Thanks. First we have to make Mr
Chandra Prasad Saikia (correct Assamese phonetic spelling: Sondro Proxad
Xoikia), the prime mover of the proposal see his mistake and agree that ASOM
(people will pronounce A as in 'act', S as in Sun, etc ) is really a
'bhusung-pohu' spelling and does not make any sense ate all. That spelling will
destroy two things: The Assamese X sound in OXOM (we already lost the X sound in
Saikia, Sarma etc) and the Assamese-Mongolian name ASAM). We should
convince him that he has done a great damage to the Assamese people. He should
therfore now write another editiorial in his Garaiyashi (correct spelling
Assamese phonetic spelling 'Gorioxi') stating that if there is any need for
change of the name at all, it should to ASAM and not ASOM. If he does that, GOA
will automatically pull out from ASOM and go for ASAM.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:16
PM
Subject: Submission of Memorandum
Required
I wrote to the
Tribune and The Sentinel today. But, some more voices would be
required to bring the matter into notice. Hope u and many others to send mails
appealing for "ASAM".
Infact, both NRAs and RAs ought to submit a memorandum to the Govt of Asom/
Assam (?), as well as to the Govt of India demanding the change to be "ASAM"
and not "ASOM". That would be the best way to make public opinion heard
to the otherwise deaf Govt out here.
Regards,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
If there should be any change at all, then it ought to
be "ASAM" and not "ASOM".
I will agree with you on this point.
This way we donot have any controversy at all.
People will pronounce the way it is written ASAM.(ie both As as
in Father and S as in Sun)
No problem.
Would you now write a letter to the Editor in any newspaper to that
effect?
That will be one correct voice in midst of so many noises going on with
wrong voices.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 12:13
PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd: Enough of
this Controversy !
Personally, I am in favour of the word
"ASAM". "ASSAM" is in accordance with the pronunciation of
the British traders of the erstwhile East India Co. No native stresses on
the second 'S' in "Assam". Also, in the pre-British era, it was
inscribed as "ASAM" in the documents and not "ASSAM". If there
should be any change at all, then it ought to be "ASAM" and not "ASOM".
That also helps in retaining the brand name. I hope you and many
would agree to this point.
Look, the legal formalities which must be completed before using the new
name "Asom" has not yet been done. As such, we can garner public opinion
in favour of the word "ASAM" instead of "ASOM".
With all best wishes,
Praantik
Rajen
Barua <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Regarding the name Assam, I
think this is what happened.
The British listened to the
local pronunciation, and found that the /S/ phoneme which resembles the
sound most is the /SS/ as used in their words such as 'issue', 'tissue'
etc. Please note
that /SS/ phoneme has the sound like /sh/. Anyhow that is how we
got the double SS I think.
Aren't you happy that we
have SS in the word Assam instead of a single S?
I am sure many like me
would like the present spelling Assam which has now been established as
an International brand name known all over the world either for Assam
Tea, Assam Silk, Assam Oil, or for (Dinjan and Chabua) Assam etc.
Let us keep
it.
We have much more important
things to worry about.
Like the Assam;s economy as
revealed in the report per the following link.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006
1:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd: Enough
of this Controversy !
"Asam" might
be ours. But "Assam" is definitely the one of the British
colonial masters of yore.
Best wishes,
Praantik
Frankly speaking, even
is others call us OkSOM instead of
OXOM, I don't see what is the problem.
Let others pronounce it
wrong. We mispronounce mexico all the time.
They will mispronounce
it with ASOM anyway and will say
ESOM or USOM.
My million dollar
question is why we are worrying for people saying
OkSOM and not worrying if they call us ESOM
or USOM?.
And why we want to
change the beautiful Mongoloid International name
ASSAM anyway. That is our Mongolian name, and
people are pronouncing it right.
What is our
problem?
Amar ki ukohe
khaise?
It bits
me.
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006
12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd:
Enough of this Controversy !
I agree to ur points. But
just see the way people pronounce the words like Xavier (with
reference to St. Xavier), X-mas, Excuse
etc.
Well, I believe that when the State surges ahead economically, the
whole world would try to pronounce the way we do. It wouldn't
matter even if it is written as Asom, Asam, Osom, Oxom et
al. However the bright side of the change is the dropping
of the second 'S' from "Assam". Now, we have to prove that our
state is "Asam" not "Assam" and we the people are not
"Ass-amese" but "Asamese" / "Asamiya". Isn't it
?
Regards,
Praantik
Rajen Barua
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> A layman who has no idea about the
symbol 'X' according to the codes of the IPA (International
Phonetics Association), can hardly pronounce >AXOM / OXOM
properly.
If you don't mind
let me ask you the question back. How a layman has the idea what
sound to pronounce for X for the following
English words?
xenophobia
/ xylophone / axiom /examination /excise /
exit
Or Chinese
name : Xingjiang
Or Spanish name :
Mexico
Or Russian :
Xruschev, Chexov
Or Greek:
Xarish
The answer to all
these is that we will have to learn the correct
pronounciation of X in all these words in different language.
Even in English we cannot take it for granted that it will be
pronounced as X in Box all the time. Similarly people will
have to learn the correct pronunciation of X in Oxom,
Xongkordev, Xotriya, Xukanguri etc in Assamese.
And how do we teach
people?
Very simple, we
simply tell that the X in Assamese is pronounced
like
X = kh, a
guttural sound pronounced as 'ch' as in the Scottich
word 'Loch' or german word 'Bach', or Zurich
etc
Now against the
above, what we have on the table:
ASOM :(Ppronounced
ESOM)
How do we
teach people to pronounce S in ASOM?
S as in Sun or S as
in kh =?
I wil write leter
why the first vowel need to be O and not A for
OXOM.
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, March 21,
2006 5:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd:
Enough of this Controversy !
Thats very
true.
A layman who has no idea about the symbol 'X' according to the
codes of the IPA (International Phonetics Association), can
hardly pronounce AXOM / OXOM properly. But at least the
Sahitya Sabha Stalwarts ought to be aware of the significance
of 'X' and re-christen the "ASS" as Asom Xahitya Xabha (AXX).
I am leaving out the word "Asom" (for as I said, a lot of
controversy surrounds it).
Anyways, thanx for ur mail.
Regards,
Praantik
all the
time.
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