వాడుకరి:వైజాసత్య/RTS

The Rice Transliteration Standard for Roman Transliteration of Telugu

Roman transliteration of Telugu simply means writing Telugu using English (Roman) alphabet. Modern Telugu text has Telugu words, English words written in Roman or Telugu script, and modern punctuation marks. Transliteration is merely a way to represent modern Telugu text using English alphabet. Transliteration is not a software; it is a form of information representation. Transliteration is (typically) done by humans, resulting in a file written with English alphabets and punctuation marks.

Inverse transliteration is an operation that extracts Telugu and English from this file. Inverse transliteration function can be realized as a software. It is this software we refer to in this document. The output of this software is a file, which when printed contains Telugu written in Telugu script and English written either in Roman script or Telugu script, and is an approximation to the text that was transliterated in the first place. It is this output we refer to here.

There can be (and are) several such transliteration schemes. We are proposing the following scheme as a standard. In this scheme, many letters can be transliterated in more than one way. Some of them are designed to cater to varying intuition, some to increase speed, and some to be fault-tolerant. For the sake of a later reference, the preferred form of the transliteration of the Telugu alphabet is presented first. We emphasize that one doesn't need to stick to Table 1, and it is only a part of the standard.

Table 1

vowels: a aa i ee u oo R Ru e ea ai o oe ou

plosives and nasals:

             k  kh  g  gh  ~m

             c  C   j  jh  ~n

             T  Th  D  Dh  N

             t  th  d  dh  n

             p  f   b  bh  m

fluids:

             y  r  l  v  S  sh  s  h  L  x  ~r

where S is "melika sa" and ~r is "banDi ra".

Examples:

    English meaning       Transliteration

    uncle                 maama
    ant                   cheema
    monkey                koeti
    play                  aaTa
    old                   paata
    important             mukhyam
    saw (n)               rampam
    eggplant              vankaaya
    order                 aaj~na

Software takes care of "guDintaalu" (consonant-vowel combinations) and "vattulu" (consonant-consonant combinations) automatically. This is not the only way to transliterate these words, though. There are several other ways. Many letters have alternatives (equivalents), as in the following table.

Table RTS

   a    aa=aaa=a'    i    ee=ii=ia=i'    u    oo=uu=U=ua=u'

   R    Ru    e     ea=ae=E=e'    ai   o    oe=O=oa=o'    au=ou

   k         kh=K=Kh        g        gh=G=Gh      ~m

   c=ch      C=Ch           j        jh=J=Jh      ~n

   T=t'      Th=th'         D=d'     Dh=dh'       N=nh

   t         th             d        dh           n

   p         f=P=ph=Ph      b        bh=B=Bh      m

   y   r   l   v=w   S   sh   s   h   L=lh=Lh   x=ksh   ~r

Throughout, h = H. alu (archaic) = ~l aloo (archaic) = ~L arasunna = @M visarga = @h avagraha (used in Sanskrit) = @2 na pollu (arachaic) = @n null operation = _ (underscore) (see below)

Syllable break = ^ (see below) Force combination = & (see below) For "sunnaa", see below.

tcha (allophone of c, now extinct) = ~c tja (allophone of j, now extnict) = ~j

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Example. Telugu word meaning monkey can be transliterated as any of the following: koati, koeti, kOti, ko'ti. The same information is represented by all of them. Any of these can be chosen, based on personal preference or convenience.

Notes.

1. The following symbols are treated as both Telugu and English symbols: , < . > / ? : * ; + ] } [ { ` " ! $ % ( ) - = 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0. These symbols are transliteration-invariant. That is, these symbols retain their meaning:

    mana de'Saaniki "svaatantryam" 1947 lo' vaccindi. kaanii idi
    nijangaa svaatantryamaa?

2. The following are special characters: ~ @ & ' _ ^ #

They have special meanings, as can be noted from Table RTS. (However, there is a way to print them in the output, as explained later.)

3. Both ' and "a" serve as a vowel-elongation suffix. That is, "short vowel followed by ' or "a" becomes a long vowel."

   ceema = ciima = ci'ma = ciama, pOru = poeru = po'ru = poaru

4. There is a retroflex suffix, namely '. That is, "dental plosive followed by ' becomes a retroflex."

                 aaTa = aat'a, enDa = end'a

"sunnaa" Generation (Nasal Contraction)

All nasals are contracted before plosives as in Rule 1 below. Rule 2, like Rule 1, improves typo-tolerance.

Rule 1. Whenever the letter n or m is followed by one of {k, K, g, G, c, C, j, J, T, Th, D, Dh, t, th, d, dh, p, P, b, B} (or their alternatives), it will be converted to sunnaa.

Rule 2. Also, whenever the letter m is followed by one of {l, v, s, S}, it will be converted to "sunnaa" automatically.

Example: vankaaya, vamkaaya, lankhaNam, lamkhaNam, anga, amga, kance, kamce, manTa, mamTa, SunTha, SumTha, enDa, emDa, santa, samta, panthaa, pamthaa, undi, umdi, kampa, kanpa, cembu, cenbu, kaalamloe, samvatsaram, hamsa, amSa - all generate a "sunnaa" automatically.

Force combination

The "sunnaa" generation rules produce unwanted results in rare cases. The Sanskrit word for acid "aamla" doesn't have a "sunnaa" in it - we need to force "la-vattu" under ma. Similarly, "kaanpu, "paanpu" don't have a "sunnaa" in them: we need to force "pa-vattu" under na. This is done by using "&", as in "aam&la", "kaan&pu", "paan&pu". We emphasize that & is used only rarely, in special cases such as above.

Syllable break

Suppose we want to write "wrong number" in Telugu script as one word. If we write "raangnembar", there will be a "na-vattu" under "ge". But writing "raang^nembar" breaks the syllable after "raang" and writes "nembar" next to it, without producing the (unwanted) consonant-consonant combination. That is, k^ is the "praaNa" (pure) form of ka (without any vowel added to it). [In particular, typing ^ after m generates a "sunnaa".] However, a word ending in a consonant always assumes ^ at the end by default. That is, we write "shaap" (for shop), "lak" (for luck) and not "shaap^", "lak^".

Null-operation

"poruguvaad'iki toeDupad'avoeyi" is perhaps too tough on the eye. For human readability, it maybe typed as "porugu_vaad'iki toeDu_paDa_voeyi". Both represent the same information, including white spaces. The symbol _ is invisible to the software, that is why we call it a null-op. (However, _ serves another purpose, as will be explained later.) We recommend using null-op only when the transliterated text is supposed to be processed by humans. Otherwise, typing effort is wasted by breaking the words by null-op, since it is transparent to the software.

More equivalents

j~n = jn d'd' = dd' t't' = tt'

How to represent English words

Consider

          naa flight delay ayindi

in which it is obvious that the second and third words are English. So, normally there is no need to take any special action when using English words (which are to be printed in Roman script). Software should normally be able to handle such a representation. You can skip the next section which may be read when you run into an unusual problem.

Automatic determination of English words:

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Since Rice Transliteration Standard as defined in Table RTS is almost orthogonal to English [1], we provide automatic determination of English words. However, there are some rare cases in which it is not clear whether a word is Telugu or English:

  me'm ekkad'ikee poem. Sree Sree poem caduvutuu ikkad'e' unt'aam

where poem in the first instance is Telugu, in the second English. There are a few more Telugu words, which when transliterated become valid English words: are, gala, mana, nee, poem, eg. Based on their potential frequency, we treat some of them as Telugu and some as English, by default. For example, we treat "mana" as a Telugu word, and "are" as an English word, by default. What if we want to use "mana" as an English word? We simply enclose it by #s thus: # mana #. Text enclosed between #s is inverse-transliteration-invariant. That is, it will be printed as it is.

Similarly, we write _are to use "are" as a Telugu word. That is, we have a way to force Telugu using _. In other words, just as we force English words by enclosing them with #, we force certain Telugu words (rare cases) by prepending them with _ . Finally, the defaults associated to the conflicting words can be changed by the users. That is, if a user wants to change "are" default to Telugu, (s)he can do so by editing a defaults file.

How to represent Special Characters

We noted that @, ~, ^, &, ', _, # are special characters. Suppose the text to be transliterated has these characters. How do we represent them in transliteration? We enclose them by #s. That is, # is an ESCAPE character that toggles transliteration off and on. In other words, text enclosed between #s is inverse-transliteration-invariant. It will be printed as it is.

Example: #'# prints ', ### prints #, #Hello!# prints Hello!. However, the single quote ' retains its meaning when it doesn't follow a, i, u,e, o, t, th, d, dh. Hopefully, future software, in most cases, determines automatically whether ' is a quote (punctuation mark) or whether it is a suffix.

Line-breaks and Verse Environment

When typing we may or may not hit return. The `return' key strokes in the input file have nothing to do with where the line breaks in the output (except in the verse environment. See below). We start new paragraphs after a blank line. There is a verse environment, delimited by |'s, where 'return' keystroke means line break in the output (equivalent to \obeylines in TeX).

Examples

    English meaning       Transliteration, with alternatives

    uncle                 maama,  ma'ma
    ant                   cheema, ceema, chiima, ciama
    monkey                kOti, koati, koeti, ko'ti
    play                  aaTa, aat'a
    old                   paata
    important             mukhyam, muKyam
    saw (n)               rampam, ranpam
    eggplant              vankaaya,  vamkaaya
    order                 aaj~na, aajna

Examples containing English words:

Nobody is doing that nowadays and'ee, e'mant'aaru?

Modern culture loe TV, videos part and parcel ayipoeyaayand'ee!

Examples containing English words written in Telugu:

krist'afar kaad'vel aa maat'a eppud'oe ceppad'u. san^set' bulevaard' meeda oka kaameraa shaap undi.

Example file

Free verse movement was spearheaded by Kundurti Anjaneyulu . The movement can be traced back to the 1930s, but it really took off only recently. The eighties have seen a number of good Telugu poets writing excellent free verse. But free verse is not necessarily easily understood. The reason for this is that modern poetry, like modern life, is complex. While using increasingly complex imagery, modern poetry also tends to shift its frame of reference to outside, rather than keeping it inside. Poetry of # Nannaya # and # Peddana # can be understood (with the help of a dictionary) without references to the outside society or history. Contrast this with the poetry of T. S. Eliot. However, this shift is a hallmark of modern poetry, and not something peculiar to free verse.

Some examples of modern free verse follow. In the first example, the poet expresses his closeness to soil, with which his umblical cord is still attached.

|

  nagna bhoommeeda nagna de'hantoe Sayaninci_nappaTi anubhavam.
  naa naraalu ekkad'oe bhoomi loepali poralloe modalai
  naaloeki vyaapinci_natt'u -
  bhoomi hRdayamloe janmistunna agni
  naa gund'egaa vikasistu_nnatt'u
  naakoo bhoomikee oka avinaa_bhaava sambandham

....

  bhoomi vittu   andu_loenci ne' putt'u_kostaa.
  bhoomi oka naxatra pushpam
  andu_loenci ne' parima_Listaa
  bhoomi oka nayanam   andu_loenci ne' dRshTi saaristaa

.... |

(by  K. Siva Reddy,  `nagna bhoomeeda ', in

a collection of his poems "mOhanaa! O mOhanaa!", 1988)

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Note `Kundurti Anjaneyulu' is not enclosed by #s, whereas `Nannaya' and `Peddana' are. The reason is that software should be able to recognize modern names and handle them appropriately. However, if we write `kundurti aanjanEyulu', it will be printed in Telugu script.

Software

We will present the inverse transliteration software, called Rice Inverse Transliterator (RIT), in a separate posting.

The Rice Internal Representation

Rice Internal Representation is used as a common platform for all subsequent text processing tasks such as type-setting, spell-checking. It is not necessary to know this representation for transliteration purposes. Only software enthusiasts may find this useful. Others may skip this section.

Text processing becomes simpler if each Telugu character is represented by a single ASCII character. Furthermore, the internal representation serves as a canonical one-to-one mapping between Telugu alphabet and ASCII. For example, "Th" and "th'" are both represented internally by "Q". Since the internal representation is not meant to be read, only to be processed by the software, intuition does not play a role here. The Rice Internal Representation follows.

        a A i I u U R H e E y o O w

        k K g G V
        c C j J W
        T Q D Z N
        t q d z n
        p f b B m

        Y r l v S P s h L x F

Special Characters

sunnaa = M visarga = X alu = ASCII(1) aloo = ASCII(2) arasunna = ASCII(5) avagraha = ASCII(6) na pollu = ASCII(11) Syllable break = ASCII(30) tcha = ^P ASCII (16) tja = ^Y ASCII (25)

Since the internal representation is not intended to be read by humans, we need to be able to produce a human readable representation from this. In case we need to do so, we represent the information using Table 1, given in the beginning of this document.

రిఫరెన్సులు

• Ananda Kishore, "On Roman Transliteration of Telugu,"
• soc.culture.indian.telugu, revised after posting.