CONNECTORS

Letters of the ‘jiim’ group are Connectors. They take upon short-form(s) to join with the letters following them in a word.

5.4.1: Initial-position short-form with ‘alif’

And now, let’s look at what happens when we reverse the order of the ‘jiim’ and ‘alif’ in the example we saw above. For this, let’s take the word “jaa” (जा), meaning “place/space/occasion”:

Above: The word “jaa”

Notice how the ‘jiim’ changes shape in the word “jaa”. This is the initial-position short-form of ‘jiim’ group letters when connecting with an ‘alif’ in the word. Here are the short-forms for all four letters at a glance:

Above: Initial-position short-forms of the letters in the ‘be’ group when connecting with ‘alif’

To make things clearer, look at the comparative below illustrating this for the letter ‘jiim’:

Above: Comparative showing the letter ‘jiim’ in its full and short forms

Here’s the break-down of the word “jaa” we saw earlier:

Above: ‘jiim’ + ‘alif’ = “jaa”

Or, in short-form notation:

Above: Short-form of ‘jiim’ + ‘alif’ = “jaa”

Following that, here’s the word “jaan” (जान), meaning “life/lover/beloved”:

Above: ‘jiim’ + ‘alif’ + ‘nuun’ = “jaan”

Here’s another word - “chaaT” (चाट), meaning “mixed/consume/lick”:

Above: ‘che’ + ‘alif’ + ‘Te’ = “chaaT”

5.4.2: ‘be’and ‘nuun’medial-position short-form with‘jiim’

When connecting with letters from the ‘jiim’ group, ‘nuun’ and letters from the ‘be’ group take upon a different short-form. For example, look at the words “paa.nch” (पाँच), meaning “five”:

Above: The word “paa.nch”

Did you notice that initial-position short-form taken by the letters ‘be’ and ‘nuun’ up there? Here’s a comparative:

Above: Comparative showing the initial-position short-form of the letter ‘be’ when connecting with ‘jiim’

5.4.3: Some more words

Practice with some more words before things get even more interesting. Enjoy!