The Phonetic keyboard will be useful for:
- Those who can speak but cannot write in their mother-tongue.
- Those who are comfortable with the QWERTY keyboard and do not want to key in a text using the INSCRIPT keyboard.
Using the Phonetic keyboard will not only allow you to type Indian language text using English but will also help in familiarizing yourself with the Indian scripts. Once you feel comfortable with the script, switching to using INSCRIPT keyboard would be fairly simple. We strongly advise you to learn to use the INSCRIPT keyboard as early as possible.
The Mapping Table
The mapping table for the Phonetic Transliteration maps the Indian language character set to its equivalent character or sequence of characters in the English character set. The mapping is designed to make it as user-friendly as possible and allowing fast and accurate data-entry.
NOTE ▬ Some combinations are not supported in Bilingual, Bilingual-Web font types . It’s only supported in monolingual, monolingual-web and ISO fonts because of some limitation in True Type fonts . For example: nHRi will give नृ for the all font types and if we type nHRI it will give नृृ for monolingual and monolingual-web font types only.
NOTE ▬ In the below examples each row is known as a Varg (Group). The last character of each Varg is a nasal consonant. The first four consonants of each group constitute a primary and secondary pair. The second consonant of each pair is the aspirated counterpart (has an additional “h” sound) of the first one.
| क | ख | ग | घ | ङ |
| k | kh | g | gh | Ng |
| च | छ | ज | झ | ञ |
| ch | chh | j | jh | Nj |
| ट | ठ | ड | ढ | ण |
| T | Th | D | Dh | N |
| त | थ | द | ध | न |
| t | th | d | dh | n |
| प | फ | ब | भ | म |
| p | ph | b | bh | m |
In the PhoneticTransliterator we have tried to arrange the phonetic keys as per the above pattern. The UNSHIFT/SHIFT i.e. lowercase/upper-case correspond to the Unaspirate /Aspirate pairs. The Nasals are mapped on to the n/N/m keys. In the case of k and g, the Nasal N is added to /g/-Ng and /j/- Nj respectively. The Nasal of the Dravidian family ऩ as in ka.n.ru -calf is represented by .n .
The other consonants are mapped to their closest corresponding keys in English as you can see from the mapping table shown below. Quite a few Indian Languages have two to three /l/ sounds. These have been mapped to UNSHIFT/SHIFT l to give the two /l/ sounds. The /l/ sound in languages of the Dravidian family as in Tamil /mozhi/ is mapped to /zh/.
Then there are the Nukta characters which are used in Punjabi or in Hindi for representing borrowed sounds in loan-words. The nuktas are represented by their closest possible corresponding equivalents.
Thus f represents फ़़ क़ ख़ ग़ are keyed in by typing q as in /qAtil/ Kh as in Khush or G as in Gulshan. ज़ is given the value of z.
Finally a few other characters:
The Hindi flap sounds also found in Punjabi such as / पेङ / peR – tree or / बाढ़ / bADH – flood are shown by R and DH.
If you are typing in Marathi and want to show the so called quarter R as in vA.ryA,. वान्या use the .r to show this sound.
The mapping table below shows the mapping of the Indian script to its equivalent English character or a sequence of characters.
CONSONANT MAPPING TABLE
Characters as used in Devanagari
| k | क as in kal-tomorrow |
| kh | ख as in khAl-skin |
| g | ग as in gol-round |
| gh | घ as in ghar-house |
| Ng | ङ as in maNggal-felicitious mainly used in words borrowed from Sanskrit |
| ch | च as in chAr-four |
| chh | छ as in chhe-six |
| j | ज as in jal-water |
| jh | झ as in jharanA-water-fall |
| Nj | ञ as in Tamil kaNjji-rice-gruel |
| T | ट as in TaTTu-pony |
| Th | थ as in Thlk-O.K |
| D | ड as in DUb-sink |
| Dh | ढ as in DhAI-shield |
| N | ण as in gaN-devotees mainly used in words borrowed from Sanskrit |
| t | त as in tU-you |
| th | थ as in thA-plate |
| d | द as in do-two |
| dh | ध as in dhArA-flow |
| n | न as in nllA-blue |
| p | प as in pal-second |
| ph | फ as in phal-fruit |
| b | ब as in bol-say |
| bh | भ as in bholA-innocent |
| m | म as in mAr-beat |
| y | य as in yah-this |
| r | र as in rAh-road |
| l | ल as in lA-bring |
| L | ळ in Marathi guL-molasses mainly used in words borrowed from Sanskrit |
| v | व as in vah-that |
| sh | श as in shaMkA-doubt |
| Sh | ष as in ShaTakoN-hexagon |
| s | स as in saMt-saint |
| h | ह as in huM-(I) am |
All nukta combinations
| q | क़ as in qAtil-fatal |
| Kh | ख़ as in KhAl-skin |
| G | ग़ as in Garib-poor |
| z | ज़ as in zaKham I-wounded |
| R | ड़ as in peR-tree |
| DH | ढ़ as in baDH-grow |
| f | फ़ as in firoz-Feroz |
Characters not encountered in Devanagari
| r | † also used to generate the so-called quarter r in marathi- su.ryA-knives |
| F | ðç as in Tamil-pATar-father |
| zh | g as in Malyalam-kozhikoDE-name of a town |
| lx | ð as in Malyalam- bhoppAlx-name of a City |
| rx | À as in Malyalam- kaNNUrx name of a town |
| nx | ³ as in Malyalam- kaNNUrx name of a town |
| Nx | ¬ as in Malyalam- kArxTTUNx as you write cartoon in English |
| Lx | Ä as in Malyalam- neppALx – name of a State |
| J | ^ as in Oriya or Bengali saMkhJA- quantity |
| tx | d as in Bengali haTAtx- suddenly |
Commonly used Conjuncts
These can be generated typing the individual characters. However the combinations are given below:
| kSh | क्ष as in kShamA-forgiveness |
| shr | त्र as in shri-Sir |
| dny | ज्ञ as in dnyAn-knowledge |
Vowels
Indian Languages have a considerably rich vowel system reflected in their character set. To map these vowels to those available in English is not easy. We have tried to make the vowel mapping as easy as possible. The conventions and norms used are explained below:
Vowels have been divided into five parts:
- Simple Vowels
- Diphthongs
- Visarga
- Nasals
- HRi/HRU
SIMPLE VOWELS
In the case of Vowels, a simple convention has been followed. Indian languages have both long and short vowels. The short vowels have been mainly shown by the lowercase character whereas uppercase is used for the long vowels. Indian languages have Matras (Vowel Signs) and Full vowels corresponding to these matras. Thus आया AyA has a full vowel आ in the Initial and a Matra for the final yA या. The normal rule is that when the Vowel is preceded by a Consonant, it has a Matra Value. Otherwise the vowel has the Full Vowel Value. You do not have to worry where to use what, since the engine normally takes care of this combination. However in certain languages like Gujarati or Hindi a full Vowel can follow a consonant as in Gujarati खई: khal precipice or लई: laI taken. A special combination is provided for this. The Vowel in question is preceded by /a/. Thus laI will give लई. The table below gives all the representations for all Vowels whether Full or Matras.
SHORT VOWELS
FULL/MATRA CONS+FULL VOWEL
| a | अ a as in akelA-alone aa |
| e | ए/ े e as in ek-one ae |
| i | इ/ ि as in ichchhA-wish ai |
| o | ओ/ ो o as in or-direction ao |
| u | उ/ ु u as in urf-alias au |
LONG VOWLES
FULL/MATRA CONS+FULL VOWEL
| A | आ/ ा A as in A-come aA |
| E | ऐ/ े E as in Tamil ENge-where aE |
| I | ई/ ी I as in Ik-sugercane aI |
| O | ओ/ ो O as in Malayalam OppoL-sister aO |
| U | ऊ/ ू U as in Upar-u aU |
The following two are mainly used in words of foreign origin:
| OE | ऑ/ ॉ OE as in Gujarati OEI-all aOE |
| AE | एँ/ ॅ AE as in Gujarati AEpal-apple aAE |
| Ae | ॲ |
DIPHTHONGS
In the case of Diphthongs a two letter combination is given to accommodate the diphthongs. This combination is closest to the phonetic value of the diphthong.
| AW | औ/ ौ AW as in AWr-and aAW |
| AY | ऐ/ ै AY as in AYnak-spectacles aAY |
HRi/HRU
These are of Sanskrit origin and are used to represent words like hrishi or nritya or hrishikesh. Remaining faithful to Sanskrit convention we have represented this vowel both full and matra as Hri
| HRi | ऋ/ ृ HRi as in HRishI-rishi |
VISARGA
The Visarga is shown as
| : | : as in du:kha sorrow (mainly used in Sanskrit derived words) |
NASAL MARKERS
| .M | ँ Chandrabindu as in A.Mkh eye |
| M | ं Anuswar as in aMk-number |
Some Do’s and Don’ts
Before using the phonetic keyboard please note the following:
1. The Phonetic Transliterator will not work with TAMIL. A special rule file is needed for that. This is because in the case of Tamil the sounds /t/ /d/ /th/ /dh/ are all represented by the same character /t/. The same is the case with quite a few other sounds. For Tamil, a special phonetic keyboard version is under preparation.
2. In certain languages like PUNJABI there might be few problems with the phonetic transliteration, For instance, the word ghoRA (horse) though written as ghoRA is pronounced as koRA. So while using the phonetic keyboard care should be taken to type /gh/ as in ghoRA instead of /k/ as in /korA/. Similarly replacing the /T/ of Tol with DH will give you the right Punjabi representation of /DHol/. The phonetic transliteration in PUNJABI can be efficient keeping in mind these few suggestions.
3. In the case of H, the following precaution is to be taken. Unless specified do not use it in combinations. Thus Sh or sh should not be typed as SH or sH. This might result in an incorrect combination.
4. You will have to take care of the long and short vowels. Make sure that you key in the right key for the Long or Short Vowel.
Typing with the Keyboard
HINTS
Here are a few hints for typing with the phonetic keyboard.
a) Print out the mapping table and keep it before you initially, since it will take some time to associate the English keyboard characters with the Indian characters.
b) All the consonants in the Indian Script have an implicit /a/ i.e. each consonant is followed by an /a/. क is pronounced as /ka/ and not /k/. The word कमल written in Hindi consists of three consonants and is pronounced as /kamal/. The Phonetic Keyboard reflects this tendency of the script. You will have to be conscious of the use of /a/ when typing.
c) If you type two consonants together in the Transliterator system, they constitute a Conjunct i.e. as if these two characters are to be pronounced together without the /a/. Thus in the case of विक्रम /vikram/. Here the k and r are joined together without the intervening /a/. This is technically known as Halant i.e. the implicit /a/ of /k/ is deleted. Please take care while typing and do NOT type two consonants together UNLESS you want them to figure as a Conjunct.
d) For the Nasal sign- Anuswar / ं / or Chandrabindu / ँ /, type M for the anuswar or .M for the Chandrabindu. Thus to get यहाँ type yahA.M
e) /a/ vs /A/ . Our experience has been that you may tend to type /a/ when you want to type /A/. Please be careful about the use of the SHIFT key. You may want to type /kamAl/ and end up as /kamal/ if you forget to SHIFT.
These are few things that you should remember while using a phonetic keyboard.
TYPING PRACTICE
Let us start in the traditional way by combining the whole set of vowels with a consonant to generate out the combinations:
ka kA ki kI ku kU ke kAY ko kAW
This will give
क का कि की कु कू के कै को कौ
Foreign loan sounds:
| kOE | kAE |
| काँ | कँ |
Vowels of other languages:
| kE | के |
| kO | को |
Try typing out the other consonants + the Vowel sets.
Combine the vowel sets with
g, t, h, d, T, D, Th, Dh,
Now let us try and work with the vowel HRi. To type the word dance in Hindi, just key in nHRitya (do NOT forget to type HRi in upper-case and i in smaller case) and you will see in the window – नृत्य
Try typing a few conjuncts, for instance
| kr | क्र |
| kl | क्ल क |
| kn | क्न |
| pr | प्र |
| phr | फ्र |
For conjuncts such a क्ष as in अक्षर akShar you can type the conjunct as – kSh. For ज्ञ as in ज्ञान type dny. shr will give you श्र as in श्री shrI.
Now that you know how to type a conjunct and an individual character (be it a consonant or a vowel) let us try typing a word using the Phonetic keyboard .To begin with, lets type the word HOUSE in Hindi. Start by typing g+h . You can now see घ. In order to get the full consonant घ we need to type /a/. By doing so you have ensured that gh and the consonant to follow is separated by /a/. Now type /r/. You now see the full word घर on the screen. Had you not typed the /a/ after g+h and if you continued typing the consonant /r/ you would see घ्र instead of घर.
Let us take another word, say Khush – meaning happy. First type K+h which is displayed as ख़ on-screen. Follow it up with u and you see ख़ु. Add s+h and you see the श on the screen.
To type the word BIRD in Hindi we start by typing p followed by a. Next comes the nasal; so we type .M followed by chh and finally the I. The result is pa.MchhI – पंछी
Here are some more examples
| laRakA | लड़का |
| bAYl | बैल |
| totA | तोता |
| bhArat | भारत |
| gilaharI | गिलहरी |
| dostI | दोस्ती |
| AmadanI | आमदनी |
| paravAh | परवाह |
NOTE ▬ Do not forget to type the /a/’s between two consonants when you don’t want to form a conjunct.
Having understood how to phonetically type a word, forming a sentence is merely typing these words together as shown below.
| merA bhArat mahAn | मेरा भारत महान |
| tum kyA kar rahe ho | तुम क्या कर रहे हो |
We have entered a paragraph in Phonetic for you. We have also given the original Hindi version.
Sample Phonetic Text
shataraMj ke khilARI (muMshI prem chaMd)
vAzid alI shAh kA samay thA lakhanaU vilAsitA ke raMg meM DUbA huA thA chhoTe-baRe, amir-garIb sabhI vIlAsitA meM DUbe hue the koI nHRitya AWr gAn kI majalIs sajAtA thA, to koi afIm kI pinak hI meM maze letA thA jIvan ke pratyek vibhAg meM Amod-pramod kA prAdhAnya thA shAsan vibhAg meM, sAhityakShetra meM, sAmAjik vyavasthA meM, kalA-koshal meM, udyog-dhandhoM meM, AhAr-vyavahAr meM, sarvatra vilAsitA vayAp rahI thI
Original Hindi Text
शतरंज के खिलाडी (मुंशी प्रेम चंद)
वाज़िद अली शाह का समय था | लखनऊ विलासिता के रंग में डूबा हुआ था | छोटे-बड़े, अमीर-गरीब सभी विलासिता में दुबे हुये थे | कोई नित्य और गान की मजलीस सजाता था, तो कोई अफ़ीम की पिनक ही में मजे लेता था | जीवन के प्रत्येक विभाग में आमोद-प्रमोद का प्राधान्यथा | शासन विभाग में, साहित्यक्षेत्र में, सामाजिक व्यवस्था में, कला-कोशल में, उद्योग-धंधो मे, आहार-व्यवहार में, सर्वत्र विलासिता वयाप रही थी |
वाज़िद अली शाह का समय था | लखनऊ विलासिता के रंग में डूबा हुआ था | छोटे-बड़े, अमीर-गरीब सभी विलासिता में दुबे हुये थे | कोई नित्य और गान की मजलीस सजाता था, तो कोई अफ़ीम की पिनक ही में मजे लेता था | जीवन के प्रत्येक विभाग में आमोद-प्रमोद का प्राधान्यथा | शासन विभाग में, साहित्यक्षेत्र में, सामाजिक व्यवस्था में, कला-कोशल में, उद्योग-धंधो मे, आहार-व्यवहार में, सर्वत्र विलासिता वयाप रही थी |