स्ते - can some explain this character ?

[dakanga]

स्ते , which is the last character in commonly used Hindi greeting that can be used to say hello and goodbye

नमस्ते : often transliterated into : namaste

In Duolingo it teaches the characters :
न : na
म : ma

But I can not see where it teaches स्ते

1. Can someone explain more about this character ?
2. Why, perhaps, do you think, that this character is not in the Duolingo course ?

Others may also be interested in reading this article I found interesting about नमस्ते
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namaste

[dakanga]

from googling things, and after some time, this is so far the best answer I have found.

स्ते is a cluster character.
Formed from
स sa and त ta that is joined to form the cluster character of स्ते sta

Review by others of this, it would be very welcomed.

ref: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=975591

A final consonant is marked with the diacritic ्, called the virāma in Sanskrit, halanta in Hindi, and a "killer stroke" in English. This cancels the inherent vowel, so that from क्नय knaya is derived क्नय् knay. The halanta will often be used for consonant clusters when typesetting ligatures is not feasible.

Well the solutions is simple. For example, to type स्त instead of सत , cancel the inherent vowel. Type स + ् + त.

The halanta ् is at the same place than the "D" key on an English keyboard layout.

I am still needing more time to think on this. And also would love some better explanations.

[FurbyZeKat]

I am still needing more time to think on this. And also would love some better explanations.

I've no clue about Devanagari but I've read some of your interesting posts and stumbled upon this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devanagari_conjuncts

[dakanga]

thankyou
धन्यवाद
dhanyavaad
ध dha
न्य : combination of न n(a) + य ya
वा vaa (vā)
द d(a)

What you have shown me @FurbyZeKat is exactly what I need to be the key I am currently looking for!

[PtolemysXX]

One comment regarding स्ते - Devnagri consonants can be divided in two groups: those that contain the "pāī" (the vertical stroke symbolizing the intrinsic "a") and those that don't. The examples of the first group are: म ल व स etc. The second group includes ट ठ and so on. When you want to suppress the "a" in consonants of the first group you drop the "pāī" and stick the rest the next consonant (or else it would fall without the leg ); the halant is not needed - this is how स्ते is formed. The halant is used to remove the "a" from the second group of consonants (because they do not have the stroke that could be removed) and only when your typesetting tool does not allow the fancier ligatures as shown in the table quoted by @FurbyZeKat .

The next complication to "ST" is "STR" like in the word for Australia: ऑस्ट्रेलिया

That "^" under the "ट" in स्ट्रे consists of two strokes: the one going from top to bottom right is the halant that removes the "a" from behind the "ट", the other stroke going from the top to the bottom left adds an "r" after that. Isn't that challenging?

I am not 100% sure whether what I write is correct; if not I hope that someone with better knowledge corrects that...

[dakanga]

In some more reading I have done, I have found out :

Halant is a synonym of virama.
ref:
https://wikidiff.com/virama/halant
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virama

And, insterestingly, in google translate
https://translate.google.com/?sl=en&tl= ... =translate
Virma is translated to हलन्त (halant).

Thanks for all you share @PtolemysXX . I would not have found this out, most likely (?) , or at least as quickly, without your assistance.