[Assam] Transliteration Of Assamese Sounds

[S Saikia]

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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