pronunciation guide in Hindi

Lojban letteral	Accepted phonemes (IPA)	Hindi equivalents
'	[h]	ह
,	[.]	syllable break
.	[ʔ]	This sound doesn't appear in Hindi. It is the pause/catch between some words/syllables, such as in the English phrase "uh-oh", or as represented in Khasi by the consonant h (written in Bengali/Assamese script as হ) when it appears at the end of word. It also appears before many Arabic words that begin with a, such as الله‎ ("Allah") and أغاني (agaani, meaning "songs").
a	[ɑ]	आ (not अ)
b	[b]	ब (not भ)
c	[ʃ] preferred, [ʂ] acceptable	श preferred, ष acceptable
d	[d] or any variant	ड, द (not ढ or ध)
e	[ɛ], [e]	ए (not ऐ)
f	[f], [ɸ]	फ (strictly फ़ [f]; the modern pronunciation of फ is somewhere between [f] and [ɸ], usually closer to [f], and is thus acceptable; whereas the historic/Sanskrit pronunciation is [pʰ], which maps to Lojban p, and thus is not acceptable)
g	[g]	ग (not घ)
i	[i]	ई (not इ). When the first letteral in a diphthong, equivalent to य, i.e. Lojban ia, ie, ii, io, iu are pronounced या, ये, यी, यो, यु/यू, respectively.
j	[ʒ]	झ़ (not झ), as in the Arabic/Persian pronunciation of अझ़दहा (azhdahaa, meaning "dragon"). Usually difficult for native Hindi speakers.
k	[k]	क, ख
l	[l]	ल
m	[m]	म
n	[n]	न (not ण)
o	[o], [ɔ]	ओ, औ
p	[p]	प (not फ)
r	[r] preferred, [ɾ] acceptable	र preferred, ड़ (not ड) acceptable
s	[s]	स
t	[t] or any variant	ट, ठ, त, थ
u	[u]	उ, ऊ. When the first letteral in a diphthong, almost equivalent to व, i.e. Lojban ua, ue, ui, uo, uu are pronounced वा, वे, वी, वो, वु/वू, respectively.
v	[v]	As in English "v" (not व [ʋ], which does not appear in Lojban). [v] is the typical (but not ubiquitous) pronunciation of व in व्रत; the upper lip and bottom teeth must meet to produce this sound. See here for more info.
x	[x]	ख़ (not ख), as in the Arabic/Persian pronunciation of अख़बर (the name "Akhbar"). Usually difficult for native Hindi speakers.
y	[ə]	The sound of अ (not आ) when it appears by the juxtaposition of consonants, e.g. the sound transliterated as a in कर kar, but notably not as in the start of अंदर/अन्दर andar, which is [ʌ].
z	[z]	ज़ (not ज), as in the Arabic/Persian pronunciation of मेज़ (mez, meaning "desk"). Usually difficult for native Hindi speakers.

I just want to give it a try and start this chart with my - admittedly - poor knowledge of the language Hindi. I'm having available here a narrow vocabulary and some knowledge of Hindi phonology.

First, we'd have to decide which contrasts should match the Lojban voiced/unvoiced consonant pairs, since most Hindi consonants can be distinguished according voiced/unvoiced, aspirated/unaspirated, retroflex/'normal', which e.g. for the dental stops or labial plosives means:

d - dh - d(retro) - dh(retro) - t - th - t(retro) - th(retro)

b - bh - b(retro) - bh(retro) - p - ph - p(retro) - ph(retro)

etc.

The vowels are:

a, i, u, e, o - each coming in pairs: short-open (a, i, u) or moreorless long-moreorless closed (e, o). There are still two diphtongs ae-e and o-o with pretty different articulation according different local pronunciation. So what?

a rastr-bhasa (national language)

e dene (give)

i pahli (first)

o prajog (application), ho (of)

u puri tarah (fully, full manner/way)

y -

ai sthai prakriti (enduring nature)

au -

ei -

oi -

ia krijatmak (effective), jatha (namely)

ie lije (for)

ii -

io prajog (application)

iu -

ua -

ue -

ui -

uo -

uu -

b bharat (India) -there's no 'normal' b in my sample text, sorry!

c kisht (rate, instalment?)

d dene (give), dija/dije (given), hindi (Hindi)

f -

g agja-patra (laws)

j -

k sarkari (official)

l le legi (will take/occupy/replace)

m kram (system)

n nishcaj (decision)

p parivartan (conversion)

r rup (form)

s sthan (place, location), sath-sath (together with)

t tarah (manner, form, way)

v vikas (developement), patra-vjavahar (correspondence)

x -

z �'grezi (English)

' hindi (the language Hindi)

Comments, corrections and improvements are highly welcome :-) and - needed! :[[-- [.aulun.|.aulun.]]

Needed urgently, folks; if I don't get what I need soon, I'm going to Berlitz. By soon, I mean end of November 2002. -- nitcion