Romanisation of Telugu


There are several systems for romanisation of the Telugu script.

Vowels

IndependentWith క ISOIPAIndependentWith క ISOIPA
అక aఆకా ā
ఇకి iఈకీ ī
ఉకు uఊకూ ū
ఋకృ r̥ౠకౄ r̥̄
ఌకౢ l̥ౡకౣ l̥̄
ఎకె eఏకే ē
ఐకై aiఒకొ o
ఓకో ōఔకౌ au

Consonants

Irregular Consonants

TeluguISO 15919ITRANS
క్షkSa / kSha / xa
జ్ఞGYa / j~na

Other diacritics

Virama mutes the vowel of a consonant, so that only the consonant is pronounced. Example: క + ్ → క్ or + →.Anusvara nasalize the vowels or syllables to which they are attached. Example: క + ం → కం or + → Candrabindu also nasalize the vowels or syllables to which they are attached. Example: క + ఁ → కఁ or + →.Visarga adds a voiceless breath after the vowel or syllable it is attached to. Example: క + ః → కః or + →

UN romanisation for geographical names

The United Nations romanisation systems for geographical names was based on a report prepared by D. N. Sharma.
The UN romanisation uses macrons for long vowels ā ī ū, a dot under ṛ for vocalic r, and caron on ĕ and ŏ.

ISO

There are differences between the UN system and the ISO transliteration standard ISO 15919: 2001

ITRANS

ITRANS also has transliteration for Telugu.

RTS

Used in Vemuri Rao's English-Telugu Dictionary Rice University's Reverse Transliteration System can be used for the transliteration of Telugu into Roman script as an alternative to phonetic alphabet. The RTS is defined below. Represent short vowels by the lower case..."
  • RTS represents short vowels by the lower case English character and long vowels by the corresponding upper case character: అ = a, ఆ = A; etc.
  • Unaspirated consonant-vowel pairs are represented by a lower case letter followed by a suitable vowel.
The result is a phonetic representation mostly suitable for dictionaries and computer input methods. Examples:
  • vaiDUryaM
  • gOmEdhikaM