Indic transliteration tools (Hindi/ Devanagari) for Mac?

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Level 1

5 points

Indic transliteration tools (Hindi/ Devanagari) for Mac?

Hello

I was wondering if anybody knows of any non-web-based Indic transliteration tool or software for use with Mac OS X (ideally Unicode so as to be usable with Pages and other apps). There are loads of applications and IMEs for Windows (Baraha, Microsoft IME for Office, Itranslator etc), but none that I could discover for use in a Mac environment. More specifically, I would like to be able to use a Roman keyboard and use a sensible transliteration software to create Devanagari (Hindi) output.

Thanks in advance.

MacBook, Mac OS X (10.5)

Posted on Nov 15, 2007 2:38 AM

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Answer 1

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,388 points

Nov 17, 2007 6:50 PM in response to Abhi111

I think Devanagari qwerty does the job fully well. I just have to figure out the transliteration scheme fully.

It's not so much a transliteration scheme as a phonetic input method. You might want to have a look at the old manual here, which provides pictures of the layout and info on the way you make special character combinations, etc:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=50037

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Answer 2

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,388 points

Nov 15, 2007 5:19 AM in response to Abhi111

More specifically, I would like to be able to use a Roman keyboard and use a sensible transliteration software to create Devanagari (Hindi) output.

Normally to create Hindi output one would simply activate the Devanagari Qwerty keyboard in system prefs/international/input menu and then select it in the "flag" menu at the top right of the Finder and type away. Here is some info:

http://homepage.mac.com/thgewecke/TypingDevanagari.html

Is there something beyond this which you need to do? If so, let us know and we will see if we can help further.

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Answer 3

Abhi111 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 16, 2007 11:13 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

Thanks very much for your reply, Tom, and for the link that you have posted. You are right in pointing out that I can enable the Devanagari keyboard and then type. However, the Devanagari keyboard is quite complex and counter-intuitive so I was searching for a transliteration tool or software (such as www.baraha.com, Windows).

I am comfortable using LaTeX, and I can use Velthuis’s devnag transliteration scheme which renders beautiful output ( http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/language/devanagari/velthuis/). I use the tool macdevnag to convert .dn files to .tex and then compile them with TexShop ( http://pagesperso-orange.fr/bdesgraupes/sanskrit.html). But LaTeX is not as user friendly for small tasks as compact transliteration tools working with normal apps like Word in the Windows world.

So I am simply looking for an IME or transliteration tool that will allow the direct use of the Roman keyboard to write Hindi and Sanskrit. I do think that Apple has very poor support for Indic languages (just two average fonts etc) and there are virtually no apps for Hindi users (except quite expensive average quality commercial products). Thanks again.

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Answer 4

Rothrock

Level 4

1,465 points

Nov 16, 2007 11:25 AM in response to Abhi111

I certainly agree that Mac support for Devanagari and other Indic languages is rather sparse. And I'm interested in the tools you've listed so I'll have to check those out.

However I'm not sure I agree that the Devanagari keyboard is complex and counter intuitive. If you can learn the complex rules for the transliteration, you can easily learn to type on the keyboard. My understanding is that the regular board is based on "traditional" keyboard layout with the vowels on one side and the consonants on the other. That would require far too much work for me to learn.

But the Devanagari-QWERTY layout is very sensibly laid out by similar sounds and shouldn't be any harder than learning the transliteration rules. Almost everything is on the same key that you would type in a transliteration. The main difference is the retroflex and aspirated sounds. They are all on the same base letter, but with option or shift or in some cases shift-option.

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Answer 5

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,388 points

Nov 16, 2007 11:59 AM in response to Abhi111

So I am simply looking for an IME or transliteration tool that will allow the direct use of the Roman keyboard to write Hindi and Sanskrit.

I really don't understand what you mean here. The Devanagari Qwerty layout uses the Roman keyboard and produces Hindi in a phonetic fashion. The word हिन्दी is typed h-i-n-f-d-I. How would you like it to work?

Apple has very poor support for Indic languages...there are virtually no apps for Hindi users

I don't understand this very well either. The apps that do not work with Hindi are made by MS and Adobe and others. All modern Apple stuff works with Hindi . What is it you need exactly?

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Answer 6

Nov 16, 2007 12:07 PM in response to Abhi111

You have found the Keyboard Viewer, right? Add it as another keyboard in the Flag menu, and then you can clearly see the Devanagari keyboard layout.

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Answer 7

Tom Gewecke

Level 10

118,388 points

Nov 16, 2007 1:15 PM in response to Abhi111

PS If it turns out that what you are after are tools to work in the old non-Unicode format, xdvng, this site may be useful:

http://www.aczoom.com/itrans/online/

I recommend that users move to Unicode whenever possible, however, since this is the international standard. OpenOffice can use Windows Unicode fonts for Devanagari, which gives you a wider choice.

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Answer 8

Abhi111 Author

Level 1

5 points

Nov 17, 2007 5:28 PM in response to Tom Gewecke

Hi Tom. Thanks for your reply. I did not know that Macs have a phonetic rule/ transliteration scheme for typing Devanagari on Macs. In fact, I was unaware of the exact difference between the Devanagari and Devanagari qwerty keyboard in Apple. Thanks for the clarification - I think Devanagari qwerty does the job fully well. I just have to figure out the transliteration scheme fully.

I am a native Hindi speaker and I have reasonable knowledge of Sanskrit - but like many native speakers, I have never been exposed to or trained in the use of a Hindi/ Devanagari keyboard. That is why I said that it is counter-intuitive for me.

बहुत बहुत धन्यवाद।

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