Learn how to transcribe Hindi using the Latin alphabet
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Intro |
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| Alisha: How many types of Hindi romanization are there? |
| Shakti: And which one is the most common? |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Gabriel Garcia is a student and he is studying with his friend Khushbu Khan. Gabriel Garcia is confused about Hindi romanization, so he asks Khushbu, "Is there only one type of Devanagari transliteration?" |
| गैबरियल: क्या सिर्फ़ एक तरह की देवनागरी लिप्यन्तरण है? (kyaa Sirf ek Tarah kii DevaNaagarii LipyaNTaran hai?) |
| Dialogue |
| गैबरियल: क्या सिर्फ़ एक तरह की देवनागरी लिप्यन्तरण है? (kyaa Sirf ek Tarah kii DevaNaagarii LipyaNTaran hai?) |
| Khushbu Khan: नहीं, और भी हैं। (Nahiin, aur bhii hain.) |
| Alisha: Once more with the English translation. |
| गैबरियल: क्या सिर्फ़ एक तरह की देवनागरी लिप्यन्तरण है? (kyaa Sirf ek Tarah kii DevaNaagarii LipyaNTaran hai?) |
| Alisha: "Is there only one type of Devanagari transliteration?" |
| ख़ुशबू: नहीं, और भी हैं। (Nahiin, aur bhii hain.) |
| Alisha: "No, there are more." |
Lesson focus |
| Alisha: Hindi is written in the Devanagari script, which is completely different from the Roman and Latin script used for languages such as English. In India, English is the most common language used for professional and higher education and there are a lack of keyboards available with the Devanagari letters. In addition, computer education is mostly in English. As a result, most software and user interfaces released in India are made using English. |
| Shakti: Because of this, most Hindi speakers started typing Hindi using the Roman script. |
| Alisha: Even after Devanagari was added to Unicode, many people were not aware of how to use it or simply felt that it was easier to type Hindi in Roman script rather than in Devanagari script. |
| Shakti: With the advent of the mobile internet, typing Hindi in the Roman script became more common simply because it was much easier to do so or there was no option of typing in Hindi letters. |
| Alisha: But that doesn't mean Hindi speakers don't use Hindi on the internet. The increasing popularity of Hindi websites is proof that the audience for Hindi is going up with every passing year, but many people still find it easier to type Hindi in Roman script. |
| Shakti: However, most people don't follow any specific transliteration or romanization schemes. The result is that Hindi transliteration used by one person may be different from what is used by another person. |
| Alisha: Yes, there are inconsistencies between the transliterations used from one person to another, but transliteration isn't just useful for Hindi native speakers. It is also quite useful for people who are learning Hindi or want to learn Hindi because it allows the learner to learn the sounds of the Hindi letters in their own script using standard romanization conventions. |
| Shakti: In addition to this, by using standard transliteration conventions, you can easily convert your romanized Hindi text into Devanagari using certain tools, such as the popular Google Input Tools! |
| Alisha: Yes, this comes in very handy for people who know how to speak Hindi, but don't know the written script—or for people who have just begun to learn Hindi, but still are not very comfortable with the written script. |
| Shakti: And even for native Hindi speakers, who don't know how to type into a computer, directly using a Devanagari font. |
| Alisha: This brings us to the common methods of transliteration used for Hindi. The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration or IAST is one of these methods. It is a subset of the ISO 15919 standard and is a losslessly reversible method. |
| Shakti: This means, if you type Hindi using this method and use the right tool to convert your script into Devanagari, your Hindi script will be almost perfect! |
| Alisha: Another method is the Hunterian system, developed by William Wilson Hunter in the nineteenth century. It was adopted by the Government of India because of its simplicity initially. However, it has been criticized widely because of its inability to produce phonetically accurate results and the inability to differentiate between dental and retroflex sounds. Therefore, its use has become quite limited in this computer age. |
| Shakti: Other methods include the National Library at Kolkata romanization, an extension of the IAST. The ISO 15919, which is meant for all South Asian languages, is another one. |
| Alisha: Then, there are the ASCII schemes such as Harvard Kyoto and its extension, the ITRANS scheme, and Velthius and SLP1. |
| Shakti: Most of these methods are quite similar to each other as far as transliteration of consonants is concerned. For instance, Devanagari consonants have an implicit "a" sound. Listen to the first three consonants of the Hindi alphabet system - क (ka), ख (kha), and ग (ga). They all add an "a" after the letters, "k-a," "k-h-a," and "g-a." |
| Alisha: So, instead of writing "k," you write "k plus a," instead of "k-h" you write "kh plus a," instead of "g," you write "g plus a." But, keep in mind that there are some differences in how some of the consonants may be romanized in the various methods. Some may use diacritics to differentiate between sounds, some may not. There are also differences in how the methods transliterate vowels. |
| Shakti: Yes, for example, the Hindi vowel आ (aa) is transliterated with a macron on top of the letter "a" in the IAST and ISO 15919 systems. |
| Alisha: A "macron" is a straight bar at the top of a letter and is mostly used to mark a long vowel. So, how do the Harvard Kyoto and ITRANS systems transliterate this vowel? |
| Shakti: The Harvard Kyoto uses the English capital letter "A" for this, whereas the ITRANS may use the capital letter "A" or "a plus a" for this. |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we use our own romanization method, which is devised to help you, the learner, understand the differences between similar sounds in Hindi. It also aims to help you understand sounds you might be hearing for the first time! |
| Shakti: For example, let's take these two consonants: त (Ta) ट (ta). |
| Alisha: Notice how similar they are. The first one is dental, that is, your tongue touches the upper teeth while you are saying this, |
| Shakti: त (Ta). |
| Alisha: The second one is retroflex, that is, while making this sound, the tip of your tongue curls back. |
| Shakti: ट (ta). |
| Alisha: For the first sound, we use a capital "T" in our lessons: |
| Shakti: त (Ta). |
| Alisha: For the second sound, we use a small "t' in our lessons, |
| Shakti: ट (ta). |
| Alisha: And do we add the letter "a" after the consonants too? |
| Shakti: Yes, we do! For example, त (Ta) will be transliterated as "capital letter T plus a." |
| Alisha: Let's look at an example that will help us understand why we can't switch between the two sounds. |
| Shakti: Sure! Let's take the Hindi word तन (TaN), which means "body." |
| Alisha: Listen to it once more. |
| Shakti: तन (TaN). तन (TaN). Now, let's replace the त (Ta) here with ट (ta). We get टन (taN). |
| Alisha: This is the same as the unit of weight we use in English! See how you can end up saying an entirely different word if you don't know the correct pronunciation? Let's hear a few more examples and let's also hear how we transliterate these consonants. |
| Shakti: Here are two more similar examples. द (Da), like in the Hindi word दिल (DiL) meaning "heart." The second one is ड (da) like in the Hindi डर (dar) meaning "fear." We transliterate द (Da) with the "capital letter D plus a" and ड (da) as "small letter d plus a." |
| Alisha: Interesting and very helpful indeed! What about vowels? How are vowels transliterated at HindiPod101.com? |
| Shakti: We use a single letter "a" for the short vowel अ (a) and an "a plus a" for the long vowel आ (aa). Similarly, we use a single letter "i" for the short vowel इ (i) and an "i plus i" for the long vowel ई (ii)—and so on with the other vowels. |
| Alisha: A consonant is romanized using the implicit "a" if there is no other vowel attached. |
| Shakti: We don't transliterate the short vowel अ (a), if a word ends with it. If a vowel is present, the implicit "a" is replaced with the transliteration of that vowel. |
| Alisha: Let's take a simple Hindi word and understand the difference here. |
| Shakti: The Hindi word for "work" is काम (kaam). This is composed of क (ka) + आ (aa) + म (ma). We will transliterate this as "k-a-a-m." |
| Alisha: That is, "k plus a plus a plus m." |
| Shakti: Yes! But if we remove the long vowel आ (aa), we get कम (kam). |
| Alisha: This is a completely different word and it means "less" or "lower." So, this will be transliterated as "k plus m"? |
| Shakti: Yes, "k-a-m." |
| Alisha: We also need to differentiate between aspirated and unaspirated consonants in Hindi. In Hindi, aspirated consonants are similar to their corresponding unaspirated ones, except that they are followed by a forceful expulsion of air. Let's take an example. |
| Shakti: ज (ja) is the unaspirated consonant. |
| Alisha: If you follow this up with a forceful expulsion of air, you get the aspirated consonant. |
| Shakti: झ (jha). |
| Alisha: Listen to the consonants again. |
| Shakti: ज (ja). झ (jha). |
| Alisha: You can identify the aspirated consonants in the romanization if you see an "h" after the unaspirated consonant. |
| Shakti: Yes, ज (ja) is transliterated as "j plus a" and झ (jha) is transliterated as "j plus h plus a." But remember, don't confuse it with the Hindi consonant ह (ha)! |
| Alisha: At HindiPod101.com, we use capital letters to transliterate only dental consonants. Dental consonants are those that are spoken with the tongue against the upper teeth. For the rest of the consonants, we use small letters in the romanization. |
Outro |
| Alisha: We hope you have learned a little bit about the romanization methods used for Hindi. Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Shakti: फिर मिलेंगे! (phir miLenge!) |
| Alisha: See you soon! |
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