I’m very thankful that my mother-in-law inspired me to learn how to read Hindi. I think I would’ve been too overwhelmed by the task at hand to make a start otherwise. However, she convinced me that since she taught herself to speak and read Hindi, after coming to Mumbai from Orissa over 40 years ago, why couldn’t I?
I can’t claim that I can read novels, or even read for more than five minutes without my brain beginning to hurt, but it’s still opened up a whole new world of India to me.
One of the things I’ve found most amusing, and what I struggled with initially, is English words written in the Hindi script. Just like it’s common these days for Indians to throw in English words while speaking in Hindi, they do the same when writing in Hindi.
The problem for me is that unlike English, Hindi is a phonetic language. It makes it easy from the perspective that you’ll always know how to pronounce a word. However, English words are not spelled how they are in English. They’re spelled how they sound.
I’m often bewildered to discover that it’s an English word, not a Hindi word, that I’m trying to understand. Here are some examples.
Free home delivery.
This leaflet was under the door this morning. I managed to decipher that it’s advertising a milk product delivery service. The last two words of the first line read “darii faam”. Dairy farm! The second and third line are part of the address. The fourth line (in italics) reads “frii hom dilevrii”. Free home delivery!
Cycle brand of incense.
Cycle is the most popular brand of incense in India. The large white Hindi lettering reads “saikal”. You guessed it, cycle!
Coupon machine.
The English writing on this coupon machine is a bit of a giveaway as to what the Hindi says. Nevertheless, it still kept me guessing for a little while, because I looked at the Hindi first. It reads “kupan mashiin”. Coupon machine!
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{ 37 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not surprised. I guess it’s because I’m so used to seeing things like that day in and day out.
Of course, but for me it’s like solving a new puzzle!!
Hehehe, you love puzzles don’t you?
eg, in Hindi, it would be “हॊम डेलिवरी” and “कुपन मशीन” – the words look a little more clear cut. I always misread the “p” as “v” in marathi. But yes, you can say these are small differences.
I totally agree it is difficult to read English in Hindi script.
Dips, the words Home delivery, Coupon machine is Hindi right? It doesn’t look like Marathi to me. It seems to be Hindi alphabet.
I’m confused.
I am glad to find this blog…..
Dips!!! Nooo. Don’t say this!! I have enough problems already.
There’s no hope for me if Indians get confused. Hindi and Marathi both have the same alphabet don’t they? But yes, Marathi seems to look a little less defined at times. That home delivery writing has to be Hindi script though (with a creative touch?), because there aren’t too many Marathi manoos in this Gujurati area. 
I’m just happy enough I can make some sense of what’s written, whatever script it is!
use of english words has become an integral part of Indians.and then to write hindi words using english alpabets ( Kya ho raha hai- What is happening) or writing english words in Hindi alpabets is being used since ages
It’s Hindi, not Marathi. You can tell from the words ‘pata’ for address (it would be ‘patta’ in Marathi) and ‘THanDa’ (the ‘TH’ would be replaced by its softer ‘th’ version in Marathi).
Sharell, now you know how us subcontinentals have felt at seeing our words mangled by the English. And very often, the nature of power being what it is, we have had to acquiesce and even accept the manglings as “correct”.
Great blog! I was searching for Devanagari and came across this posting. English in nagari script can indeed be the most puzzling words. Do you know about these Sanskrit books?
http://www.YogaVidya.com/freepdfs.html
Sharell and everyone else you know what is so funny is what The first photo with the home dilvery thing I read “darii faam” and I did not read the next part I knew right away it was dariy farm IDK why I just knew that is what that was! Even the free home dllevery I knew what they were talking about! I figured out what all of them were before I read the correct spelling go figure it takes someone who sometimes read things back words or spells them sometime as I say them to figure them out. Maybe I should learn Hindi!! Thank you for sharing these photos with us I found it very interesting and fun as well.
Lol. Well, after having studied Hindi since school, I find reading these letters quite difficult. The Hindi letters themselves are different in shape -more clear cut, the ii and i are on different sides etc. Perhaps they are trying to write Hindi in Marathi script?
What a mess! English words in Hindi language written in Marathi script.
Dips, I can well understand how you must be feeling. Don’t worry, it’s so much harder for me though!!
I think they are just getting creative with their lettering on the leaflet, giving it a decorative touch (and testing out people’s reading ability). As for the “i”, I have no idea about that in Marathi. I always just go with the short “i” being on the left and the long “i” being on the right. My bad pronunciation usually never reflects whether it’s a long or short “i” anyway! 
Sharell, my sympathies
But at your present learning curve, you’ll soon be writing blogs in Hindi
Maybe I should try and write a post in Hindi, then you can all offer me corrections!
That would be excellent for my learning curve.
My school time hindi teacher must be turning over in her grave right now cursing me. My sympathies are with her. I always used to be asleep in her class. Actually, on second thoughts, the entire class used to be asleep in her class.
Having said that, I hope she isn’t alive…
sharell have you ever imagined how would your name be written in Hindi?
if you ask some body to write it in hindi (i do not have the font with me right now) it would be something like “share all”
Writing my name in Hindi was one of the first things I learned. It’s actually शारेल I would like to write my name in Hindi always to assist with pronunciation. It has a long a (shaa-rell), unlike how Indians pronounce it (sha-rell). “Share all” is nice though.
Actually it’s very hard for Indians to pronounce my name because they can’t resist rolling the “r”!!
Oh and this is my married surname. माहाराणा Yes, seriously. I think it’s the coolest surname ever!
sfauthor, unfortunately, I think Sanskrit is a bit beyond me at the moment.
Some other readers might be interested though!
The first website I got when I googled Maharana is this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratap_Singh_of_Mewar
Interesting no? Maybe you should have told him that you’re his bhabhi!
The surname was discussed with the Mewars when I was in Udaipur, because they were known as the Maharanas. Of course, I was clueless as to its origins because I hadn’t been able to get any useful information from my husband at all. He’s very detached from most things Orissa. His most useful input was that it had something to do with a great warrior. (Probably Pratap ji!)
I asked my sister in law about it the other day. She said that the family originally came from Udaipur but were sent to Orissa as artisans to learn more, and some of them must have stayed there. That sounds more plausible, but who knows!! It’s a curious matter.
Hello Sharell,
I like your spirit of learning Hindi.And I am sure if with so zeal you learn,you would definitely learn conversational Hindi.
Hey now I am following your blog.Don’t you have a followers gadget on your blog?
Yeah you should have a google followers gadget. That’s sounds nice
When I was first learning the script (Hindi at the time, although now I use it for Nepali) I used to write paragraphs of English in devanagri almost like a secret code so that I could practice getting familiar with the individual letters. I thought it was brilliant! But when I sent it to my Nepali friend she claimed she couldn’t make heads or tails of my writing. Not sure if I am just that bad with the script or if she didn’t get it what I was doing, even though I explained it
Sorry, no google gadget (unless someone can convince me it’s really worth it)! Besides, isn’t that “followers” gadget mainly for Blogger.com? I don’t know much about it. It seems to be more of a networking thing.
Wow, that’s a great idea Americanepali. I think I’ll give it a go.
Currently, my handwriting has no personality of it’s own. It looks very much like it comes from a text book! I’ll have to admit I find it very difficult to read people’s Hindi handwriting. I can read printed things, but that’s about it!
Sharell,
I don’t know if it will help you or not but I can send u a small document that I made for Laureen aka Reenu to help her learn common hindi words and their pronunciation.
I am sure you must be knowing most of them but just in case if you need I can share or email to you.
I came across this site http://www.quillpad.in/editor.html that has a very neat multi lingual editor (really nice work done). Please visit this and experience it for yourself.
- Ashish
Ashish, Quillpad is the site I use!!
It’s excellent.
Apoorv, that’s really kind of you. I really have no excuse for my bad pronounciation (which isn’t really all that bad) because I know how most words are supposed to sound. It’s just hard to get myself out of the habit of pronouncing letters like I would in English. It’s mainly “e”s incorrectly said as “ee” (ii) not “ay”. eg: aayenge (should be said aayengay not aayengee). I’m a bit lazy with long and short vowels too!
In Orissa the legendary person with that surname is Bishu Maharana the chief artisan of Konark Temple. You may serach that name in Internet or search for “A Great Moral Legend from Orissa, India” for an interesting story/legend about him.
A very interesting story tinged with tragedy. Thanks for sharing Chitta.
I’m really looking forward to when I can go to Orissa and see it all.
What a funny post – When I was learning Japanese I ran into the same problems with Western words transliterated. My second week I was beating my brains out trying to figure out what “ai-su-ku-ri-mu” meant. (“Ice Cream”).
Hi Blake, haha, I’m glad it doesn’t just happen here.
Thanks for sharing!