Romanisation in the context of "IAST"


The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a system designed for the precise Romanisation of Indic scripts, including Sanskrit, ensuring that the Romanized text can be read as if it were the original script. This system evolved from the work of 19th-century scholars and was formally standardized in 1894 at the Geneva Oriental Congress.

⭐ In the context of IAST, Romanisation is considered…


⭐ Core Definition: Romanisation

In linguistics, romanization or romanisation is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided into phonemic transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision.

↓ Menu
HINT: IAST was specifically created to allow readers to accurately interpret Indic texts in Roman characters, mirroring the original script without loss of information or introducing ambiguity.

👉 Romanisation in the context of IAST

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during the 19th century from suggestions by Charles Trevelyan, William Jones, Monier Monier-Williams and other scholars, and formalised by the Transliteration Committee of the Geneva Oriental Congress, in September 1894. IAST makes it possible for the reader to read the Indic text unambiguously, exactly as if it were in the original Indic script. It is this faithfulness to the original scripts that accounts for its continuing popularity amongst scholars.

↓ Explore More Topics
In this Dossier