Review of Alphabets

The Khasi language uses 23 letters. The following order is how we learnt it in school:

Letters	Pronunciation Guide		Example in word Khasi (with meaning)
	English	हिंदी
A a	Same as ‘A’ in Ask	आ in आम	Khasi (Khasi person or language)
B b	Same as in English	बी	Bam (eat)
K k	Same as in English	के	Kot (paper or book)
D d	Same as in English	डी	Duwai (pray)
E e	Pronounced as the letter ‘A’ in the English alphabet	ऐ in ऐक	Em (no)
G g	Pronounced as ‘Eg’.	एग	Gospel (Same as English)
Ng ng	Pronunciation is close to the ‘Ng’ sound in the word ‘English’. Pronounced as ‘Eng’ not ‘Ing’.	इंग	Nga (I)
Hh	Pronounced as ‘Esh’.	एष	Ha (in/at)
I i	Pronounced as the letter ‘E’ in the English alphabet	Both ई in इंडिया	Shabi (key)
Ï ï	Pronounced as ‘Yee’	यी in यीशु	Ïew (market)
J j	Same as in English	जे	Jisu (Jesus)
L l	Same as in English	एल	Lama (flag)
M m	Same as in English	एम	Meiduh (youngest maternal aunt)
N n	Same as in English	एन	Na (from)
Ñ ñ	Pronunciation is close to the ‘Ny’ sound in word ‘Canyon’. Pronounce ‘N’ with the tip of the tongue underneath the top front teeth in the mouth. Spanish has this letter as in mañana or Español or El Niño.	Similar to ञ	Ñiew (count)
O o	Same as in English	ओ	Ong (say/tell)
P p	Same as in English	पि	Peit (see/look)
R r	Same as in English	अर	Rangbah (elder man)
S s	Same as in English	एस	Saw (four)
T t	Same as in English	टी	Tang (only)
U u	Pronounced as ‘U’ sound in Youth	ऊ	U (he)
W w	Same as in English	द्बिलिव	Wan (come)
Y y	Same as in English	वअई or something closer to the English letter Y	Used as a vowel. In actual word pronunciation the letter is either sounded as ‘o’, ‘u’ or closer to it or ‘i’. Ym (not); ‘y’ here has a ‘o’ or ‘u’ sound. Kyntiew (raise); ‘y’ here has an ‘i’ sound.

Audio:

Aa

Bb

Kk

Dd

Ee

Gg

NGng

Hh

Ii

Ïï

Jj

Ll

Mm

Nn

Ññ

Oo

Pp

Rr

Ss

Tt

Uu

Ww

Yy

PDF file: Khasi Alphabets