Isn't "Ganesh" wrongly spelt? गणॆश?

Srikanth, you are right, his spelling is indeed incorrect.

As for the spelling - Marathi has 2 "n" sounds, hindi only has one. So I guess it depends on what language you're writing/reading it in. The way it is on the image has the only "n" that is used in Hindi. Srikanth's is right if it's in Marathi.

Bella, I did read it through a Marathi lens :) Guilty as charged.

... Marathi has 2 "n" sounds, hindi only has one.

No, ण is used in Hindi too, as well as Sanskrit, which is presumably where गणॆश came from. Hindi also has at least one other 'n'-related sound, ञ.

His comic book cover is interesting, because he does it in a very recognizable borrowed style. It's homage to Mignola, the artist (and author?) of the quite excellent Hellboy which is a far more interesting series than the movie of the same name would indicate. It's like doing your first major work of painting to look like something by Warhol or Picasso. An interesting way to get somebody's eye, but ... it feels a bit like he's forgoing an opportunity for him to get his own style and vision out.

Actually, all Indic languages (including Sanskrit, Hindi and Marathi, which incidentally share the same script) have 4 nasalized consonants: ङ (ganga), ञ (panchayat), ण (ganesh) and न (namaskar).

Another fact is that except न, the others do not generally occur at the beginning of words.

Just showing off a little. :)

I think in some cases the difference between the 'n' sounds are blurred in Hindi, where they're not so much in Marathi and .. Punjabi I think too..

for instance ... the 'n' in sajna can be pronounced and spelled न and it's not really wrong, but ण is the 'right' sound.. but is it maybe just a question of accents? Ganesh just doesn't sound right with the न to me, though.

i'm pretty sensitive to this since I'm just learning and want to be perfect... so please correct me where I'm wrong

ps. that retroflex L in Marathi is mad crazy. *that* sound isn't in Hindi at all. :)

Andrea, I am no scholar but I think there are some rules of thumb in Sanskrit to decide when to use ण:

After र and ऋ: रण,ऋण.
After ष: कृष्ण, क्षण
Before ट, ठ, ड and ढ: दण्ड, घण्ट
After ग with exceptions: गुण (Exceptions: गन्धर्व, गान)
Others that I am unable to generalize from: लावण्य, रामायण, प्रवीण

In Hindi, the aforementioned rules apply for the Sanskrit-derived (tatsama) words. But not necessarily for others. E.g., रण for battlefield, but रन for the cricket 'run.'

As for the retroflex L, it is present in (besides Marathi) the 4 southern languages as well as southern Sanskrit.

Phew!

My curiosity has been piqued, so here are a few more questions for all you Professor Higgins out there. As someone who grew up in a Marathi speaking house, I can definitely attest to the ण sound in the Marathi Ganesh. My Hindi is thoroughly corrupt, but I always thought that the Marathi ण sound was almost non-existent in Hindi usage (or was very often replaced by न). I am curious as to whether there are several commonly used Hindi words with the ण sound...any examples would be appreciated, since my memory is not helping.
Srikanth, ummm...what is Southern Sanskrit? :) (Just kidding)

where are you guys finding the devnagari scripts?

Ok, Mathematiker, here goes:

कारण (reason), रणभूमी (battlefield), वर्ण (colour), किरण (rays), चरण (foot), गणित (Mathematics), दण्ड (punishment), etc. etc. All valid Hindi words.

The Hindi vocabulary has been classified thus:

1. Tatsam words: Those originally from Sanskrit. E.g., all the aforementioned words.

2. Tatbhav words: Sanskrit words that have morphed. E.g., अग्नि -> आग

3. Desaj words: Original Hindi words.

4. Videshi words: Loan words from foreign languages (Persian, English, etc.). E.g., मुहब्बत, स्टॆशन

While ण can definitely be found in tatsam and tatbhav words, I am not sure about the others. Hindi has been often (rightly) called "bhaashaaon ki khichri," and it takes a lot of words from Persian, Arabic and English as well. I do not think these might have ण.

And by 'southern Sanskrit,' I mean the Sanskrit used in south India. This does have the retroflex L. E.g., नीळा सूक्तम्

DesiDancer, you can get the Unicode Devanagari from this site. Beware though, the transliteration standard they have followed may not be intuitive to many.

शुक्रीय

Hindi and Marathi both use "Devnagri" script and are written almost identically.

off-topic

Interesting editorial in today's NYTimes. How the Tulsa creationists got riled up beacause the elephant house in the zoo had a bust of Ganesh.

here's the link?

Hi Srikanth, Thanks a lot for the examples...the classification was quite interesting too.

Oh well.... I always thought ण was not really used in Hindi -- like pani (water) is spelled with ण in marathi but with न in hindi as i understood it....

I'm really confused now. I don't know how to read or write in Hindi, so I asked a co-worker to write out Ganesha in Hindi. The result is what appears on the shirt. I would apperciate the correct way to write Ganesha in Hindi if the way i spelled it is in correct.

It's गणेश in Hindi. Check the bottom right picture here.

Thanks for the link, any idea what I wrote says?