Nice work. However, one need to stick to basic Assamese phonetics. Please note that Assamese has EIGHT (8) vowel sounds although we have more letters. Against this the English language has 22 vowel sounds. Please note that in Assamese HORSO E & DIRGHO E , HORSO U & DIRGHO U etc have the same sounds. (Please read Dr Banikanta Kakaoty and others). Please see my comments below:
>a ................ Near-Open Central Unrounded(Inverted a)
CAN BETTER BE REPRESENTED BY O
>aa ............... Open Front Unrounded (Lower case a)
CAN BETTER BE REPRESENTED BY A THUS AVOIDING USE OF DOUBLE LETTER.
>i .................. Close Front Unrounded (Lower case i)
NO COMMENT
>ii or I ........ Close Central Unrounded (Barred i)IN ASSAMESE WE DONOT HAVE A SEPARATE SOUND FOR DIRGHO E. BOTH THE Es ARE PRONOUNCED SAME.
>u .............. Close Back Rounded (Lower case u)
NO COMMENT
>uu or U ........ Close Back Un-Rounded (Turned m) (???)IN ASSAMESE WE DONOT HAVE A SEPARATE SOUND FOR DIRGHO U. BOTH THE Us ARE PRONOUNCED SAME.
>rri or R^i ..... Near- Close Front Un-Rounded (Small Capital I)
NOW A DAYS THIS LETTER IS NOT WRITTEN IN ASSAMESE LANGUAGE.
>e .............. Open- Mid Front Unrounded (Epsilon)
NO COMMENTS
>ai ............. Close-Mid Central ROunded (Barred O )
THIS IS ACTUALLY A DIPHTHONG. MAY BE WRITTEN AS OI
>o ............. Close- Mid Back Rounded (Lower Case O )MAY BE WRITTEN AS W. THIS SOUND IS NOT THERE IN ENGLISH, NOR IN HINDI OR BENGALI.
>au ............. Close- Mid Back Unrounded (Baby Gamma )
AGAIN IT IS A DIPTHONG. NOT A BASIC VOWEL.
IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE, ASSAMESE HAS THE FOLLOWING TWO ADDITIONAL VOWEL SOUNDS.
O' = KO'LA (BLACK) AS OPPOSED TO KOLA (DEAF)
E'= BE'L (BELL) AS OPPOSED TO BEL (FRUIT)
Thanks
Rajen Barua
> >CONSONANTS >-------------------- > >Transliteration Suggested Sound/IPA Symbol >-------------------- ------------------------------------------ > >ka ............. Voiceless Velar Plosive (Lower Case K) >kha ............ Aspirated Ka(???????) >ga ............. Voiced Velar Plosive (Lower case g) >gha ............ Aspirated ga (????????) >nna or N^a ..... Voiced Uvular Nasal (Small Capital N) >cha ............ Voiceless Aveolar Fricative (Lower Case s) >chha ........... Voiceless Post-Aveolar Fricative (Esh) >ja ............. Voiced Postaveolar Fricative (Yogh) >jha ............ Palatalised ja ( ja^j) >jjnna or JNa ... Voiced palatal Nasal(Left tail N at left) >tta or Ta ...... Voiceless Aveolar Plosive (Lower case T) >ttha or Tha .... Aspitated Ta (tta^h) >dda or Da ...... Voiced Aveolar Plosive (Lower case D) >ddha or Dha .... Aspirated Da (dda^h) >nna or Na....... Voiced Aveolar Nasal(Lower Case N) >ta ............. Voiceless Retroflex Plosive (T with Right Tail) >tha ............ Aspirated ta (ta^h) >da ............. Voiced Retroflex Plosive (Right Tail D) >dha ............ Aspirated da(da^h) >na ............. Voiced Retrofelx nasal (N with right tail) >pa ............. Voiceless Bilabial Plosive (Lower Case p) >pha ............ Voiceless Bilabial Fricative (Phi) >ba ............. Voiced Bilabial Plosive (Lower Case b) >bha ............ Voiced Bilabial Fricative (Beta) >ma ............. Voiced Bilabial Nasal (Lower Case M) >ya ............. Voiced palatal Fricative (Curly Tail J) >ra ............. Voiced Aveolar Approximant (Turned R) >la ............. Voiced Aveolar Lateral Approximant (Lower Case L) >wa ............. Voiced Retroflex Lateral Approximant(l with >tail)(?) >xha ............ Voiceless Labiodental Fricative (Lower Case F) >xhha ........... Voiceless Epiglottal Fricative (Small Capital H) >xa ............. Voiceless Uvular Fricative (Chi) >ha ............. Voiceless Glottal Fricative (Lower Case H) >ksha or xa ..... Aveolo-palatal Fricative (Curly Tail C) >jya ............ Voiced Palatal Approximant( Lower case J) >ra(?) >ra(?) > >In the above chart there has been quite a few deviations from the >devanagari system. For Example the "sha, shha, sa" have been >transliterated as "xha, xhha, xa" because unlike Hindi or Sanskrit, >the "s" in those is often pronounced as "x" e.g. Axam in assamese >instead of Asam in Hindi. Also the "va" has been transliterated as >"wa" in Assamese. > >I stated before and I repeat now, that I am not a phonetician. What >I am trying to do is to present enough starting material for a >debate so that the long-standing dispute on how Assamese words >should be transliterated into english might be put to rest once and >for all. The sounds I have "suggested" for the corresponing Assamese >Alphabet is by no means the final word nor do I claim that all of >them are correct....It is simply a suggestion so that it can be >discussed and the correct sounds be recorded. I have tried to model >the above on the transliteration charts of ancient Egyptian. > >If a system like the one stated above can be agreed upon by one and >all, then to transcribe Assamese words we just have to replace the >assamese letters with their corresponding english group of >alphabets..(omitting the the "a" in the consonants whne they appear >at the end of the word). It will remove all ambiguity whatsoever on >the question of how an assamese word should be written in English. > >The only way the system envisioned can be a success is if people >debate over the transliteration and the sounds of the language until >it reaches an acceptable level of accuracy. > >The reference to the devnagari script transliteration chart can be >found at... >http://www.angelfire.com/linux/tugg/devnagari.html > >The IPA help file which contains the IPA chart and all the sound >files for individual sound for reference can be downloaded from >http://www.sil.org/computing/speechtools/softdev2/Downloads2/SatDL2/Release2/setup-ih.exe > >or you can go to the link from > >http://www.angelfire.com/linux/tugg/devnagari.html > > > >yours, > >Syamanta Saikia > >_________________________________________________________________ >STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* >http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > >_______________________________________________ >Assam mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assamMSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. Get 2 months FREE*. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
