Nimadi Script & Letters

Nimadi, written निमाड़ी, takes its name from Nimar (निमाड़), the stretch of the Narmada valley in south-western Madhya Pradesh. It is the home language of millions of people in villages and towns such as Khargone, Khandwa, Barwani and Burhanpur, and it lives above all in speech and song: Singaji bhajans, Gangaur songs, Gammat theatre and, today, YouTube videos and WhatsApp jokes. Children learn to read and write in Hindi at school, so when Nimadi is written down it is written in Devanagari, with the letters and spelling habits of Hindi.

Nimadi has no widely taught standard spelling, so this page gives the standard Devanagari letters Nimadi writing actually uses: twelve vowels with their signs, the 33 consonants of the school chart (the varnamala), the flapped ड़ and ढ़, and the signs that sit on letters. ऋ and ऑ appear mainly in names and in words from Hindi and English (कृष्ण, डॉक्टर). Letters only Sanskrit needs (ऌ, ॠ, ॡ) and the dotted letters Hindi keeps for Persian and Arabic sounds (क़ ख़ ग़ ज़ फ़) are left out; if you need one, add the nukta ़ to the plain letter.

How Devanagari letters work in Nimadi words

Devanagari is an abugida: each consonant already carries the vowel a, so न reads na. Other vowels are added as signs called matras: ना नि नी नु नू ने नै नो नौ. The full vowel letters अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ए ऐ ओ औ ऑ are used only at the start of a word or after another vowel. The name of the language is built this way: न + ि + म + ा + ड़ + ी gives निमाड़ी. Note that ि is drawn before the consonant it follows in speech, but you type it after.

The ड़ in निमाड़ी is the retroflex flap, a quick r-like tap of the tongue, written as ड with a dot below; the plain ड is a full d-like stop, as in खंडवा. To write two consonants with no vowel between them, add the halant ्: स + ् + त gives स्त, and fonts join many pairs into one shape, such as क्ष, त्र and ज्ञ. Nasal sounds use the dot ं (anusvara), as in खंडवा, or the moon-and-dot ँ (chandrabindu), as in गाँव (village). Bhajan books and aarti sheets often open with ॐ, the sacred syllable, which is one character of its own.

How to type Nimadi letters

There is no Nimadi keyboard; use a Hindi one, since the letters are the same. Windows: add Hindi under Settings › Time & language › Language & region and choose a Devanagari layout such as Hindi Traditional (INSCRIPT), then switch with Win + Space. In Word you can also type a code and press Alt + X: 0964 for the danda ।, 0950 for ॐ and 20B9 for ₹. On the English (India) keyboard layout, ₹ is Ctrl + Alt + 4.

Mac: System Settings › Keyboard › Input Sources offers Devanagari, Devanagari – QWERTY and Hindi – Transliteration; the last lets you type nimadi in Latin letters and pick निमाड़ी. Phones: add Hindi in Gboard or the iPhone keyboard; Gboard can also turn Latin typing into Devanagari, which is a common way to write bhajan lyrics and comments. HTML: । for ।, ् for the halant, ॐ for ॐ and ₹ for ₹. Or tap any letter on this page to copy it.

Where the Nimadi language is spoken

CLDR estimates about 1.8 million speakers of Nimadi, all of them in India 🇮🇳. Its home is the Nimar region of south-western Madhya Pradesh, the Narmada and Tapti country around Khargone (West Nimar), Khandwa (East Nimar), Barwani and Burhanpur. The Indian census counts Nimadi as one of the mother tongues grouped under Hindi, so it is not one of India's scheduled languages, and Hindi remains the language of school, offices and signboards. Prices are in rupees, written ₹.

Grierson's Linguistic Survey of India treated Nimadi as a form of Rajasthani, close to Malvi, its northern neighbour on the Malwa plateau. Around it are Bhilali and Bhili in the hills to the west, Khandeshi to the south, and Marathi beyond, each with its own collection, as do Rajasthani, Hindi and India.

Narmada, Singaji, Gangaur and the emoji on this page

Life in Nimar runs along the Narmada 🌊, and people greet one another and the river with नर्मदे हर (Narmade Har). Lamps 🪔 glow at the evening aarti on the ghats of Maheshwar, the old Holkar capital of Ahilyabai, and Omkareshwar, whose Jyotirlinga temple 🛕 stands on an island said to be shaped like ॐ, the 🕉️ of posts and greetings. Maheshwar also gives its name to the Maheshwari sari 🥻, woven on handlooms in the town.

A much-loved Nimadi poet is the saint Singaji (संत सिंगाजी), whose bhajans are still sung to the drum 🪘 at his shrine in Khandwa district and in villages across the region. Gangaur, the spring festival of the goddess Gauri, fills Nimar with women's songs, and Gammat 🎭 is the region's folk theatre of songs and comic dialogue. From the fields come the bananas of Burhanpur 🍌, the chillies of Khargone 🌶️ and the Nimari breed of cattle 🐄, named after the region.