The following information is designed to give additional help beyond the transliteration table to Sanskrit users.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
% common_errors.txt Update 10 January 1996
Here is something we should expand as
`common mistakes and correct ways' to type sanskrit.
There are two types of errors. One is due to transliteration and other
due to wrong usage of Sanskrit terms or sandhiis.
We will use ITRANS as the transliteration scheme for explanation.
Those rules will be that of encoding and pronunciation.
One has to pay attention to some details, as one would do to write
Devanagari characters. Editting the text later to
make it aa-kaar or ii-kaar is time consuming, more so when the one who
is typing makes mistakes.
---------------------- Transliteration -----------------------------------
Transliteration specific corrections of common errors:
Use
aa or A instead of a for aa-kaar
uu or U instead of u or oo for uu-kaar
ii or I instead of i or ee for ii-kaar
e instead of E or ay (Telugu influence)
aM instead of am (word ending anusvaar)
aH instead of .h (visarga)
.h is used for half letter like m.h, t.h
aa_ii or aa{}ii to have two vowels together as in Hindi bhaa{}ii for brother
(_ may not work in some instances)
ka instead of kha (Tamil and Kannada influence), ka and kha are different
ga instead of gha (Tamil and Kannada influence), ga and gha are different
cha instead of ca (Indology or other transliteration influence)
chha instead of cha
ta instead of tha (Tamil and Kannada influence), ta and tha are different
da instead of dha (Tamil and Kannada influence), da and dha are different
da instead of dha (Tamil and Kannada influence), da and dha are different
va instead of ba (Bengali influence) va and ba are distinctly different.
shha instead of sha or sa, sha-shha-sa are three distinct.
ksh instead of kshh
GYa (hindi influence) instead of jjna or jJNa or dnya (Marathi influence)
Ta-Tha-Da-Dha-Na instead of ta-tha-da-dha-na
Watch for aaa, hh, nD, Nd combination.
----------------------- Sanskrit rules: -----------------------------------
To form conjunts with nasals, use
N^k, N^kh, N^g, N^gh
JNch, JNchh, JNj, JNjh
NT, NTh, ND, NDh
nt, nth, nd, ndh
mp, mph, mb, mbh
All the N^, JN, N, n, m can be replaced by .n(overdot), or the
pa, pha, ba, bha series m with M, to keep the printout and
pronunciation correct. The overdot is accepted way but is
technically incorrect, I guess, from pronunciation standpoint.
A word ending anusvaar with M followed by vowel becomes makaar
(word)M and a,aa,i,ii,u,uu,e,ai,o,au as a start of the following word
become, respectively,
ma, maa, mii, mu, muu, me, mai, mo, mau .
The word ending
k should be k.h as vaak.h and not vaak
m should be m.h as suresham.h and not suresham
t should be t.h as dhyaayet.h and not dhyaayet
and similar for ga, cha, Ta, et cetera.
Rules for visarga (H) ending word,
Most of the visarga-s become sh, sa, or shha depending on the first letter
of the following word.
H shhaT.h becomes shhshhaT.h
kaH chit.h becomes kashchit.h
vaaN^mayaH tvaM becomes vaaN^mayastvaM
Rules for avagraha
The vowel ending words when joined with a or aa-kaar words
an avagraha .a is put for a-kaar, two avagraha-s .a.a are used for aa-kaar
The first vowel may or may not change during this joining.
praNata asmi praNato.asmi
navama adhyaayaH navamo.adhyaayaH
loke asmin.h loke.asmin.h
tathaa aatmani tathaa.a.atmani
Other sandhii
tat.h dhaama taddhaama
Use
sattva instead of satva
tattva instead of tatva
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
This can be programmed to identify typing errors,
automatically, if such extraction can be programmed.
Here is the scheme inserted for reference
**********
The ITRANS 4.0 transliteration scheme is
vowels(svara): a aa(A) i ii(I) u uu(U) R^i R^I e ai o au aM aH L^i L^I
consonents(vya.njana):
k kh g gh N^ ch chh j jh JN T Th D Dh N t th d dh n p ph b bh m
y r l v sh shh s h L(Marathi) ksh(x) GY(Hindi)
q K G z f .D .Dh are the letters k, kh, g, j, ph, D, Dh with nuktaas for Urdu.
Both .n and M produce anusvaara, .a avagraha, .h haLa.nta (leg break), H visarga
Only a dot . or a vertical line | produce a da.nDa .
\. produces just a dot (puurNaviraama).
a.c and aa.c produce ardhachandra as in cat and talk.
The vowels need to be added after each consonent, unless one wants joDaakshara.
No other letters (upper or lower cases) are allowed.
Enclose english text in two sets of ## signs (before and after the text.
For other examples, see documents on anonymous ftp chandra.astro.indiana.edu
OR contact Avinash Chopde at avinash@acm.org
**********
We should standardize these rules as much as possible.
Of course, we cannot add all the grammar rules of Panini, but this file can
assist us.
Please provide your additions or corrections!
% End of common_errors.txt
To SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE from Sanskrit list:
Send a message to list maintainer at, sanskrit-request@schirf.cs.utah.edu
with subject subscribe sanskrit to SUBscribe, and
with subject unsubscribe sanskrit to UNsubscribe.
to post a message to ALL members on the sanskrit list,
send a message to sanskrit@schirf.cs.utah.edu