Phonetic English typing tutorial

Select the Phonetic English keyboard layout, by right clicking on keyboard button on the Status bar and selecting Phonetic English from the menu. As you type your text in English, you get an immediate feedback of the transliterated text in the language of the current context.

The Transliteration is a utility for allowing the user to key in Indian Languages phonetically using the characters of the standard QWERTY keyboard. You can key in the characters as you would normally pronounce them (using the mapping table provided) and the end output will be the text in the Indian Language of your choice.

Users of the Transliterator

This keyboard is meant for three types of users:

1.	Those whose mother-tongue is an Indian Language, who can speak it and who do not know how to write it.

2.	Those who have learnt the language orally but have not mastered the written skills.

3.	Those who feel comfortable with a QWERTY keyboard and do not want to key in a text using the INSCRIPT keyboard. We would strongly advise you to learn the use of the INSCRIPT keyboard as early as possible.  For all users this keyboard will allow you not only to do data-entry using English characters but will also enable you to slowly familiarize yourself with Indian scripts.  Once you feel comfortable with the script, you can shift over to the INSCRIPT keyboard itself.

The Mapping Table

Below is given a mapping table for the Transliterator where the English Character set is mapped onto the Indian language set. The mapping is as user-friendly as possible so as to enable a fast, accurate and speedy data-entry. Against each character its approximate value in English is also given along with an example.

Consonants

1.	SOME HINTS

Indian Scripts with a few language exceptions have a complex system insofar as k ch T t p are concerned. In each case there is a five way system:

k 	kh 	g 	gh 	Ng

Eò 	JÉ 	MÉ  	PÉ  	Ró

c 	ch 	j 	jh 	Nj

SÉ 	Uô  	VÉ 	ZÉ  	\É

T 	Th 	D 	Dh 	N

]õ 	`ö  	b÷ 	fø  	hÉ

t 	th 	d 	dh 	n

iÉ 	lÉ 	nù  	vÉ  	xÉ

p 	ph 	b 	bh 	m

{É 	¡ò  	¤É 	¦É  	¨É

Each of these is known as a Varga. In each set we have a pair of voiceless consonants first, followed by their voiced counterparts. Each pair comprises an Unaspirate and an Aspirated sound: k kh  g gh. At the end of each Varga is the corresponding Nasal Consonant.

In the Transliterator we have tried to arrange the phonetic keys as per this 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 onto /g/:Ng and /j/: Nj respectively. The Nasal of the Dravidian family xÉÃ as in ka.n.ru :calf is represented by .n .

The other consonants are mapped onto their closest corresponding keys in English as you can see from the mapping table.Quite a few Indian Languages have two to three /l/ sounds. These have been mapped onto UNSHIFT/SHIFT l to give the two /l/ sounds. The /l/ sound in languages of the Dravidian family as in Tamil /mozhi/ language is mapped onto /zh/.

Be aware of the Nukta characters. These 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 a ¢ò. Fò KÉ NÉ are keyed in by typing q as in /qAtil/ Kh as in Khush or G as in Gulshan. WÉ is given the value of z.

Finally a few other characters:

The Hindi flap sounds also found in Punjabi such as /{Éäc÷/ peR: tree or /¤ÉÉgø/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,´ÉÉ­ªÉÉ  use the .r to show this sound

Try remembering this mnemonics when typing.

2	CONSONANT MAPPING TABLE

Characters as used in Devanagari

k  	Eò	as in kal: tomorrow

kh 	JÉ	as in khAl:skin

g 	MÉ	as in gol:round

gh 	PÉ	as in ghar:house

Ng 	Ró	as in maNggal:felicitious mainly used in words borrowed from Sanskrit.

ch 	SÉ	as in chAr:four

chh 	Uô	as in chhe:six

j 	VÉ	as in jal:water

jh 	ZÉ	as in jharanA:water-fall

Nj 	\É	as in Tamil kaNjji:rice-gruel

T 	]õ	as in TaTTu:poney

Th 	`ö	as in ThIk:O.K

D 	b÷	as in DUb:sink

Dh 	fø	as in DhAl:shield.

N 	hÉ	as in gaN:devotees mainly used in words borrowed from Sanskrit.

t 	iÉ	as in tU:you

th 	lÉ	as in thAl:plate

d 	nù	as in do:two

dh 	vÉ	as in dhArA:flow

n 	xÉ	as in nIlA:blue

p 	{É	as in pal:second

ph 	¡ò	as in phal:fruit

b 	¤É	as in bol:say

bh 	¦É	as in bholA:innocent

m 	¨É	as in mAr:beat

y 	ªÉ	as in yah:this

r 	®ú	as in rAh:road

l 	±É	as in lA:bring

L 	³ý	as in Marathi guL: molasses mainly used in words borrowed from Sanskrit.

v 	´É	as in vah:that

sh 	¶É	as in shaMkA:doubt

Sh 	¹É	as in ShaTakoN:hexagon

s 	ºÉ	as in saMt:saint

h 	½þ	as in huM: (I) am

All nukta combinations

q	Fò	as in qAtil:fatal

Kh	KÉ	as in KhAl:skin

G	NÉ	as in GarIb:poor

z	WÉ	as in zaKhamI:wounded

R	c÷	as in peR:tree

DH	gø	as in baDH:grow

f	¢ò	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	@T	as in Tamil:pATar:father

zh	g	as in Malyalam:kozhikoDE:name of a town

    J	d, ^	as in Oriya or Bengali saMkhJA: quantity

Commonly used Conjuncts

These can be generated out by typing the individual characters. However the combinations are given below:

kSh 	IÉ	as in kShamA:forgiveness

shr	¸É	as in shri:Sir

dny	YÉ	as in dnyAn:knowledge

Vowels

Indian Languages have a considerably rich vowel system reflected in their character set. To map these Vowels against the a e i o u y and w available in the English alphabet 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 four parts:

-	Simple Vowels

-	Dipthongs

-	Visarga

-	Nasals

-	HRI/HRU

1	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 both Matras (strokes) and Full vowels corresponding to these matras. Thus +ÉªÉÉ AyA has a full vowel +É in the Initial and a Matra for the final yA:ªÉÉ. 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 JÉ<Ç:khaI precipice or ±É<Ç:laI taken.  A special combination is provided for this. The Vowel in question is preceded by /a/. Thus laI will give ±É<Ç. The table below gives all the representations for all Vowels whether Full or Matras.

SHORT VOWELS

FULL/MATRA  	CONS+FULL VOWEL

a	+	a as in akelA: alone	aa

i	</Ê#	i as in ichchhA:wish	ai

u	=/#Ö	u as in urf:alias	au

e	B/#ä	e as in ek:one	ae

o	+Éä/#Éä	o as in or:direction	ao

LONG VOWELS

FULL/MATRA  	CONS+FULL VOWEL

A	+É/#É	A as in A:come	aA

I	<Ç/#Ò	I as in Ik:sugarcane	aI

U	>ð/#Ú	U as in Upar:u	aU

E	Bà/#à	E as in Tamil ENge:where	aE

O	+Éà/#Éà	O  as in Malayalam OppoL:sister	aO

The following two are mainly used in words of Foreign origin:

OE	+Éì/#Éì	OE as in Gujarati OEl:all	aOE

AE	Bì/#ì	AE as in Gujarati AEpal:apple	aAE

2	DIPHTHONGS

In the case of Diphthongs a Two letter combination is given to accomodate the diphthongs. This combination is closest to the phonetic value of the diphthong.

AW	+Éè/#Éè	AW as in AWr: and	aAW

AY	Bä/#è	AY as in AYnak:spectacles	aAY

3	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	@ñ/#Þ 	HRI as in HRIshI: rishi

4	VISARGA:

The Visarga is shown as:

: #& as in du:kha sorrow (mainly used in Sanskrit derived words)

5	NASAL MARKERS

.M         #Ä	Chandrabindu as in A.Mkh eye

M	#Æ	Anuswar as in AMk:number

Some Do's and Don'ts

Before plunging into your phonetic keyboard please note the following :

1.	The 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 where there is not  a one hundred percent phonetic correspondence, there might be a few problems. Thus a word like ghoRA horse will be pronounced as koRA. These problems will be accomodated in the next version. You can still use  this Keyboard for Punjabi. The one thing you have to remember is to replace the spoke form by its true phonetic value. Thus instead of typing /k/ in /korA/ type /gh/. Similarly replacing the /T/ of Tol with DH will five you the right Punjabi representation of /DHol/.

3.	In the case of H,the following precaution is to be taken. Unless otherwise 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. When in doubt, spell-check it, if you are working in Hindi, Marathi or Gujarati to get the right vowel.

Typing with the Keyboard

HINTS

Here are a few hints for typing with the phonetic keyboard.

1	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.

2	All the consonants in the Indian Script have an implicit /a/ i.e. each consonant is followed by an /a/. Eò is pronouncd as /ka/ and not /k/. Thus the word Eò¨É±É although written in Hindi as a chain of three consonants is in fact 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. 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 Ê´ÉGò¨É/vikram/ 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.  Be aware of this when typing and do NOT type two consonants together UNLESS you want them to figure as a Conjunct.

3	For the Nasal sign: Anuswar /#Æ/ or Chandrabindu /#Ä/, type M for the anuswar or .M for the Chandrabindu. Thus to get /ªÉ½þÉÄ/ type yahA.M.

4	/a/ vs /A/ . Our experience has been that you may tend to type /a/ when you want to type /A/. Please be careful abot the use of the SHIFT key. You may want to type /kamAl/ and end up as /kamal/ if you forget to SHIFT.

These are the main points to retain when typing with the phonetic keyboard. Let us see now how to type.

2.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

Eò	EòÉ	ÊEò	EòÒ	EÖò	EÚò	Eäò	Eèò	EòÉä	EòÉè

Foreign loan sounds:

kOE	kAE

EòÉì	Eìò

Vowels of other languages:

kE	Eàò

kO	EòÉà

Try typing out the other consonants + the Vowel sets.

Combine the vowel sets with

g

t

c

d

T

D

Th

Dh

Now let us try and work with  HRI. This is how to set about it. To type the word dance in Hindi,

just key in nHRItya (do NOT forget to type HRI in upper-case) and you will see in the window: xÉÞiªÉ

Try typing a few conjuncts:

kr	Gò

kl	C±É

kn	CxÉ

pr	|É

phr	£ò

For conjuncts such as  IÉ as in  +IÉ®ú akShar  you can type a full set of consonants together: kSh. For YÉ as in YÉÉxÉ type dny. shr will give you ¸É as in ¸ÉÒ  shrI. We have even accomodated $. Type OM to get $

Now that you are a bit more confident, why don't you try and type a few words: Suppose you have to type a word like HOUSE in Hindi. You know the word and also how to pronounce it. You start typing the word: g+h: You see a PÉ in the window. Follow it up by /a/. You have ensured that gh and the following consonant are separated by the /a/. Now type /r/. You see the full word PÉ®ú ON-SCREEN. As easy as that

Congratulations! You have just typed your first word using the Transliterator.

Let us take another word, say Khush: happy: Type first K+h. You will see KÉ appear on-screen. Follow it up with U and you see KÉÖ. Add the s+h and you see the ¶É on the screen. Happy!!

Let us take a toughie. Try the word BIRD in Hindi. Pronounce it mentally and start 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:{ÉÄUôÒ

How about some practice. Try keying in the following:

laRkA	±Éc÷EòÉ

bAYl	¤Éè±É

totA	iÉÉäiÉÉ

bhArat	¦ÉÉ®úiÉ

gilaharI	ÊMÉ±É½þ®úÒ

dostI	nùÉäºiÉÒ

AmadanI	+É¨ÉnùxÉÒ

paravAh	{É®ú´ÉÉ½þ

Try a few more words from memory. Do NOT forget the /a/'s between two consonants that you want to keep separate. (If in doubt, run a spell-checker on it, if you are working in Hindi, Marathi or Gujarati).

Once you feel Word confident get down to sentences:

merA bhArat mahAn	¨Éä®úÉ ¦ÉÉ®úiÉ ¨É½þÉxÉ.

tum kyA kar rahe ho	iÉÖ¨É CªÉÉ Eò®ú ®ú½äþ ½þÉä.

And how about a full text. We have entered a full text in Phonetic for you. It is a very famous text from a very famous Hindi writer: Premchand. The text is called shataraMj ke khilARI. We have given it at the end of this help file. Why don't you try to read it through. We have also given the original Hindi version.

For added accuracy, if you are working in Marathi or Hindi or Gujarati, try spell-checking the file. Your text will be character and word perfect.

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

rAjakarmachArI viShay-vAsanA me, kavigaN prem AWr vIrah ke varNan meM, kArIgar kalAbattU AWr chikan banAne meM, vyavasAyI surame, itra, missI AWr ubaTan kA rojagAr karane meM lipta the  sabhI kI AMkho meM vilAsitA kA mad chhAyA huA thA  saMsAr meM kyA ho rahA hAY, isakI kisI ko Khabar na thI  baTer laR rahe hAYM  tItaroM kI laRAI ke lie phalI badI jA rahI hAY  kahIM chAWsar bichhI huI hAY; pAW-bArah kA shor machA huA hAY  kahIM shataraMj kA ghor sagrAm chhiRA huA hAY  rAjA se lekar raMk tak isI dhun meM masta the  yahA.M tak ki phakIro ko pAYse milate to ve roTiyA.M na lekar afIm khAte yA madak pIte

ORIGINAL HINDI TEXT

¶ÉiÉ®ÆúVÉ Eäò ÊJÉ±ÉÉc÷Ò

¨ÉÖÆ¶ÉÒ |Éä¨É SÉÆnù

´ÉÉÊWÉnù +±ÉÒ ¶ÉÉ½þ EòÉ ºÉ¨ÉªÉ lÉÉ* ±ÉJÉxÉ>ð Ê´É±ÉÉÊºÉiÉÉ Eäò ®ÆúMÉ ¨Éå bÚ÷¤ÉÉ ½Öþ+É lÉÉ* UôÉä]äõ-¤Écä÷,+Ê¨É®ú-MÉ®úÒ¤É ºÉ¦ÉÒ ´ÉÒ±ÉÉÊºÉiÉÉ ¨Éå bÚ÷¤Éä ½ÖþªÉä lÉä* EòÉä<Ç xÉÞiªÉ +Éè®ú MÉÉxÉ EòÒ ¨ÉVÉ±ÉÒºÉ ºÉVÉÉiÉÉ lÉÉ, iÉÉäEòÉä< +¢òÒ¨É EòÒ Ê{ÉxÉEò ½þÒ ¨Éå ¨ÉWÉä ±ÉäiÉÉ lÉÉ* VÉÒ´ÉxÉ Eäò |ÉiªÉäEò Ê´É¦ÉÉMÉ ¨Éå +É¨ÉÉänù-|É¨ÉÉänù EòÉ |ÉÉvÉÉxªÉlÉÉ* ¶ÉÉºÉxÉ Ê´É¦ÉÉMÉ ¨Éå, ºÉÉÊ½þiªÉIÉäjÉ ¨Éå, ºÉÉ¨ÉÉÊVÉEò ´ªÉ´ÉºlÉÉ ¨Éå, Eò±ÉÉ-EòÉä¶É±É ¨Éå, =tÉäMÉ-vÉxvÉÉå ¨Éå,+É½þÉ®ú-´ªÉ´É½þÉ®ú ¨Éå, ºÉ´ÉÇjÉ Ê´É±ÉÉÊºÉiÉÉ ´ÉªÉÉ{É ®ú½þÒ lÉÒ*

®úÉVÉEò¨ÉÇSÉÉ®úÒ Ê´É¹ÉªÉ-´ÉÉºÉxÉÉ ¨Éä, EòÊ´ÉMÉhÉ |Éä¨É +Éè®ú ´ÉÒ®ú½þ Eäò ´ÉhÉÇxÉ ¨Éå, EòÉ®úÒMÉ®ú Eò±ÉÉ¤ÉkÉÚ +Éè®úÊSÉEòxÉ ¤ÉxÉÉxÉä ¨Éå, ´ªÉ´ÉºÉÉªÉÒ ºÉÖ®ú¨Éä, <jÉ, Ê¨ÉººÉÒ +Éè®ú =¤É]õxÉ EòÉ ®úÉäVÉMÉÉ®ú Eò®úxÉä ¨Éå Ê±É{iÉ lÉä* ºÉ¦ÉÒ EòÒ+ÉÆJÉÉä ¨Éå Ê´É±ÉÉÊºÉiÉÉ EòÉ ¨Énù UôÉªÉÉ ½Öþ+É lÉÉ* ºÉÆºÉÉ®ú ¨Éå CªÉÉ ½þÉä ®ú½þÉ ½èþ, <ºÉEòÒ ÊEòºÉÒ EòÉä KÉ¤É®ú xÉlÉÒ* ¤É]äõ®ú ±Éc÷ ®ú½äþ ½éþ* iÉÒiÉ®úÉå EòÒ ±Éc÷É<Ç Eäò Ê±ÉB ¡ò±ÉÒ ¤ÉnùÒ VÉÉ ®ú½þÒ ½èþ* Eò½þÓ SÉÉèºÉ®ú Ê¤ÉUôÒ ½Öþ<Ç½èþ; {ÉÉè-¤ÉÉ®ú½þ EòÉ ¶ÉÉä®ú ¨ÉSÉÉ ½Öþ+É ½èþ* Eò½þÓ ¶ÉiÉ®ÆúVÉ EòÉ PÉÉä®ú ºÉOÉÉ¨É ÊUôc÷É ½Öþ+É ½èþ* ®úÉVÉÉ ºÉä ±ÉäEò®ú®ÆúEò iÉEò <ºÉÒ vÉÖxÉ ¨Éå ¨ÉºiÉ lÉä* ªÉ½þÉÄ iÉEò ÊEò ¡òEòÒ®úÉä EòÉä {ÉèºÉä Ê¨É±ÉiÉä iÉÉä ´Éä ®úÉäÊ]õªÉÉÄ xÉ ±ÉäEò®ú+¢òÒ¨É JÉÉiÉä ªÉÉ ¨ÉnùEò {ÉÒiÉä*