With respect to related work, we do not include a start state and instead assume that the edit operation process starts in any of the edit states where the three starting parameters are defined to be the same as the transition parameters from the M state to one of the edit states including M. We base our application of the Pair HMMs on a number of requirements that were proposed by  in adapting Mackay and Kondrak's word similarity Pair HMM for computing transliteration similarity.
we ensure the use of distinct emission parameters in the deletion (X) and insertion (Y) states because of different writing systems.