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Dzongkha (Tibetan) vs Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari)

Dzongkha (Tibetan) and Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari) sit in the same corner of the writing-system map — Grafle's Brahmic / Indic group — and players mix them up constantly. Here's the fastest way to tell them apart.

The tell

Tibetan-style letters hang from the top line with sharp descenders and dot separators (་); Devanagari's bar connects boxier letters with no dots.

Side by side

Dzongkha (Tibetan)

འགྲོ་བ་མི་རིགས་ག་ར་དབང་ཆ་འདྲ་མཉམ་འབད་སྐྱེས་ཡོདཔ་ཨིན།

བཀྲ་ཤིས་བདེ་ལེགས།

རྫོང་ཁ་ཡིག་གུ་མཛེས་ཏོག་ཏོ་ཨིན།

Dzongkha (Tibetan)'s own tells

  • Letters hang from a top line with sharp descenders, and syllables are separated by raised dots (་).

On signs in:

  • Bhutan

Full guide to recognizing Dzongkha (Tibetan) →

Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari)

सभी मनुष्य जन्म से स्वतंत्र और समान हैं।

नमस्ते, आप कैसे हैं?

सत्यमेव जयते।

Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari)'s own tells

  • A continuous horizontal bar runs along the top, connecting the letters into words.

On signs in:

  • India
  • Nepal

Full guide to recognizing Hindi / Nepali (Devanagari) →

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