| Devanāgarī | IAST | HK | approximate pronunciation | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| independent | vowel sign | English | IPA | ||
| अ | ¡@ | a | a | gut | ʌ |
| आ | ा | ā | A | father | aː |
| इ | ि | i | i | pin | i |
| ई | ी | ī | I | pea | iː |
| उ | ु | u | u | push | u |
| ऊ | ू | ū | U | moo | uː |
| ऋ | ृ | ṛ | R | some American dialect pronunciations of bird | r̩ |
| ॠ | ॄ | ṝ | RR | the same, but longer and rolled | r̩ː |
| ऌ | ॢ | ḷ | L | pickle | l̩ |
Unlike in English, ṛ, ṝ, and ḷ are treated as vowels. Some grammarians mention ॡ ḹ, a longer version of ḷ, but this does not actually occur in Sanskrit and seems to have been created by analogy with the other vowels. Technically speaking, ṝ never occurs in the language at a purely phonetic level. It, however is seen in the genitive plural of vocalic-r stems (मातृ mātṛ mother; पितृ pitṛ father; gen.pl.मातॄणाम् and पितॄणाम् mātṝṇām and pitṝṇām etc.) and explains irregularities in the conjugation of verbs such as dṝ "to tear", and kṝ "to scatter".