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Hindustani (standardizedHindi and standardizedUrdu) has been written in several different scripts. Most Hindi texts are written in theDevanagari script, which is derived from theBrāhmī script ofAncient India. Most Urdu texts are written in theUrdu alphabet, which comes from thePersian alphabet. Hindustani has been written in both scripts. In recent years, theLatin script has been used in these languages for technological or internationalization reasons. Historically,Kaithi script has also been used.
The Devanagari script is anabugida, as written consonants have an inherent vowel, which in Standard Hindi is aschwa. In certain contexts, such as at the end of words, there is no vowel, a phenomenon called the schwa syncope.[1] Other vowels are written with a diacritic on the consonant letter. Devanagari is written from left to right, with a top-bar connecting the letters together.
| अ | आ | इ | ई | उ | ऊ | ऋ | ए | ऐ | ओ | औ | अं | अः | ऍ | ऑ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ə | aː | ɪ | iː | ʊ | uː | r̩ | eː | ɛː | oː | ɔː | əm /əɳ /əŋ /ən | əh | æ | ɒ |
| क | ख | ग | घ | ङ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| k | kʰ | ɡ | ɡʱ | ŋ |
| च | छ | ज | झ | ञ |
| t͡ʃ | t͡ʃʰ | d͡ʒ | d͡ʒʱ | ɲ |
| ट | ठ | ड | ढ | ण |
| ʈ | ʈʰ | ɖ | ɖʱ | ɳ |
| त | थ | द | ध | न |
| t̪ | t̪ʰ | d̪ | d̪ʱ | n |
| प | फ | ब | भ | म |
| p | pʰ | b | bʱ | m |
| य | र | ल | व | |
| j | ɾ | l | ʋ | |
| श | ष | स | ह | |
| ʃ | ʂ | s | ɦ |
| ख़ | ग़ | ज़ | झ़ | ड़ | ढ़ | फ़ | क़ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| x | ɣ | z | ʒ | ɽ | ɽʱ | f | q |
Irregular ligatures:
The schwa (अ or 'ə', sometimes written 'a') implicit in each consonant of the Devanagari script is "obligatorily deleted" in Hindi at the end of words and in certain other contexts.[2] This phenomenon has been termed the "schwa syncope rule" or the "schwa deletion rule" of Hindi.[1][2] One formalization of this rule has been summarized asə -> ø | VC_CV. In other words, when a vowel-preceded consonant is followed by a vowel-succeeded consonant, the schwa inherent in the first consonant is deleted.[1][3] However, this formalization is inexact and incomplete (i.e. sometimes deletes a schwa when it shouldn't or, at other times, fails to delete it when it should), and can yield errors. Schwa deletion is computationally important because it is essential to buildingtext-to-speech software for Hindi.[3][4]
As a result of schwa syncope, the correct Hindi pronunciation of many words differs from that expected from a literal rendering of Devanagari. For instance, राम isRām (incorrect:Rāma), रचना isRachnā (incorrect:Rachanā), वेद isVéd (incorrect:Véda) and नमकीन isNamkeen (incorrectNamakeena).[3][4]
The Urdu alphabet is based on thePersian, which is anArabic alphabet. Urdu is written from right to left, and most letters link together. This leads to variations in the form of a letter depending on its position in a word. Mostvowels are omitted in generic texts, although they may be written for disambiguation or for pedagogical purposes. Urdu is primarily written in acalligraphic style of the script calledNasta'liq.
| Letter | Nasta‘liq | Name of letter | Transcription | IPA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ا | ا | alif | a, i, u | /ə/,/ɪ/,/ʊ/ |
| آ | آ | alif madda | ā | /ɑː/ |
| ب | ب | be | b | /b/ |
| پ | پ | pe | p | /p/ |
| ت | ت | te | t | /t̪/ |
| ٹ | ٹ | ṭe | ṭ | /ʈ/ |
| ث | ث | se | s | /s/ |
| ج | ج | jīm | j | /d͡ʒ/ |
| چ | چ | che | ch | /t͡ʃ/ |
| ح | ح | baṛī he | h | /h/ |
| خ | خ | khe | kh | /x/ |
| د | د | dāl | d | /d̪/ |
| ڈ | ڈ | ḍāl | ḍ | /ɖ/ |
| ذ | ذ | zāl | dh | /z/ |
| ر | ر | re | r | /r/ |
| ڑ | ڑ | ṛe | ṛ | /ɽ/ |
| ز | ز | ze | z | /z/ |
| ژ | ژ | zhe | zh | /ʒ/ |
| س | س | sīn | s | /s/ |
| ش | ش | shīn | sh | /ʃ/ |
| ص | ص | su'ād | ṣ | /s/ |
| ض | ض | zu'ād | z̤ | /z/ |
| ط | ط | to'e | t | /t/ |
| ظ | ظ | zo'e | ẓ | /z/ |
| ع | ع | ‘ain | ' | /ʔ/[5] |
| غ | غ | ghain | gh | /ɣ/ |
| ف | ف | fe | f | /f/ |
| ق | ق | qāf | q | /q/ |
| ک | ک | kāf | k | /k/ |
| گ | گ | gāf | g | /ɡ/ |
| ل | ل | lām | l | /l/ |
| م | م | mīm | m | /m/ |
| ن | ن | nūn | n | /n/ |
| ں | ں | nūn ghunna | n | /~/ |
| و | و | vā'o | v, o, or ū | /ʋ/,/oː/,/ɔ/ or/uː/ |
| ہ | ہ | choṭī he | h | /h/ |
| ھ | ھ | do chashmī he | h | /ʰ/ |
| ء | ئ, ۓ, ؤ | hamza | ' | /ʔ/[citation needed] |
| ی | ی | ye | y, i | /j/ or/iː/ |
| ے | ے | barī ye | ai or e | /ɛː/, or/eː/ |
TheLatin script has been used to write Hindustani for technological or internationalization reasons.Roman Hindi andRoman Urdu uses thebasic Latin alphabet. It is most commonly used by young native speakers for technological applications, such aschat,emails andSMS.
ITRANS,ISCII,IAST (and the near-identicalISO 15919), andHarvard-Kyoto romanization schemes have been employed primarily for usage by non-native speakers who are more familiar with the Latin alphabet.
Transliteration between the three scripts can be complicated, particularly when transliterating between Devanagari and Persian scripts.[6] One obstacle to this is that multiple different letters in one script often all correspond to the same letter in the other script.[6] So, simple substitution often does not produce the correct spellings.
Some sets of Urdu letters have matching sounds.[6][7]
Three braille alphabets are used:Hindi andUrdu braille in India, based onBharati braille conventions, andUrdu Braille in Pakistan, based onPersian Braille conventions. Hindi Braille is an alphabet witha not written in some environments, while for Urdu Braille in Pakistan, it seems that vowels may be optional as they are in print.
... Hindi literature fails as a reliable indicator of the actual pronunciation because it is written in the Devanagari script ... the schwa syncope rule which operates in Hindi ...
... The implicit /a/ is not read when the symbol appears in word-final position or in certain other contexts where it is obligatorily deleted (via the so-called schwa-deletion rule which plays a crucial role in Hindi word phonology ...
... schwa deletion is an important issue for grapheme-to-phoneme conversion of IAL, which in turn is required for a good Text-to-Speech synthesizer ...
... Without the appropriate deletion of schwas, any speech output would sound unnatural. Since the orthographical representation of Devanagari gives little indication of deletion sites, modern TTS systems for Hindi implemented schwa deletion rules based on the segmental context where schwa appears ...