Hindi orthography (Hindi Barna Binyas) refers to a set of writing standards for Hindi, which includes spelling, punctuation, hyphenation, and Padyog Padbiyog (writing words together or separately).
The words used in Hindi can be divided into two basic categories: Hindi terms and Sanskrit loanwords. Sanskrit loanwords, dubbed Tatsam, are directly translated into Hindi from Sanskrit. Hindi words are mostly composed of words called Tadbhav that originated in Sanskrit but were adapted to the Hindi language. Additionally, Hindi terms incorporate loanwords from languages other than Sanskrit.
A significant orthographic contrast between these two categories is that Hindi words are spelled according to Hindi orthography regulations, whilst Sanskrit loanwords are written exactly as they are in Sanskrit, as they were adopted without change into Hindi. In comparison to Sanskrit, Hindi spelling rules are more simpler, making it easier to write all forms of Hindi words (primarily, words that originated from Sanskrit but got modified along the way and loanwords from sources other than Sanskrit.) In comparison, writing Sanskrit loanwords requires additional knowledge of Sanskrit spelling norms, as they must be written identically to how they are written in Sanskrit.
The orthography of Nepal has varied over time. The conventions used at the Hindi Language Resource Center are based on those issued by Nepal Academy, the country’s language academy.
To accommodate both writing systems, the articles in this topic include sections on the conventions used to write Hindi terms and on the conventions used to write Sanskrit loanwords.
Raswa Dirgha in Hindi
A vowel can exist independently or as a dependent vowel sign in conjunction with a consonant letter. For further information, see Alphabet and Writing System. The two vowels /i/ and /u/ can also occur either as short vowels or long vowels. In Hindi, Raswa refers to the occurrence of such short vowels, इ, ि, उ and ु, and Dirgha to the occurrence of long vowels, ई, ी, ऊ and ू, in an orthographic syllable.
Padyog Padbiyog in Hindi
In Hindi, words in a phrasal category may be written together or separately. Padyog, (Hindi: पदयोग) a compound word consisting पद /pad̪/ (word/stem) and योग /yog/ (put together/unification), refers to the process or the occurrence when words in the phrasal category are written together. Similarly, Padbiyog, (Hindi: पदवियोग) consisting पद /pad̪/ (word/stem) and वियोग /bi·yog/ (separation), refers to the process or occurrence when the words are written separately.
For example, Padyog of the words गर्नु /garnu/ (to do) and हुन्छ /hunchʰa/ (part of the finite verb to specify a positive action in the present tense) results in the verb phrase गर्नुहुन्छ /garnu·hunchʰa/ (he/she does – honorific) where the words are written together. In contrast to this, Padbiyog of the words मेरो /me·ro/ (my) and भाषा /bʰä·sä/ (language) results in the noun phrase मेरो भाषा /me·ro bʰä·sä/ (my language) where the words are written separately.