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Chandan:
The article by Prabhakar (thanks to BB
Kaokaidew for bringing it out to public) actually supports many of my views in
Assamese phonetics. I would like the netters to focus on the following excerpt
from the article:
"The modification proposed in respect of the
name, Assam, seeks only to remove the `Anglicisation' that has crept into the
way the word is transcribed in English, by removing the extra `s'; and
substituting the medio vowel `a' with `o'. Thus, Assam (which continues to be
transcribed in Assamese dictionaries as Asam) is henceforth to be transcribed in
English as Asom. The proposal has, however, provoked a variety of views
where inasmuch as the transcription into English of the medial consonant and
vowel, `s' and `a', the transcription of the initial vowel sound too has become
a matter of contention. The highly respected freedom fighter of Assam of the
last century wrote his name in English as Omeo Kumar
Das (the same form adopted by a social science research institute in
Guwahati) while in other parts of the country, the first name would be
transcribed as Amiya.
Hence the argument that the sound of the first letter of the Assamese alphabet is best transcribed as `o' wherever it appears, initially or in a medial position. If the government has agreed that the word Asam is to be transcribed as Asom, where is the need to make an exception with the initial vowel? Should not the name be transcribed as Osom, not Asom? " In fact this is one of the points I was trying to emphasize. In Assamese the letter 'Hosro-O' represents the sound O while the 'Hosro-O' in Hindi, SAanskrit etc represent the sound U as in 'But' etc. (Incidentally this letter is called Hosro-A in Hindi as opposed to Dirgho-A). One prime example is the Hindi word DOLDA pronounced DALDA. Thus in Assamese, in my opinion, we should write Omeo, Onil. Ojoy, Omor, Ojonta etc. When we write Anil, Ameo, Ajoy, Amor, Ajanta etc, the non Assamese pronounce these with the first A sounding as U as in 'But.' Thus Omeo Kumar Das was very correct to use the spelling Omeo instead of Amiyo in his name. Alas he did not have any followers. However it is never too late. We should start that practice so that outsiders would pronounce our names correctly. The reason Assamese were not using O instead of A in the first letter is because people are confused unlike Omeo Kumar Das who had a clear idea about Assamese phonetics. The word ASOM is the result of the same Assamese confusion about their own language. Basic logic suggest that it should be OSOM at least even if we ignore the S sound. Rajen Barua
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