> Hindi is spelled phonetically in English This isn’t the case. I have a formal background in linguistics and have a vague familiarity with the Indic branch of

> Hindi is spelled phonetically in English This isn’t the case. I have a formal background in linguistics and have a vague familiarity with the Indic branch of the Indo-European languages in general, and I still occasionally screw up in pronouncing Hindi (or other Indian languages’) words that are written in informal Latin transliteration. Most notably, whether the sound written <a> denotes [ə] or [aː] is often ambiguous.