[INDOLOGY] Does chandrabindu occur in Hindi

[Tyler Williams]

Dear Harry,

There are a couple of ways of doing the transliteration. The challenge is
that, in both precolonial manuscripts and in print editions, a single bindu
(without the candra) can denote both a nasalized vowel sound, OR a nasal
consonant that is the first member of a consonant conjunct. For example,
अंत can represent both अँत and अन्त. (If the Devanagari doesn't come
through: aṁt (where ṁ is a single bindu) can represent both aṃt (where ṃ is
true vowel nasalization) and ant (where n is the dental nasal in a conjunct
with t).

Consequently, transliteration schemes diverge. Some scholars (myself
included) prefer ṁ for the 'ambiguous' bindu, ṃ for the proper candrabindu
(vowel nasalization), and the appropriate nasal consonant (ṅ, ñ, ṇ, n, m)
for, well, the nasal consonant. But there is another way that is also quite
popular (and perhaps more elegant): it is to place the tilde over the
nasalized vowel. This is certainly a simpler solution. But when dealing
with pre-modern texts, it can sometimes obscure aspects of the originals,
and make automatic scansion more difficult. (Because pre-modern poets often
used the ambiguity of vowel nasalization/nasal consonants to play with
meter.)

Best,
Tyler


On Fri, Dec 16, 2016 at 8:37 AM, Harry Spier <hspier.muktabodha at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thank you Dipak and Dick,
>
> Just to confirm. Is  chandrabindu  usually transliterated in Hindi as
> tilde ( ~ ) ?.  I'm asking because I've seen tilde used in Hindi and
> marathi but the ISO standard is m with chandrabindu.
>
> thanks,
> Vasishha
>
> On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 3:16 AM, Dick Plukker <d.plukker at inter.nl.net>
> wrote:
>
>> Dear Harry,
>>
>> Yes, it does. Hindi vowels can be, and are very often, nasalised.
>> Nasality is shown by the sign candrabindu (ँ). However, when there is a
>> vowel sign above the top line, only the dot wil be written.
>> Transliteration: tilde, sometimes an m with under- or overdot.
>>
>> हाँ, मैं हूँ । Yes, I am.
>>
>> Dick Plukker
>>
>>
>> Op 14-12-2016 om 23:06 schreef Harry Spier:
>>
>> Dear list members,
>>
>> Does the letter chandrabindu occur in Hindi
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Harry Spier
>>
>>
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