The Odia Alphabet: Vowels, Consonants and Vowel Signs

The building blocks of the Odia script: vowel letters, the first group of consonants, and the vowel signs that join vowels to consonants.

Vowels (ସ୍ୱରବର୍ଣ୍ଣ)

Odia is usually taught with about a dozen vowel letters (counts vary depending on whether rare letters such as ୠ, ଌ and ୡ are included). Let's start with the most common ones:

Practice These!

Try writing each vowel 5 times:

ଅ ଅ ଅ ଅ ଅ
ଆ ଆ ଆ ଆ ଆ
ଇ ଇ ଇ ଇ ଇ

Consonants (ବ୍ୟଞ୍ଜନବର୍ଣ୍ଣ)

Odia has more than 30 consonants (exact counts vary between primers). Let's learn the first group of five, the କ-ବର୍ଗ (ka-barga):

Your First Words

Let's combine what you've learned:

• କା (kā) = "caw" (sound a crow makes)
• ଖା (khā) = "eat" (command)
• ଗୋ (go) = "cow" (a Sanskrit word used in compounds such as ଗୋମାତା; the everyday Odia word is ଗାଈ, gāī)

Vowel signs (ମାତ୍ରା)

Each vowel has two forms. The vowel letter (ଆ, ଇ, ଉ …) is used on its own, at the start of a word or syllable. After a consonant, the vowel is written instead as a vowel sign (ମାତ୍ରା) attached to that consonant. A consonant with no sign already carries the inherent vowel a: କ is read ka.

So the sound kā is written କ + ା = କା, not କଆ. When typing on a phone or computer, choose the vowel sign after the consonant, not the vowel letter.

Practice Exercise

Read these syllables; each is a consonant plus a vowel sign:

1. କ + ା = କା (kā)
2. ଖ + ି = ଖି (khi)
3. ଗ + ୁ = ଗୁ (gu)

Now spot the difference: ଆମ୍ବ (āmba, mango) starts with the vowel letter ଆ because the word begins with a vowel; କାମ (kāma, work) uses the vowel sign ା after କ.

Key Takeaway

Odia letters are round, which is traditionally explained by writing on palm leaves with a stylus: long straight lines could split the leaf.

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Next in this reference series: Odia numbers. For guided practice, the interactive course starts with greetings and introduces the script along the way.