Guide to Pronunciation

(For technical terms & lyrics)

 

 

Carnatic Transliteration	Reference	Harvard Kyoto Reference
a	hut	a
ā	father	A
i	sing	i
ee	feel	I
u	put	u
oo	mood	U
e	medal	e
ē	ray	E
ai	kite	ai
o	hotel	o
ō	noble	O
ow	how	au
k	skill	k
kh	dark-house	kh
g	garden	g
gh	dog-house	gh
n	long, tank	n/G
ch	chain	c
chh	beach-holiday	ch
j	jump	j
jh	hedgehog	jh
gny	new	n/j
ṭ	till	T
ṭh	anthill	Th
ḍ	disk	D
ḍh	wind-hose	Dh
ṇ	pond	N
t	wealth	t
th	theme	th
d	the	d
dh	buddha	dh
n	now, van	n
p	pot	p
ph	uphill	ph
b	balloon	b
bh	clubhouse	bh
m	mother	m
y	youth	y
r	run	r
r	krshna	R
ṛ	pretty (Sanskrit) herring (Tamil)	R
l	lamp	l
ḷ	world	L
v	vast	v
sh	sugar	S
ṣh	she	sh
s	sit	s
h	hat	h
zh	in tamil - approximately like ‘rouge’

 

The Harvard Kyoto transliteration convention has been added in this page for easy referencing against the Carnatic transliteration convention used for all composition lyrics, technical terms and names of compositions across this site.