by computers, so we can understand/see the relative position of these māŧrāEn̐.
For every vowel (except अ) and every diphthong, we have a separate māŧrā in ĐevaNāgarī.
When two consonants are to be pronounced separately, there must be a vowel sound between them.
Every consonant of ĐevaNāgarī has an inherent vowel 'a'. So when we simply write consecutive consonants in a word, we pronounce 'a' in-between these consonants.
E.g. 'कम' (Akṣhar-ka Akṣhar-ma) is pronounced as 'kam', similar to the usual pronunciation of the English word 'come'. In ĐevaNāgarī the last 'a' is not pronounced, so we don't pronounce 'कम' as 'kama'.
When we apply a māŧrā to a consonant, the inherent svar 'a' (schwa) is dropped and the vowel related to the māŧrā is pronounced. So if we apply a māŧrā 'ु' (māŧrā-u) to 'क' (Akṣhar-ka) and write a word 'कुम' (Akṣhar-ka māŧrā-u Akṣhar-ma) then we pronounce this word as 'kum'.
We generally remember which māŧrā is applicable in a spelling! But sometimes we may be unsure whether the pronunciation contains a short or long vowel, and consequently use the wrong māŧrā. With a bit of practice, however, we can generally select the proper māŧrā. In particular, we need to be careful to distinguish between ि [chhotī I (ee) kī māŧrā] and ी [baḍī EE kī māŧrā], and between ु [chhote U kī māŧrā] and ू [baḍe OO kī māŧrā].
Read a related article: How to Type
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