Saikia:
With due respect, I must say that you are trying to recreate the Assamese language wheel. Your analysis does not seem to be based on any scientific examination of the Assamese language but seems to be based on your imagination (or may be based on other Indian language). You seem to be creating more Assamese phonems than the language actually has. The standrad of the Assamese phonetics has long been established. These satandards can be found in books by authorties like Dr Banikanta Kakaoty, Dr Golok Ch Goswami and others. I don't know whether you are consulting any of these books or just trying to create something on your own. I think in order to avoid confusion we need to stick to the established standards unless of course you want to challenge them. For your information, I reproduce below the stndard vowel phonems of the Assamese language which is taken from the book "Structure of Assamese" by Dr Golok Ch Goswami.
Assamese has 8 vowel phonems which are shown below:
i .... (close, front) as in word 'bil'= lake (written by the Assamese letters horso and dirgho e)
e' ...... (half close, front) as in 'bel'= ghonta (written by the Assamese letter e)
e ...... (half open, front) as in 'bel'=fruit (written by the Assamese letter e)
a ..... (open, central) as in 'bap'=father (written by the Assamese letter a)
u .... (close, back) as in 'tumi' = you (written by the Assamese letters u & u')
o .... (half close, back) as in 'bwl'= color (written by the Assamese letter w)
o' ... (half open, back) as in 'bol' = let's go (written by the Assamese letter o)
a: .... ( half open, back) as in 'ba:l'= strength (written by Assamese letter o)
Hope this will give you a perspective of the language so that you may revise your analysis accordingly (unless of course you want to challenge them).
Your analysis of the Consonents also have the same problem. But I will not go into details here.
Rajen Barua
>From: "S Saikia" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: [Assam] Transliteration Of Assamese Sounds
>Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2003 11:19:02 -0500
>
>
>
>
>hi everyone....
>
>Good Morning !
>
>First of all I would like to thank everyone for carrying on a
>tremendous discussion. The last few posts pointed out the drawbacks
>of my system in a very glaring manner... I have presented below a
>modified system incorporating the major modifications so that, just
>as Jugal sir and C. Mahanta da sayd, we know where we stand....
>
>
>
>VOWELS
>
>Transliteration Suggested Sound/IPA _expression_
>-------------- ------------------------------------------
>o .............. Near-Open Central Unrounded(Inverted a)**
>a ............. Open Front Unrounded (Lower case a) **
>i .............. Close Front Unrounded (Lower case i)
>ii or I ........ Close Central Unrounded (Barred i)
>u .............. Close Back Rounded (Lower case u)
>uu or U ........ Close Back Un-Rounded (Turned m) (???)
>rri or ri....... Near- Close Front Un-Rounded (Small Capital I)**
>e .............. Open- Mid Front Unrounded (Epsilon)
>oi ............. Close-Mid Central ROunded (Barred O )**
>oo ............. Close- Mid Back Rounded (Lower Case O )**
>au ............. Close- Mid Back Unrounded (Baby Gamma )
>
>CONSONANTS**
>
>While introducing consonants, we do it by adding the generic form of
>the consonant with the first vowel. Since the first vowel is
>transcribed as /o/ instead of /a/ in this table, so all
>consonant-endings change to an o-ending..
>
>Transliteration Suggested Sound/IPA Symbol
>------------------ -------------------------------------------
>
>ko ............. Voiceless Velar Plosive (Lower Case K)
>kho ............ Aspirated Ka(???????)
>go ............. Voiced Velar Plosive (Lower case g)
>gho ............ Aspirated ga (????????)
>nno or N^o ..... Voiced Uvular Nasal (Small Capital N)
>sho ............ Voiceless Aveolar Fricative (Lower Case s)**
>shho ........... Voiceless Post-Aveolar Fricative (Esh)**
>jo ............. Voiced Postaveolar Fricative (Yogh)
>jho ............ Palatalised ja ( ja^j)
>jjnno or niyo .. Voiced palatal Nasal(Left tail N at left)**
>tto or To ...... Voiceless Aveolar Plosive (Lower case T)
>ttho or Tho .... Aspitated Ta (tta^h)
>ddo or Do ...... Voiced Aveolar Plosive (Lower case D)
>ddho or Dho .... Aspirated Da (dda^h)
>nno or No....... Voiced Aveolar Nasal(Lower Case N)
>to ............. Voiceless Retroflex Plosive (T with Right Tail)
>tho ............ Aspirated ta (ta^h)
>do ............. Voiced Retroflex Plosive (Right Tail D)
>dho ............ Aspirated da(da^h)
>no ............. Voiced Retrofelx nasal (N with right tail)
>po ............. Voiceless Bilabial Plosive (Lower Case p)
>pho ............ Voiceless Bilabial Fricative (Phi)
>bo ............. Voiced Bilabial Plosive (Lower Case b)
>bho ............ Voiced Bilabial Fricative (Beta)
>mo ............. Voiced Bilabial Nasal (Lower Case M)
>yo ............. Voiced palatal Fricative (Curly Tail J)
>ro ............. Voiced Aveolar Approximant (Turned R)
>lo ............. Voiced Aveolar Lateral Approximant (Lower Case L)
>wo ............. Voiced Retroflex Lateral Approximant(l with
>tail)(?)
>xho ............ Voiceless Labiodental Fricative (Lower Case F)
>xhho ........... Voiceless Epiglottal Fricative (Small Capital H)
>xo ............. Voiceless Uvular Fricative (Chi)
>ho ............. Voiceless Glottal Fricative (Lower Case H)
>ksho or xo ..... Aveolo-palatal Fricative (Curly Tail C)
>jyo ............ Voiced Palatal Approximant( Lower case J)
>ro(?)
>ro(?)
>
>
>
>
>The sounds with ** have been modified... From the very constructive
>discussion three drawbacks of the system has been found...
>
>1. The transliteration system is not intuitive as far as the first
>vowel sound is concerned. whether it should be /a/ or /o/
>2. The use of "cha, chha" .
>3. The similar pronunciation of i/ii , u/uu, cha/chha etc.
>
>My reason for sticking with /a/ instead of /o/ as the first vowel
>was more phonetic than practical. In hindsight I think /o/ is more
>natural for us and so I have replaced /a/ with /o/ . As a result, I
>had to change the old /o/ as in konoba(someone) to koonooba. (I am
>not sure how much phonetic or practical /oo/ is and it would be
>great if someone comes up with an alternative). Also /aa/ has been
>changed to /a/. (thanx due to the intial posts of rajen da).
>
>
>"cha, chha" has been changed to "sha, shha" respectively as adviced
>by Jugal Sir to make it sound more khar khoowa, even though i am not
>sure if i am more comfortable with chhatro than with shhatro
>(student).
>
>As far as i/ii, u/uu goes I am in a fix. I donot know what to do !
>If I drop the practically redundant sounds from the Assamese
>alphabets, I lose the one-to-one correspondence that is the backbone
>of any successful transliteration scheme. I guess Assamese people
>will have to put up with this bit of inconvenience.
>
>As far as the IPA pronunciation of the alphabets are concerned I
>would be greatful if someone bothers to check them and point out the
>inaccuracies........
>
>Thanking you again,
>
>Syamanta Saikia
>
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