Hindi/Sanskrit Vowels and their English 'equivalents'
I have a romanization of Hindi/Sanskrit words rant post in the works. In the interest of not making that draft longer than it already is, here is a list to Hindi and Sanskrit vowels and their correct equivalent English pronunciation.
The 11 Hindi vowels with some English sound equivalents -
अ - Pronounced like the 'u' in cup, up
आ - aa; 'a' in bar, car, far [Long Sound]
इ - i; 'i' in fish, dish, kiss, this [Short Sound]
ई - ee; 'ee' in tweet, sweet, greet, tree; 'ie' in piece, grieve; 'ea' in peace, grease, 'e' in be, [Long Sound]
उ - u; 'u' in put; 'oo' in foot, good, took, look [Short Sound]
ऊ - oo; 'oo' in food, brood, mood, 'u' in dude, cute, prude [Long Sound]
ऋ - ri; 'ri' in prick, trick, frick [Short Sound]
ए - ay; 'ay' in tray, bay, say, 'a' in cave, save brave, made, shade
ऐ - aye; literally the sound 'aye'. I can't think of any English words that use this like that (Reply, reblog, or send ask if you have something to add here)
ओ - o; 'o' in cold, fold, bro, bloke; 'oa' in croak, oak, soak, coat
औ - ou; a very exaggerated 'ow' sound - exaggerate the 'w'
'a' is usually written as an 'अ' equivalent but I don't like that and have an upcoming rant post about it so I'm not elaborating here.
Sanskrit has two additional vowels : ॠ (ree; long sound of ऋ, vowel #7) and लृ (lri). Sanskrit may also have had the avagrah, ऽ, which was likely used as a long vowel sound for अ (vowel #1). ऽ is fairly obsolete but sheet music for many South Asian music genres still use it to the effect of a fermata at the end or long sounds in the middle of the composition.
Additional nasal sound adders (hah you can tell I'm not a linguist. I don't know what official english terms for these would be) -
अं - Nasal sound to the effect of ng; 'n' in hung, sprung, dunk, drink, think
अँ - Faint nasal sound, perhaps more of a nasal accent marker than a sound. Hard to translate.
Might make a consonant post at some point too, but that's all the vowels for now!
