The
Harvard-
Kyoto system of
transliteration was created at
Harvard University and the
University of
Kyoto as a means by which people all around the world could represent nonstandard
language sounds in plain
text without having to worry about having the right
fonts installed. The set I present below is used mainly as a reference to my work with
Sanskrit grammar, and each node will have a
hardlink back here in case you forget the
transliteration system. It's also good to know if you plan on doing any
linguistic work over the
web. Enjoy!
a A i I u U R RR lR e ai o au M H
k kh g gh G c ch j jh J
T Th D Dh N t th d dh n
p ph b bh m y r l v z S s h
Vowels:
a=a, sounds like 'u' in "but"
A=long a, sounds like 'a' in "father"
i=i, sounds like 'i' in "bit"
I=long i, sounds like 'ee' in "greet"
u=u, sounds like 'u' in "push"
U=long u, sounds like 'oo' in "pool"
R=vowel r, sounds like 'ri' in "rig"
RR=long vowel r, sounds R held for twice as long.
lR=vowel l, sounds kinda like 'lur' in "slurp"
e=e, sounds like 'ai' in "aim"
ai=diphthong ai, sounds like 'i' in "high"
o=o, sounds like 'o' in "note"
au=diphthong au, like 'ow' in "how"
M=velar m, sounds like 'n' in "Jean", pronounced like a French person (known as an anusVara)
H=puff of air after a vowel, followed by a short repetition of
that vowel. 'aH' sounds like "aha", with the accent on the first syllable (known as a visarga)
Consonants:
For the most part, all are identical to what you'd think they'd be. A consonant followed by an 'h' is an aspirated version of the consonant, i.e. 't' sounds like the 't' in "cat", where 'th' sounds like the 't' in "torn"
New or tricky consonants are:
G=velar nasal, sounds like the 'ng' in "long"
c=palatal fricative, sounds like 'ch' in "chat"
ch=aspirated palatal fricative, sounds like c above with more air released at the end.
J=palatal nasal, sounds like 'n' in "cinch"
T=alveolar stop, sounds like first 't' in "start"
D=alveolar stop, sounds like first 'd' in "dart"
N=alveolar nasal, sounds like 'n' in "tint"
V=cross between a 'v' and a 'w', takes some getting used to
z=palatal sibilant, sounds like 'sh' in "shove"
S=alveolar sibilant, sounds like z with tongue-tip farther back in the mouth