typing Sanskrit

[HEIJSTEE at rullet.LeidenUniv.nl]

"This has, IMHO, a great drawback: Using sequence aa for long vowel
makes it impossible to type also Prakrit in the same way."

{\dn namaste ji,}

If we use TeX or LaTex with the Velthuis Devnag font no such
problems occur. If you want to type Prakrit vowel sequences which
should not be interpreted as diphtongs, you simply use curled
brackets: {}. F.ex.: ai is interpreted as a diphtong, while {a}i
or alternatively a{i} is not.
An immense adventage of using TeX and Dviscreen as screen editor is
that you simply type roman letters with . " ~ as the only diacritics
(before the letter, a fact which is natural at least for me), and
the capitals to indicate the aspirated consonants and the long vowels.
Long vowels can also be typed as gemelli (aa, ii, etc.). And on the
screen, yes, the lovely devanAgarI script!!!!!!!!!! The same applies
to the printed version.

Sandra Van der Geer
CNWS - Centre for Non Western Studies
University of Leyden
The Netherlands