Thanks;
Some of the basic points we will have to keep in mind about the Assamese language so that we are not confused.
First, we must be absolutely clear in our mind, what we are trying to mean by "transliteration".
If as you want to write one Roman letter for each Assamese letter, then that is one approach. That means, we will have one separate letter for Dontion TO, Murdhnyo TO, Prothom SO, Ditio SO, Dontio XO, Talobyo XO etc although these letters donot have separate sound. That is all right if that is what we want to do. But if we want to do that we must bear in mind that we should not bring Assamese phonetics into the letters. Because, each of the Assamese letter does not represent one oarticular phonem. In Assamese there is no correspondence between the alphabet and the sound system. That is to say, you cannot say to a foreigner that which Assamese letter sound which way. In Assamese, there is no system like that. (In this respect Assamese is like the English language. One will have to learn the sound for each WORD not for each LETTER). In this respect, we must go beyond our love of Assamese, and try to understand the Assamese language as it is. Dr Banikanta Kakoty, Dr Golok Ch Goswami, Dr Dimbeswar Neog are some some established sclolars in this respect. I would like to recommend the bookm "Oxomia Borno Prokax" by Dr Golok Ch Goswami who was the Head of Assamese Language in Gauhati University. That book will clarify many of the mis conceptions about the Assamese language. The main thing is while trying to evolve a system of "transliteration" we should try to create a new language.
The second important questions, after we answer the above, what exactly we are trying to achive at the end of the day.
Let us try to answer this issues before we proceed.
Rajen Barua
>From: "S Saikia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [Assam] Transliteration Of Assamese Sounds
>Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 18:10:54 -0500
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>Hi,
>Thanx for putting in valuable input. So that the problems are duly
>addressed I would like to put forward the following points...
>
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>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.
>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.
>
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>I have a separate 'ii' for two reasons...
>1. The baisc idea of transliteration is to establish a one-to-one
>correspondence between a letter in the source language to an
>alphabet(or a group of alphabets). So we cannot have any ambiguity
>while translitering. If we have an alphabet in Assamese we MUST have
>an english counterpart so as to remove any ambiguity..
>2. I am pretty dumb in this respect but i thought the name Dirgho-e
>implies in itself that the sound is supposed to be longer and when i
>tried to observe the Assamese words with that alphabet i thought
>that they sounded/ can be sounded a little longer. Now in other
>languages while elongating a sound from another very close sound
>(esp vowels) what happens phonetically is that the sounds starts a
>little backwards in the mouth.....it gives a sense of elongation.
>For example in Arabic alphabet the "ayn" is an elongated form of the
>"Alif" and so the mouth position is same while pronouncing both but
>'ayn' starts further inside the mouth than 'alif'.. and in egyptian
>the 'h' corresponding to the Hebrew "h�" and the "h.a" both are same
>but one is longer than the other and so starts later than the
>other...
>So I guessed since ' i ' is the Close Front Unrounded, so Dirgho-e
>should be Close Central Unrounded and when i compared the sounds it
>sounded much like what the dirgho-e is expected to be. This is the
>reason I put two different alphabets.
>The same explanation for the dirgho-u..
>
>>rri or R^i ..... Near- Close Front Un-Rounded (Small Capital I)
>
>>NOW A DAYS THIS LETTER IS NOT WRITTEN IN ASSAMESE LANGUAGE.
>
>
>I am not aware of what is going on right now but if you donot
>write"rri" then how will you write "rrixhhi"(saint) ?? also there is
>the rri-kar we have to consider !!
>
>
>>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)
>
>The small comma in o' and e' are not actually new vowels......they
>are called the SUPRASEGMENTALS...
>They are used to experss Tones and word accents..... /o/ mean it is
>flat../o'/ means we have to say it at a high level ../o''/ means we
>have to say it at a higher level. Even in english we have o'...like
>seven o' clock... but it doesnot qualify o' or for that matter e' to
>be a new vowel.
>
>
>All the rest of your concerns stem from the fact of whether we
>ahould tranliterate Assam as axam or oxom ......and I am right
>hearing from everyone that it should be oxom......but i guess it
>will be better to give this thing some more thought..... But in the
>end there has to be some form of accepted standard.....
>
>Hope you will continue giving us your suggestions..
>thanking you,
>
>
>Syamanta Saikia
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>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:
>
>>VOWELS -------------
>>
>>Transliteration Suggested Sound/IPA _expression_ -------------------
>>-----------------------------------------------
>>
>>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
>
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