Very fine article Rajen. Proud of you. c
---- Rajen Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > A copy of an article being sent to Assam Tribune: > GOA is trying to do the most foolish thing for the Assamese. > The correct phonetic spelling of Assam in Assamese should be OXOM. > Looks like Assam is controlled by ignorant Assamese scholars. > This is the saddest day for Assam. > I hope people will write protest letters to different newwspapers in Assam. > Rajen Barua > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > > > THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 'X' SOUND IN ASSAMESE LANGUAGE > > Rajen Barua, Houston, USA > > > > Assamese is the eastern-most member of New Indo Aryan (NIA) languages in > India, and is spoken in the Brahmaputra valley in Assam. It is also the > easternmost member of the Indo-European group of languages which is the > largest language group in the world with a total number of speakers of more > than half of the world population. All the modern European languages as well > as those of Iran, India and Pakistan fall into this Indo-European group. > Amongst the NIA languages, Assamese bears some unique characteristics which > are not found in other Indian languages. > > > > Assamese is a very ancient language, a fact not very well recognized even by > the Assamese. From that ancient past, the Assamese language evolved in > partial isolation from mainland India, and developed some distinct > characteristics. Being the farthest outpost of Aryan migration towards the > east, Assamese falls in the outer belt or in the peripheral Indo-Aryan > languages. As such Assamese has retained certain characteristics of the > parent Indo-European (IE) languages which have been lost in other parts of > India. > > > > Besides the absence of the cerebrals, Assamese has the unique /x/ sound which > is absent in Sanskrit and other NIA languages. This was duly observed by the > Baptist Missionaries in the early nineteenth century when they encountered > the language and has opined correctly that Assamese has the unique /x/ sound > which is similar to the Greeks. Phonetically, this /x/ sound is pronounced > somewhat in between the sounds /s/, /kh/ and /h/ and is similar to the > German sound /ch/ as pronounced in the word 'Bach' or the Scottish sound as > found in the word 'Loch'. Thus in Assamese, all the three Indo-Aryan > Sibilants: s, s' and s'' are pronounced as /x/. This is a unique > characteristic of the Assamese language. On this point, Dr. Suniti Kumar > Chatterjee, the leading Indian philologist, remarked, "The change of initial, > intervocal and final (sibilants) to the gluteral spirant x in Assamese is > something remarkable and is paralleled by what we see in Singhalese and > Kashmiri. This is also noticeable in Iranian, Hellenic and Celtic" In many > languages this original Indo-European /x/ sound was lost which either evolved > to s, kh or h. According to Kaliram Medhi, "The Assamese pronunciation of > the sibilants is peculiar in Assamese, and evidently a relic of pre Vedic > Aryan pronunciation." Dimbeswar Neog also agrees, "Next to the above > peculiarities is the Asamiya X pronunciation of the sibilants which also must > have been brought by the Early Aryans called the Mediterranean." Thus we see > that this x sound in Assamese is not something which developed in Assam, nor > it is a sound which was inherited from any of the non-Aryan languages in > Assam, but it simply marks an earlier Indo-European pre Vedic heritage. The > /x/ sound was there in the pre-Vedic Aryan language also before the evolution > of the classical Sanskrit language. Dr Suniti Kumar Chatterjee, writes "It > seems that in certain forms of OIA (Old Indo-Aryan languages the /x/ sound > was the actually one employed for S as can be inferred from a medieval > pronunciation of S as /kh/ being the nearest approximation to the traditional > /x/". Dimbeswar Neog further writes, "When the Nordic of Vedic Aryan > immigration into India took place in the second millennium B.C., the /x/ > sound as in Asamiya was prominent. Chatterjee thinks that "tatax kim" was > the actual pronunciation at the time of the Rig Veda. It came to be > pronounced as "tatah kim" in later times owing to the loss of /x/ sound due > to non-Aryan influence predominating over the Aryan. But it remained almost > intact in the Dardic or Pisaci speech which like the Asamiya is a language of > the outer band." > > > > Scholars have now correctly identified this unique Assamese sound to be a > 'veller fricative' sound. Dr. Banikanata Kakaoty, states that in Assamese it > is an 'unvoiced velar fricative' sound. Dr Golok Ch Goswami describes it as > a "velar voiceless aspirant'. The International Phonetic Association (IPA), > has identified all the sounds of all the languages in the world and have > assigned some unique symbols. The IPA symbol of the 'velar fricative' sound > as found in Assamese and other languages is the Roman letter X. (See IPA > Chart). > > > > > > Some of the Indo-European languages have retained this sound although today > in each language, the actual pronunciation is slightly different. In the > European languages this sound is spelled either as x or ch. In the Greek > language it is spelled as x as in the word Xarish (meaning favor). In the > Russian language it is spelled as x as in the words Xrushchev or Chexov. In > the German language it is spelled as ch as in the words Dach (meaning roof) > or Bach (meaning brook). In Scottish language also this sound is there, and > is spelled, like the Germans, as ch as in the word Loch (meaning hole). > > > > Thus our Assamese language is a unique language which is one of the few which > has still retained this X sound. It is believed that in Assam we have this > sound from the early days of Narakaxura who belongs to an Axura tribe which > is an earlier pre-Vedic Aryan group, the main branch of which immigrated to > Persia and later established the worship of the supreme deity, Ahura Mezda as > the formless God. It is interesting to note that even today Assamese culture > has some striking correspondence with the old Persian culture as found in > Zend-Avesta. The Persian language has also some correspondence with the > Assamese language in many respects including the common /x/ sound. > > > > >From these ancient past, the Aryan roots of the Assamese language has > >greatly assimilated various other elements into its body in Assam, notably > >of Bodo group of the Tibeto-Burman family; and the old Assamese language > >evolved as the dialect of the of the common people. In course of time, > >several waves of Aryan immigrants entered Assam. According to one theory, > >these early immigrants were Alpine Aryans from the Mediterranean. "During > >the third millennium B.C.the Alpine immigration poured into India, one > >branch of them moving toward the western coast of India through the Indus > >valley and the other branch pushing towards Eastern India." They must have > >come through the foothills of the Himalayas bypassing the mainland India. > >Assamese language bears some interesting correspondence to some languages of > >the Himalayan foothills. It is also probable that some of them came through > >one of the northern trade routes thru Tibet and Bhutan, which were in common > >use in those times. > > > > In keeping with the IPA (International Phonetic Association) this sound > should be represented by the letter X. Assamese should start writing this > sound in their many words which have this sound. Thus the correct spelling of > the word Assam in Assamese should be OXOM. There has been some attempt to > write the word with the spelling ASOM. Needless to say that the spelling ASOM > does not represent the proper Assamese pronunciation. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > REFERENCE AND NOTES: > > > > (1) Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language - Kaliram Medhi. > > (2) The Background of Assamese Culture - R. M. Nath . > > (3) Oxomia Bhaxar Moulik Bisar-Debanad Bharali > > (4) Assamese-Its Formation and Development - Dr Banikanta Kakoty > > (5) Structure of Assamese - Dr Golok Chandra Goswami > > (6) Origin and Development of Bengali Language - S. K. Chatterjee > > (7) Assamese Grammar and Origin of the Assamese Language - Kaliram Medhi. > > (8) The origin and Growth of Asomiya Language - Dimbeswar Neog > > (9) A History of India - A.F.Rudolf Hoernle & Herbert A. Stark > > (10) Asamiya Barna Prakash - Dr Golokchandra Goswami. > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
