Which is correct दरवाज़े, तेज़ी, ताज़ा or दरवाजे, तेजी, ताजे or both

01:28 Feb 22, 2012 

Lalit makes a very important point. Ultimately what decides the spelling is the intended usage. If a phonetically pure form of the word is called for in the text, it should use the nukta, but if a naturalized Hindi spelling would also serve the purpose, then the naturalized spelling (that better fits Hindi phonetics) should be used. To focus back on the main issue, what should a proofreader do when encountered with this issue in a text? Should be blindly change all such spellings to the nukta form or the non-nukta form? I think, the proof-reader should not adopt this puritanical approach, but look at the overall nature of the text and then decide which to use. Also, if the text is a part of a larger body of such texts, then the overall usage pattern of the entire set of texts should be kept in mind while making this decision. It usually helps to have a style-sheet explaining the usage preferences for the project right in the beginning. This can avoid such issues in the later translations. The translator-proof-reader team should together decide on the style preferences. Ultimately, this a style issue, not an error per se in the translation.

19:16 Feb 21, 2012 

इस संदर्भ में केंद्रीय हिंदी निदेशालय के एक प्रयास में यह अभिव्यक्त हुआ है : "उर्दू से आए अरबी-फ़ारसी मूलक वे शब्द जो हिंदी के अंग बन चुके हैं और जिनकी विदेशी ध्वनियों का हिंदी ध्वनियों में रूपांतर हो चुका है, हिंदी रूप में ही स्वीकार किए जा सकते हैं। जैसे :– कलम, किला, दाग आदि (क़लम, क़िला, दाग़ नहीं)। पर जहाँ उनका शुद्‍ध विदेशी रूप में प्रयोग अभीष्ट हो अथवा उच्चारणगत भेद बताना आवश्‍यक हो, वहाँ उनके हिंदी में प्रचलित रूपों में यथास्थान नुक्‍ते लगाए जाएँ। जैसे :– खाना : ख़ाना, राज : राज़, फन : हाइफ़न आदि।"

19:11 Feb 21, 2012 

प्रश्नकर्ता ने बहुत महत्व का प्रश्न उठाया है और बाला जी ने बहुत स्पष्टता के साथ अपनी बात रखी है, इसे देखते हुए हिंदी फ़ोरम में यह चर्चा आगे बढ़ती तो अच्छा रहता।

12:24 Feb 21, 2012 

With regards to your second question about whether there is any authority that decides the correct spelling, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) Hindi is a very democratic language and usage usually rules and there is no authority that can decide what is correct or not. But in general, there is consensus on such issues. The consensus here is to use the nukta in ज and फ, but not usually in क, ग, ख, etc., unless it is a Urdu text that has been written in Devnagari script. What is important is that there should be internal consistency in the document. If ज़ and फ़ are being used, it should be consistently used in all words that needs to be spelt in this way. That is, the same document should not have दरवाज़ा and ताजा - either both should be दरवाज़ा/ताज़ा or दरवाजा/ताजा.

12:05 Feb 21, 2012 

This is a tough question to answer. Grammarians such as Kishoridas Vajpayei (Hindi Shabdanushashan) emphatically say that the spellings without the dot are correct. But current usage seems to be in favour of the spellings with the dot. There is a coming together of Hindi and Urdu happening in contempory times. This has become necessary because facility to teach the Urdu script in India has disappeared, forcing many Urdu writers to publish their works in Devanagari script. This also helps them to tap into the much larger readership available in Devnagari script as compared to the Urdu script. This means that in their works Urdu words are spelt with the nukta and this has started off a trend in the larger Hindi context to write these words similarly. Another factor is that many English technical words too are coming into Hindi and English words with the zz and ph sounds are rendered in Hindi as ज़ and फ़. This too is making the nukta more popular in Hindi. At the same time other nukta letters of Urdu like ग़, क़, ख़, do not have much currency in Hindi - eg. words like kanoon are not usually written as क़ानून.