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Ashika, Geetha
These are names of my daughter's preschool classmates. Geetha is from India, and I don't know where Ashika is from.What does Geetha mean? Is it the same name as Gita? Can anyone explain how the "th" in Geetha should be pronounced? I only speak American English, and I can't seem to get it right. Also, I'm curious about where the name Ashika originates and what it means.- mirfak
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Both names are used in India. Geetha is a variant transcription of Gita. As to -th- vs -t-: to explain I need to tell you what it is and what it is not because in Indian languages many more distinctions are phonemic.Consider the four sounds: (i) retroflex unvoiced unaspirated stop (say hard t with too much breathing out, tongue rolled up to touch inside far away from the teeth): sounds somewhat like, but harder than the t- in ten; (ii) retroflex unvoiced aspirated stop (same as above, but with a distinct puff of breath, as if you spoke the h along); (iii) dental unvoiced unaspirated stop (the softer t as the French speak in je t'aime), and (iv) the dental unvoiced aspirated stop (the same but with a puff of breath): sounds like the th- in think if you speak it without the lips touching the teeth. All of these are distinct from the voiced variants (v) the retroflex voiced unaspirated, somewhat harder than d- in dog with tongue curled up, (vi) retroflex voiced aspirated (I have not heard any voiced aspirate in any language around here: it is adding the puff of breath to the above), (vii) the dental voiced unaspirated stop (like th in the) and (viii) the dental voiced aspirated stop (again, add a puff of breath).In North India, (i) and (iii) are transliterated as t, (ii) and (iv) as th, (v) and (vii) as d, and (vi) and (viii) as dh. In South India, (i) and (ii) are transliterated as t, (iii) and (iv) as th, (v) and (vi) as d, and (vii) and (viii) as dh. The difference is because of the differing importance of the feature contrast given by aspiration. In case of gita, the sound is (iii) above. So, you can see it will be written t in North India and th in the South when writing in the Roman script.As to i vs. ee: the vowel was long in Sanskrit (like in teeth). But in parts of East India, all vowels are pronounced short. In much of North Indian transliteration, vowel length is inconsistently marked. So, one gets an -i-. South Indian tends to mark the vowel length more often, and uses -ee- for the long sound.

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Thank you! I was hoping you'd give me a thorough explanation like that. ♥
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