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TECHNICAL NOTE
1 Transcription and pronunciation
(The following notes are elementery and aim at familiarising the reader with the terms employed in this study.)
i) Sanskrit
The internationally accepted system of transcription is used here.
ii) Prākṣit
Is only used in original quotations of texts in the notes. It has the same transcription and pronunciation as the Sanskrit with these differences: a) the following vowels and consonants do not exist in Prākṣit:
ļ, ai, au, ś, ș, ḥ however: ai = a +i, pronounced a-i (i.e. two syllables and not
like the diphthong ai of Sanskrit) au = a + u, pronounced a-u (i.e. two syllables and not
like the diphthong au in Sanskrit) b) all the nasals are represented by ń.
iii) Hindi
Is only used in certain proper names and a few quotations. It has the same transcription and pronounciation as the Sanskrit with these differences:
a) There are two retroflexes d and dh which are pronounced like a retroflex r, the dh being aspirated.
b) The 'a' mute at the end of a word is not pronounced in Hindi. We adhere here to the principle according to which the transcription of a word follows the orthography and not the pronunciation, for it is deemed essential that a transcribed word should be able to be correctly re-written in the original script, whatever the current pronunciation.
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