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Comment by delta_p_delta_x | Hacker News Reader

I wouldn't say 'neither', because by your own example, 'a' in English can represent ⟨ə⟩. That every other vowel letter also can is English's low level of phoneticism with respect to the script it uses. Many other languages using the Latin script (German, Italian, Finnish) don't have this problem, what you see is what get.

Oddly enough amongst the Indic languages, Tamil has precisely the same problem: க, ப, ட may be voiced or voiceless plosives depending on context. Sanskrit loanwords in Tamil are typically pronounced very differently compared to their original in Sanskrit, or even in Telugu.

Personally when transliterating any Indic language I tend to use ISO-15919, and in that scheme, it is Rāma, and 'a' represents the schwa. Or Rāmaḥ, Rāmam, Rāmē, or Rāmasya, whichever grammatical attachment is appropriate.

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Wikipedia has an interesting page on "Brahmin Tamil" which is the Tamil dialect spoken by Brahmins in Tamil Nadu and consists of Classical Tamil with a lot of Sanskrit influence - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmin_Tamil

> That every other vowel letter also can is English's low level of phoneticism

The level of phoneticism between English language and its latin script is not evenly spread.

For example, the letter "c" might mean /s/ or /k/ sound. However, the letter "k" almost certainly means /k/ sound.

In some ways, the schwa sound in English the worst as there is no symbol which is committed even partially towards it.

> it is Rāma, and 'a' represents the schwa.

Sure, but if my name is Rāma, I have to choose either "Ram" or "Rama" or "Raama" for my passport name. Or legal name in most places, non-alphabetic symbols do not work with all modern systems.

> Many other languages using the Latin script (German, Italian, Finnish) don't have this problem, what you see is what get.

English imports spellings from other cultures and adds its own layer of pronunciations. Other languages probably don't do it as often.

> In some ways, the schwa sound in English the worst as there is no symbol which is committed even partially towards it.

> English imports spellings from other cultures and adds its own layer of pronunciations. Other languages probably don't do it as often.

English is almost unique in how inconsistent its orthography is especially with respect to vowel sounds, and loanwords are only the latest manifestation of this problem. Even consonants aren't spared. Consider the digraph 'th'. This can be a voiced or voiceless dental fricatives. English used to have letters for each: ð and þ. 'ough' has nine pronunciations—plough, though, through, thorough, cough, rough, bought, lough, hiccough.

English has experienced contact with such a wide variety of unrelated foreign languages to an extent few others ever have.

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