In this site, all the Non-English terms are transliterated to the closest English pronunciation, without
spoiling the ease of reading and user-experience.
In the course of the normal English text, no special
characters are explicitly used to indicate special
intonations and pronunciations. It is left to
the reader to decipher the appropriate terms.
For instance for terms like 'Naama' 'Raama', 'Raadha',
'Swaamiji' etc., the 'aa' in which is pronounced as
'a' in 'war' or 'water' is still written as Nama,
Rama, Radha, Swamiji respectively.
However when there are two terms with the same
spelling but vary drastically in meaning, efforts
are taken to use the conventions given below to
clearly depict the pronunciation.
When it comes to Sanskrit slokas (verses) and Tamil
verses that are stated from the scriptures, the
following conventions are used to indicate
appropriate intonations.
'a' : eg. 'hari' 'o' as in
'honey'
'A' : eg. nAma 'a' as in car, 'party'
etc.
'e' : eg. 'eNNam' 'e' as in 'men'
'E' : eg. 'Ekam' 'a' as in 'prayer'
'O' : eg. 'gOvinda' 'o' as in
bone, window etc.
'i : eg. 'iraivan' 'i'
as in 'twin', 'sin' etc.
'I' : eg. 'gIta' 'ee' as in
'peel'
'u' : eg. 'suka' 'oo' as in 'look'
'U' : eg. ' 'u' as in
'pure'
'l' : eg. 'bilwa' - the tongue
touching the teeth when 'la' is uttered
'L' : eg. 'praLaya' - the tongue
touching the inner upper jaw when 'La' is uttered
'n' : eg. 'nara' - the tongue touching the
teeth when 'na' is uttered
'N' : eg. 'krishNa' - the tongue touching the
inner upper jaw when 'Na' is uttered |