Devanagari transliteration
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This article describes some features of transliteration from Devanagari into Roman scripts.
Pronunciation of the final \"a\"
Many words and names transliterated from Devanagari end with the letter "a", to indicate the pronunciation in the original Sanskrit. This final 'inherent a' is often no longer pronounced in some Sanskrit-derived Indian languages, including Hindi. This results in an alternative, 'modern' transliteration that omits it.
- Sanskrit: Mahābhārata, Rāmāyaņa, Śiva
- Hindi: Mahābhārat, Rāmāyaņ, Śiv
e.g; Kriśna, vajra, Maurya
Some Indian languages continue to use the original pronunciation today. Some have an intermediate pronunciation.
Retroflex consonants
Most Indian languages make a distinction between the retroflex and dental forms of the dental consonants. In IAST transliteration, the retroflex forms are ḍ, ṭ, ṇ and ṣ. In formal transliteration schemes, the standard Roman letters are used to indicate the dental form, and the retroflex form is indicated by special marks, or the use of other letters.
In most informal transliterations the distinction between retroflex and dental consonants is not indicated.
Aspirated consonants
Where the letter "h" appears after a plosive consonant in Devanagari transliteration, it always indicates aspiration, thus "ph" is pronounced as the p in "pit" (with a small puff of air released as it is said) never as the ph in "photo". On the other hand "p" is pronounced as the p in "spit" with no release of air. Similarly "th" is an aspirated "t", neither the th of "this" or the th of "thin".
The aspiration is generally indicated in both formal and informal transliteration systems.
See also: IAST, National Library at Calcutta romanization, ITRANS
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