In this lesson, we will learn the pronunciation of the alphabet in Marathi.

Friends, In the beginning, we will write Marathi in the English script. So as to enable you to read it, we will decide some conventions for it.
Note that in some cases there is some difference in pronunciation when the capital letter is used instead of a small letter. e.g n/N ; t/T ; d/D

Go through it once. You may not remember all pronunciation now. But as and when you will use it in the sentence, come back to these rules and check it. After a few days, you will remember it automatically.

Also, I have mentioned Devanagari symbols. So later when we will start using Devanagari. you can refer this chart to get the sound for each symbol.

Let’s start studying Marathi vowels. In Marathi, vowels are added to consonants. Most of them are easy to pronounce, ऋ is slightly challenging. Marathi vowels retain much of their original Sanskrit pronunciation making some of them different from their Hindi counterparts. A notable example is औ (au), pronounced as an owl in Marathi but as Oxford in Hindi. ऑ (Ao) is a special vowel used for loan English words and is pronounced as in doctor.

or
https://soundcloud.com/kaushik-lele/pronunciation-of-vowels-in-marathi-learn-marathi

Pronunciation of ऋ(Ru) is different in Hindi and Marathi.
In Hindi ऋ(Ru)  is pronounced as रि(ri). Whereas in Marathi sound is similar to रु (ru).

Listen pronunciation of ऋ Ru
https://soundcloud.com/kaushik-lele/pronunciation-of-ru-learn-marathi

Now lets us learn consonants in Marathi. Many Marathi consonants come in three different forms: aspirated, unaspirated and retroflex.

Aspiration means with a puff of air and is the difference between the sound of the letter p in English pin (aspirated) and spit (unaspirated). Retroflex consonants, on the other hand, are not really found in English. They should be pronounced with the tongue tip curled back. Practice with a native speaker, or just pronounce as usual — you’ll usually still get the message across.