Unreversible Transliteration

[jage at seq1.loc.gov]

                                                Monday, March 28, 1994
Since one transliteration system has recently appeared on the list,
I will comment on an apparent characteristic of several schemes for
rendering Indic scripts in latin script.  It seems to me that the
transliteration schemes for Devanagari and other Indic scripts
are not completely reversible--from the roman forms back to the
original scripts.  Specifically:
     1. "ai" can be either a separate vowel (dipthong?) or the
        first vowel"a" followed by the third vowel "i", and
     2. "au" can be either a separate vowel (dipthong?) or the
        first vowel "a" followed by the fifth "u".
     If I'm right about this ambiguity, does it matter and if it
does is a solution already known or worth devising?
     The above is a purely personal opinion, not the official view
of any government or any agency of any.
     Regards,
          Jim Agenbroad ( jage at seq1.LOC.gov )