—A Reply To: Compiling A List Of Semitic Transliteration Characters— Although slightly on a different tangent, mention MUST be made about the transcription of Indic languages into Hebrew script (a very rare area of linguistic studies)—inhabitants in Israel and Palestine MUST use some system (or another) to render Indic words/names into the Hebrew alphabet... A while back, I came up with a more acceptable system to Hebraize the words and names appearing in Indic languages:
1. Each Indic vowel is TRANSCRIBED with its CLOSEST corresponding Hebrew vowel point (which is superimposed on ANY Hebrew consonant letter). 2. Certain Indic consonants are TRANSCRIBED as follows: Ṅ /ŋ/ = ע׳ ; Č /tʃ/ = צ׳ ; J̌ /dʒ/ = ג׳ ; Ñ /ɲ/ = נﬞ ; V̇ /ʋ/ = ו (while W /w/ is ו׳) ; Ś /ᶋ/ = שׂ ; and Š /ʃ/ is equivalent to שׁ. 3. The ASPIRATES in Indo-Hebraic are composed similarly to what they are in Urdu (which uses Arabic script): These are composed as digraphs consisting of a tenue letter followed by a *heʾ* (כּה, גּה, תּה, דּה, פּה, בּה, ... ); the vowel point(s) MUST be superimposed on the *heʾ* of these digraphs! 4. The RETROFLEX consonant series gets denoted by their closest DENTAL/APICAL counterpart letters—followed by a *garshem* (single right-prime sign) (תּ׳, תּ׳ה, דּ׳, דּ׳ה, נ׳, ל׳, ר׳, ר׳ה). 5. The ALVEOLAR consonant series for the Dravidian languages are denoted by their closest DENTAL/APICAL counterpart letters—followed by a *gershemin* (double right-prime sign) (תּ״, דּ״, נ״, ל״, ר״). 6. Additional consonants appearing in loanwords/loannames/neologisms are written with their usual extended Hebrew spellings. According to the Indo-Hebraic scheme, the Sanskrit/Hindi/Urdu phonemic table would look like THIS: אַ אָ אִ אִי אֻ אוּ אֽר אֽרֽ אֽל אֽלֽ אֵ אֶ אֵי אַי אָֽ אֹ אוֹ אַו כּ כּה גּ גּה ע׳ צ׳ צ׳ה ג׳ ג׳ה נﬞ תּ׳ תּ׳ה דּ׳ דּ׳ה נ׳ תּ תּה דּ דּה נ פּ פּה בּ בּה מ י ר ל ל׳ ו שׂ שׁ ס ה א ע ק חֿ קֿ עֿ תֿ ז ז׳ ט ר׳ ר׳ה תּ״ דּ״ דֿ נ״ פֿ בֿ יֿ ר״ ל״ טֿ וֿ צ ח short vowels/long vowels/syllabic vocalic resonants/*chandra* vowels/diphthongs VELAR consonants PALATAL consonants RETROFLEX consonants DENTAL consonants LABIAL consonants RESONANT consonants SIBILANT consonants ASPIRATE /h/ additional consonants for spelling loanwords/loannames/neologisms into Indo-Hebraic Indo-Hebraic was created to equate the Indic scripts to the Hebrew abjad script as close to a 1:1 ratio as is historically feasible, while taking into account the similarities and differences between the Indic and Hebrew alphabets. Thank You! Shalom ʿAlekhem! Robert Lloyd Wheelock International Symbolism Research Institute Augusta, ME U.S.A.
