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@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@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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