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I'm translating English to Hindi, what's it called when the translations are with English characters?

For example, "love" comes up as "Pyāra" and "प्यार". I need the "Pyāra" word in my dictionary.

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    Below are 2 equally valid answers, romanization and transliteration. I would select the latter, which basically means spelling the sounds of words from one language (Hindi) using the approximate phonetic equivalent in the alphabet of a different language (English). It should be noted that romanization is a subset of transliteration that applies only if the output uses the Latin alphabet. For example English words may be phonetically spelled using the Cyrillic alphabet for Russian readers and that would be transliteration but not romanization.
    – O.M.Y.
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:22
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    @O.M.Y. I don't disagree, that is I do agree, with your updated comment. Not really to OP's question, but another option is a phonetic dictionary; but then you get fəˈnedik ˈdik-shə-ˌner-ē, -ˌne-rē
    – Elliott Frisch
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:32
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    @O.M.Y. I would be careful, 'transliteration' is often not the business of supplying approximate phonetic equivalents. It can be, informally, of course; but generally transliteration is quite technical and scientific en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Indic_transliteration, may employ a host of diacritics, e.g. ḍ, may be very formal and standardised and - while it usually tries to use generally appropriate letters - need not give excessive heed to pronunciation, e.g. च (which has a sound like chat) is often transliterated "c" (which doesn't)
    – Au101
    Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 4:57
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    In fact, most formal transliteration schemes try to reflect the original script and transliteration will be letter-for-letter, rather than sound for sound. Which is not to say that no heed at all is paid to pronunciation, far from it, indeed schwa deletion in Hindi is usually observed in transliteration
    – Au101
    Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 5:02
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    @O.M.Y. I was using the Wikipedia link to demonstrate the formality of the process. If you scroll down and have a look at the chart, especially the ISO standard, you'll see that there's very little approximation involved. Instead, it's mechanical. The standard provides a letter which you then use. For example, in formal transliteration of Tamil ṭ is always used for the letter ட், even though it may be pronounced like a t, or like a d, depending on context, but that isn't reflected in transliteration, because it isn't reflected in Tamil script.
    – Au101
    Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 16:27

2 Answers 2

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Transliteration may be the word you're looking for: "Pyāra" is the transliteration of "प्यार" into the Latin alphabet.

From Wikipedia:

Transliteration is the conversion of a text from one script to another.

For instance, a Latin transliteration of the Greek phrase "Ελληνική Δημοκρατία", usually translated as 'Hellenic Republic', is "Ellēnikḗ Dēmokratía".

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  • is there an author you know of that does this?
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:05
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    @Rob How about this?
    – Rand al'Thor
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:28
  • @randal'thor that is a great find for Rob, looks like it is exactly what he wants if I understand his comments correctly.
    – O.M.Y.
    Commented Nov 15, 2015 at 7:18
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I believe you are looking for

Romanization

From the romanization wikipedia,

Romanization or Latinization (or romanisation, latinisation: see spelling differences), in linguistics, is the conversion of writing from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both.

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  • is there an author you know of that does this?
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:04
  • For example, Turkish was "romanized" in November 1928 on the initiative of Mustapha Kemal. From Wikipedia article : "It was argued that Romanization of the script would detach Turkey from the wider Islamic world,
    – Graffito
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:10
  • @Rob Can you be more specific?
    – Elliott Frisch
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:10
  • yeah I'm looking for a dictionary that includes romanization with its translations
    – Rob
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:26
  • @Rob The Oxford Hindi-English Dictionary has a review that says (in part) the English transliteration is right next to the Devanagari script.
    – Elliott Frisch
    Commented Nov 14, 2015 at 20:40

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