Assamese consonant clusters

Assamese or Asamiya consonant clusters include thirty three pure consonant letters in Assamese alphabet and each letter represents a single sound with an inherent vowel, the short vowel /a /.

Contents

• Classification
• Halant
• Consonant Conjuncts
• Anuxr
• Candrabindu
• Bixarg
• References

The first twenty-five consonants letters are called ‘sparxa barna’. These ‘sparxa barnas’ are again divided into five ‘bargs’. Therefore, these twenty-five letters are also called ‘bargia barna’.

The Assamese consonants are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel ô. The inherent vowel is assumed and not written, thus, names of most alphabets look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter ঘ is itself ঘ ghô).

Some letters have lost their distinctive pronunciation in modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called nô; instead, they are called ন dôntiya nô ("dental n"), ণ murdhôinnya nô ("cerebral n"), and ঞ niô.

Similarly, the phoneme /x/ can be written as শ talôibbya xô ("palatal x"), ষ murdhôinnya xô ("cerebral x"), or স dôntiya xô ("dental x"), the phoneme/s/ can be written using চ prôthôm sô ("first s") or ছ ditiyô sô ("second s"), and the phoneme /z/ can be written using জ bôrgiya zô ("row z" = "the z included in the five rows of stop consonants") or য ôntôsthô zô ("z situated between" = "the z that comes between the five rows of stop consonants and the row of sibilants"), depending on the standard spelling of the particular word.