h after t and d in S. Indian transliterations

[Swaminathan Madhuresan]

  Normally, Indians transliterate the english letter t which is alveolar
into a retroflex. Eg., the english word, tea becomes ".tii" in all of India.
When S. Indians started going to schools with English as the language of
instruction, they just used "h" following english practice as seen in
a) Thames, Thomas b) chirp c) Shannon etc., Tamil and Drav., in general
have no aspirates. So, the problem of what to do for the aspirates
for N. Indian languages does not arise. In S. India, (Harvard-Kyoto
convention) "t" => th, (HK) S(.s) => sh, (HK) z("s) => sh  and so on
is used in English. Whereas in the North or among Sanskritists,
"h" is reserved for representing aspirates.

--- Allen W Thrasher <athr at LOC.GOV> wrote:
> I notice that South Indian publications when using Anglicisations or
> informal Romanizations of Sanskrit terms often add h after d dental
> and possibly t dental.  Why is this?  Could it be that since English t
> and d are alveolar rather than really dental and so are in between
> Indic dentals and retroflexes, the h brings the tongue forward against
> the teeth and so to the Dravidian speaker represents a dental better,
> whereas an English dental would sound closer to a retroflex?
>
> Allen Thrasher
>
>
>
> Allen W. Thrasher, Ph.D.
>
> Senior Reference Librarian       101 Indendence Ave., SE
> Southern Asia Section               LJ-150
> Asian Division                            Washington, DC 20540-4810
> Library of Congress                     U.S.A.
> tel. 202-707-3732                       fax 202-707-1724
> Email: athr at loc.gov
>
> The opinions expressed do not necessarily represent those of the
> Library of Congress.


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