/devanagari-aamhindi

Algorithm to transliterate Hindi from Devanagari to "Aam Hindi," or Hindi in the Latin script commonly used in texting and online instead of standardized transliterations

Primary LanguagePythonBSD 2-Clause "Simplified" LicenseBSD-2-Clause

Devanagari to Aam Latin Hindi

Algorithm to transliterate Hindi from Devanagari to "Aam Latin Hindi," or Hindi in the Latin script commonly used in texting and online instead of standardized transliterations

About the Algorithm

Transliteration from Devanagari often takes two forms.

  • One is IAST, or various variations of this concept, which use diacritics to preserve all devanagari information into Latin
  • Second is something like ITRANS, or systems that eliminate diacritics but use double vowels and lose some information, but maintain most of it

However, Hindi is very often written in the Latin script, and in virtually all non-governmental uses, a different scheme is used. I am calling this "Aam Latin Hindi," and here are the key differences:

  • Schwa dropping and the use of "a": The word आवारा is transliterated aawaaraa in ITRANS but awaara in Aam Latin Hindi
  • The use of "ee" vs "i" and "oo" vs "u". These are never used in standard transliterations, but are used in Aam Latin Hindi
  • Some inconsistencies like the ending एं is transliterated as "ein" instead of the expected "en"
  • And many more

To Use

  • Clone this repo and enter devanagari in the in file
  • Run translit.py and the transliterated output will be in out. All non-devanagari characters should be escaped