Why is Jain sometimes spelled Jaina?
Words often have an inherent a (pronounced uh as in under) sound at the end of them. Though English is not very particular about this sound (many English words are not pronounced phonetically), Indian languages are very particular about sound. Thus, the word Jain, spelled in Hindi or Gujarati, does contain the inherent a sound at the end. In order to negate this sound, a special marker is placed under the particular letter. Thus, when we attempt to translate the word Jain from Prakrit or Sanskrit, we may spell it with our without the a, simply because when spoken, it does contain an a sound at the end. You will find this with many other words that have been translated from Indian languages into English. [Back to the top.
