And now let’s learn about how the letter ‘vaao’ may be used to create three long-vowels - ‘o’, ‘au’ and ‘oo’ . We’ll see the diacritics zabar and pesh in action again to create these sounds.

First, let’s look at the long-vowel ‘o’ (Devanagari: ओ | IPA: /o:/ | Pronunciation:   ) . As a vowel, this creates the sound of ‘o’ (ओ) as in “oak” , “note” etc. or as in Hindi words such as - “ओट”, “मोर”, “दो” etc.Here’s how its written:

Above: The long-vowel 'o'.

Here’s a break-down of the example shown above:

Above: How the long-vowel sound ‘o’ is formed

Using this logic, let’s look at the word - “or” (ओर):

Above: ‘alif’ + ‘vaao’ + ‘re’ = "or"

Here’s another example where the long-vowel ‘o’ appears in the initial position, the word - “o.Dhnaa” (ओढ़ना):

Above: ‘alif’ + ‘vaao’ + ‘.Dh’ + ‘nuun’ + ‘alif’ = “o.Dhnaa”

Let’s take an example where the long-vowel ‘o’ appears in the middle of a word. Here’s how the word “Dor” (डोर) is written:

Above: ‘Daal’ + ‘vaao’ + ‘re’ = “Dor”

Here, the letter ‘vaao’ takes upon the sound of ‘o’ all by itself as it appears in the medial position and therefore, does not require the ‘alif’ before it in the word “Dor”.

Above: ‘jiim’ + ‘vaao’ + ‘.De’ = “jo.D”

Now that we’ve seen ‘vaao’ creating the sound of ‘o’ in the initial and medial positions, let’s finally look at how it does the same in the final position. From the previous example, let’s do away with the ‘.De’ and look at the word “jo” (जो ):

Above: ‘jiim’ + ‘vaao’ = “jo”

We can clearly see that in the final position, ‘vaao’ takes on the long-vowel sound ‘o’ all by itself again. Here’s another example:

Above: ‘re’ + ‘vaao’ = “ro”

Here’s yet another example, in this case, the word - “baano” (बानो):

Above: ‘be’ + ‘alif’ + ‘nuun’ + ‘vaao’ = “baano”

10.2.1: Some more words

Let’s get to learn some more words with this new-found knowledge!

Next up, let’s look at the other two long-vowel sounds ‘au’ and ‘oo’ .