ੜ - ੜਾੜਾ - Rdaardaa - thirty-fifth letter of the Gurmukhi alphabet.
| Name: |
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Rdaardaa |
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| Shape: |
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ੜ |
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| Spelling: |
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ੜਾੜਾ |
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| Sound: |
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'r' as the 'r' in 'real' but with the tongue further back. This sound is like an 'r' followed immediately by a 'd' - hence it often being written in Roman text as 'rd'. |
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| Type: |
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Consonant |
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| Mouth: |
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This has no equivalent in English. Make a 't' shape with your tongue but instead of the front of your tongue touching the tooth ridge, make the tip of your tongue amost touch the roof of your mouth further back, towards your soft palette. Then, start the sound and move your tongue forward slightly so that it seals with the roof of your mouth and then quickly breaks the seal, making the 'rd' sound. Many people have problems with this. |
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| Tongue: |
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Curved so that the tip of your tongue virtually touches the roof of your mouth, further back, towards your soft palette. |
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| Soft Palette: |
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blocking nose |
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| Lips: |
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apart |
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| Vocal Chords: |
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Used |
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| Aspirated: |
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no |
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| Confusion: |
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ਤ ੜ ਡ |
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| Reading: |
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ੜ can be confused with ਤ, ਡ and ਭ:
ੜ (RdaRdaa) has two pointy bits at the bottom;
ਤ (Tattaa) has no pointy bits at the bottom;
ਡ (Diddaa) has a loop at a bottom instead of pointy bits; and,
ਭ (Bhabhaa) has a loop in the middle.
You have been warned. |
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| Writing: |
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ਤ, ਡ and ਭ can all be confused with each other although you soon get used to it:
ੜ (RdaRdaa) has two pointy bits at the bottom;
ਤ (Tattaa) has no pointy bits; and,
ਡ (Diddaa) has the loop at the bottom. This is quite easy to draw by mistake when writing the first point of ੜ so just make sure that you write a point that doesn't look like a loop. Use the second point to help differentiate between the two if you do happen to make it look a bit like a ਡ by mistake. |
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