Whats this?
The Battle of the 'Xes' -:) -:)
But congrats to Barua on 2 counts for getting it published and on the x factor.
--Ram
On 2/15/06, Chan Mahanta <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Congrats Rajen. You DID score on the 'x'! And I too think it is indeed a FIRST for AT.
I hope they don't take it as a 'jaat-mora' event :-)
At 6:16 PM -0600 2/15/06, Rajen Barua wrote:Here it is. A truncated version of the letter. But at least they published it. This may be the first time that AT actually has published using X for the Assamese pronunciation. At least I made them to publish the word OXOM in their paper. As you know so far except the Sentinel, all papers is Assam are playing shy of using X. May be they think that Indians will not understand the X and will laugh at us.RB-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Guwahati, Tuesday, February 14, 2006
LETTERS
Changing of place names
Sir, – It refers to the newsitem "Plea to change the name of State to Asom" (AT, February 9) where the ex-president of Asam Sahitya Sabha was suggesting to change the name of Assam to Asom in the magazine Gariyoshi. I completely oppose the suggestion. I am not opposed to change of place names. But let us keep things in perspective. The only reason for name change is to make sure that others 'pronounce' the name of a place the way the natives pronounce. That is the only reason. Therefore, the world has gone through a cycle of name change of places, specially where the strong headed British named the places as per their wish.
So we reasonably changed Peking to Beijing, Bombay to Mumbai, Dacca to Dhaka, Calcutta to Kolkata, Madras to Chennai, Ceylon to Sri Lanka, Gauhati to Guwahati, Chittagong to Sattagram, etc. In the same line, we should do some more changes to the names like Sapekhati, Sibsagar, Sankardev, Sharma, Saikia, Parishad, Nagaon, Jorhat etc. The other alternative is to leave these place names as they are. It may be noted that the Assamese X sound is also pronounced by the letters 'ch' in some languages as we find German word 'Bach', Scottish word 'Loch', or the place names like 'Zurich', etc.
Now, when it comes to place names like Assam, Bengal, Singapore or India, we should think very deeply and see what we are trying to do. The words Assam, Bengal, Singapore, India, etc., have their own historical background of development. Although the word Oxom was used since the 13th century, during the British days the words Oxom and Axam both were used interchangeably. At the same time, the word Assam was developed separately by the British from the word Axam.
During these almost two hundred years, the word Assam has become an international 'brand name' with Assam Tea Company, Assam Company, Assam Oil Company, ART Company, etc., so much so that today, Assam has its own recognition simply from its name Assam. During the Second War also Assam got its prominence for which it has earned a great goodwill from the name.
Now, if we want to change the name Assam, first, we must realise that we are going to lose that international recognition, an issue which we Assamese so much complain of. Second, even in spite of that, if we want to change the names the way we pronounce then let us change to the right spelling. Let us change Assam to Oxom, India to Bharat, Bengal to Bangla, Singapore to Singhapour, etc. We would like to see Asam Sahitya Sabha and Gariyoshi to take a lead in these spheres. But before that they need to reform their own houses. Assam has too many problems, but let us not try to create new ones. —Yours etc., RAJEN BARUA, Houston, USA.
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