-
Guide to Transliteration, Glossary of Terms, and List of Names
- Wesleyan University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
153 Guide to Transliteration, Glossary of Terms, and List of Names Hindi and Urdu pose many puzzles for transliteration. There is no perfect way to move between Devanagri, Urdu, and Latin script. Urdu script, for example, often uses the same letter for the various nasal sounds n, ñ, ṅ, and n ˙ ; Devanagari script often uses a single letter for the stops k and q. There is also a range of conventions about when to write and pronounce the inherent short a vowel at the ends of syllables. Furthermore, depending on who is speaking, and in what context, fine phonemic distinctions between n and n ˙ , kh and k ˙ h, or ś and s ˙ may not appear in ordinary speech. The intention here is not to present an exhaustive, one-to-one system of transliteration, but simply to provide a guide for pronunciation, and to eliminate any ambiguity in the meaning of the words used in this book, so that, for example, bahār (spring) is not confused with bāhar (outside). Vernacular Hindi-Urdu spellings and pronunciations have generally been preferred over Arabic, Persian, and Sanskrit ones. Thus, ris ˙ abh is given instead of the Sanskrit r ˙ s ˙ abh, and tabla instead of the Arabic t ˙ abl, etc. No special Latin characters are used to transliterate Arabic letters such as ‘ayin and s ˙ ād, or Sanskrit letters such as the vowels r ˙ and r ˙¯, which are sometimes preserved in scholarly writing, but which are pronounced in the same way as common letters in spoken Hindi-Urdu. The one exception is the retro- flex labial approximant //, transliterated as l ˙ , which is found in many of the Maharashtrian names transliterated below. The table shows the sounds indicated by each of the Latin characters used in the glossary. Urdu letters are given in initial or independent forms. Despite the awkward appearance, I hope the sound that is intended in each case will be unambiguous. “Dental” indicates a sound produced with the tongue against the teeth; “retroflex” indicates a sound produced with the tongue farther back in the mouth, against the alveolar ridge. “Aspirated” Guide to Transliteration / 154 indicates a sound produced with a clear expulsion of breath; “unaspirated” indicates that the breath is retained. The Latin characters that are used in the glossary to indicate pronunciation are given in the left-hand column; an English equivalent (if any) is given in the next column; the third column contains notes on pronunciation . The far rightmost columns give the applicable Urdu and Hindi characters ; the next column to the left gives an example of a Hindi-Urdu word spelled according to this system. a ahead tabla father sit r ai shell taiy r au cough aurat b back bandi bh clubhouse lagbhag c chip unaspirated camp ch match head cho d diablo dental, like Spanish 'd' darg h dh band house as above, but aspirated bodhi guard retroflex a h bird house as above, but aspirated h b e pale pure /e/ vowel; no dipthong bhed f fun f rs g gut r g gh jug head ghar gh voiced velar fricative / / like French 'r' ghul m h hover Hindust n i tin Sindh [54.204.117.206] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:19 GMT) Guide to Transliteration / 155 spleen Gujar t j jungle jangal jh hedge hog jhapt l k cool unaspirated karma kh back hoe r kh h Bach hy l l lemon gul b in Marathi: retroflex labial approximant / / Kash kar m melon Mah r ra n noon dental Guru N nak ring ra gol ñ onion Rañjan corner retroflex / / Ga e o hotel pure /o/ vowel; no dipthong op p Punjabi unaspirated Panj b ph pump house ph lw l q qur'an uvular plosive /q/, far back in throat qismat r tortilla tapped like Spanish /r/ riy z flapped retroflex / / something like 'border' paka h as above, but aspirated / / something like 'guard her' ba h s sing sarod shine madhu l hush sometimes retroflex / / often pronounced like ri abh t splint dental, like Spanish 't' t np r th splint hand as above, but aspirated th n Guide to Transliteration / 156 glossary of terms action understanding—apprehending physical movement as an action (intentional, goal-oriented, conscious) undertaken by a subject, rather than mere mechanical behavior exhibited by an object. alap (ālāp)—slow, unmetered melodic exposition of a rāga preceding the bandish; more broadly, any melodic improvisation. amad (āmad)—a melodic line leading to the mukhr...