When we do decide to develop a transliteration scheme for the Assamese language, we hae to ask ourselves three questions....
1. Why do we need a system ? 2. How will the system simplify the problems in Q.1 ? 3. Who is there to set the said system as a standard?
Let me say a few lines on what I believe a coherent system will achieve..
Why do we need a system?
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As said by Jugal kalita, the Assamese language needs a standard transliteration scheme for two reasons..
1. To be able to write Assamese and communicate in it in a natural way using the Roman keyboard in today's computers. (esp. for use by people who know the language and just want to converse in it). It has to be intuitive to use.
2. To be able to trascribe the sounds of Assamese as it is spoken. (esp. for people new ot the language). It has to protect the phonetic qualities of the language.
How will the system simplify the problems in Q.1 ? --------------------------------------------------------------------
The system proposed in some of the previous posts hope to solve the problems in the following way..
1. The transliteration scheme produced is intuitive to use and can be used by the people who know the language with very little adaptation. People can type in the stuff in Roman script and then run a program to get the corresponding Assamese fonts.
2. For the exceptional cases when the text is meant for people who donot understand the phonetics of the language very well, we can provide the corresponding IPA expression in brackets which will act as a guide to the correct pronunciation. Note that this is the method while transcribing most obsolete languages. A list of suggested IPA sounds is also provided for the same.
Who is there to set the said system as a standard? -------------------------------------------------------------------
The ultimate success of the system will be when a large number of Assamese people use it. There is a so-called "official" list of transliteration rules set down in "the international standard ISO 15919 Transliteration of Devanagari and related Indic scripts into Latin characters" including Assamese.
It can be found at
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/stone-catend/trind.htm
I went through the system and it is I guess completely useless for all practical purposes, as far as Assamese is concerned. I dont think any Indian language, except Sanskrit, uses that standard anyway.
As of now the goal should be to develop a transliteration scheme which is intuitive for the Assamese layman........
Thanking you
Syamanta Saikia
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