Differences
This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.
Both sides previous revision Previous revision Next revision | Previous revision Next revision Both sides next revision | ||
user:zeman:transliteration-of-urdu-to-latin-script [2010/11/09 15:34] zeman Alef. |
user:zeman:transliteration-of-urdu-to-latin-script [2010/11/10 14:18] zeman New vowels with hamza. |
||
---|---|---|---|
Line 68: | Line 68: | ||
===== Vowels ===== | ===== Vowels ===== | ||
- | The consonant (or semi-vowel) و //(w)// is also ambiguously used to represent the long vowels //ū// (pronounced as //oo// in English //fool//) and //o// (pronounced as //oo// in English //door//). I want to distinguish these three pronunciations. In most cases however, the script can only output //[wūo]// and leave the disambiguation to a human judgment: | + | The consonant (or semi-vowel) و //(w)// is also ambiguously used to represent the long vowels //ū// (pronounced as //oo// in English //fool//) and //o// (pronounced as //oo// in English //door//). I want to distinguish these three pronunciations |
* In word-initial position, I assume that only consonantal pronunciation is possible and always output //w//. | * In word-initial position, I assume that only consonantal pronunciation is possible and always output //w//. | ||
Line 76: | Line 76: | ||
* In all other cases I output //[wūo]//. | * In all other cases I output //[wūo]//. | ||
- | The consonant (or semi-vowel) ی //(y)// is also ambiguously used to represent the long vowels //ī// (pronounced as //ee// in English //feet//) and //e// (pronounced roughly as //ai// in English //fair//). I want to distinguish these three pronunciations. In most cases however, the script can only output //[yīe]// and leave the disambiguation to a human judgment: | + | The consonant (or semi-vowel) ی //(y)// is also ambiguously used to represent the long vowels //ī// (pronounced as //ee// in English //feet//) and //e// (pronounced roughly as //ai// in English //fair//). I want to distinguish these three pronunciations |
* In word-initial position, I assume that only consonantal pronunciation is possible and always output //y//. | * In word-initial position, I assume that only consonantal pronunciation is possible and always output //y//. | ||
Line 93: | Line 93: | ||
The letter آ (ALEF MADDA) only appears in word-initial position and is transliterated as //ā// (which is written in other positions using normal ا). | The letter آ (ALEF MADDA) only appears in word-initial position and is transliterated as //ā// (which is written in other positions using normal ا). | ||
+ | The YEH with the diacritic HAMZA above separates two consecutive vowels, e.g. جائے گا //jāe gā// “will go” or کوئی //koī// “some”. | ||
+ | |||
+ | Similarly, the diacritic HAMZA above a و separates it from the preceding vowel as in ہاؤسنگ // | ||
+ | |||
+ | ^ Unicode ^ Character ^ Pronunciation ^ Transliteration ^ | ||
+ | | 0627 | ا | -, a: | a, i, u, 0, ā | | ||
+ | | 0622 | آ | a: | ā | | ||
+ | | 0648 | و | v, u:, o: | w, ū, o | | ||
+ | | 06CC | ی | j, i:, e: | y, ī, e | | ||
+ | | 06D2 | ے | e: | e | | ||
+ | | 06D3 | ۓ | e: | e | | ||
+ | | 0624 | ؤ | u:, o: | ū, o | | ||
+ | | 0626 | ئ | -, i:, e | 0, ī, e | | ||
+ | | 0654 | (hamza above)ٔ | - | 0 | | ||
+ | | 0674 | (high hamza)ٔ | - | 0 | | ||
+ | |||
+ | The transliteration script should contain a gradually growing vocabulary that would help disambiguate known words. Otherwise there would be a very high number of ambiguous positions in any transliterated string. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Short Vowels and Diacritics ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Without diacritics (which is more common), every consonant that is not followed by a long vowel may or may not be followed by a short vowel. I denote this possibility by the character for the neutral character schwa: //ə//. | ||
+ | |||
+ | //Warning! This section is under construction. I am still confused about the exact rules for Urdu vowel representation, | ||
+ | |||
+ | Although used rarely, Urdu has means to mark the three short vowels as well. This is done using one of the three diacritical marks. Long vowels can be disambiguated as well, e.g. a consonant with the pesh mark followed by a waw without any diacritic means that the waw is a long vowel //[ūo]// but not the consonant //w//. | ||
+ | |||
+ | ^ Unicode ^ Unicode Name ^ Urdu Name ^ With Beh ^ Transliteration ^ | ||
+ | | 064E | ARABIC FATHA | zabar | بَ | ba | | ||
+ | | 064F | ARABIC DAMMA | pesh | بُ | bu | | ||
+ | | 0650 | ARABIC KASRA | zer | بِ | bi | | ||
+ | |||
+ | pesh (ARABIC DAMMA, 064F) ... u ... کُون //kon// “who” | ||
+ | zabar (ARABIC FATHA, 064E) ... a ... کَون //kawn// | ||
+ | zer (ARABIC KASRA, 0650) ... i ... | ||
+ | |||
+ | Possible further reading: | ||
+ | * http:// | ||
+ | * http:// | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== Vocabulary of Frequent Words ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | Some frequent words cannot be disambiguated by character-based rules alone but a vocabulary could identify them as existing unambiguous Urdu words and save much manual work by disambiguating them. Here are some examples: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * ہے => he (“is”) | ||
+ | * میں => meñ (“in”) | ||
+ | * ایک => ek (“one”) | ||
+ | * اور => or (“and”) | ||
+ | |||
+ | Note however that there are inherently ambiguous words that cannot be disambiguated without human intervention (or at least without looking at the neighboring words). Examples: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * تو => to (“so”) | tū (“thou”) | ||
+ | * اس => is (“of this”) | us (“of that”) | ||
+ | * ان => in (“of these”) | un (“of those”) | ||
+ | |||
+ | ===== The Transliteration Script ===== | ||
+ | |||
+ | You need two files. All of the transliteration knowledge is encoded in the library '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | <code bash> | ||
+ | |||
+ | If you happen to sit on the ÚFAL network, you will find the script in '' | ||
+ | |||
+ | I am also attaching the current snapshot of the two folders to this wiki {{: | ||
+ | |||
+ | This is an example of an Urdu sentence and the romanized output by the script: | ||
+ | |||
+ | * آپ کو پچھلے 182 دنوں میں اپنی بیماری یا معزوری کے سبب مندرجہ ذیل میں سے کوئی ایک ملتا رہا ہے ؟ | ||
+ | * āp ko pəčhəle 182 dənoñ meñ əpənī b[yīe]mārī yā məˀəz[wūo]rī ke səbəb mənədərəjəh ż[yīe]l meñ se koī ek mələtā rəhā he ? |