Dear Shri Deka The definition by Assam's politician will be so encompassing that it will be meaningless as it will exclude none. And a realistic definition as those who speak the language will be too parochial as it will leave out many indigenous communities.
Yours definition is a a good attempt-sort of saying any one who uses Assamese as mother tongue or lingua franca is an Assamese.May be it would have worked some 20 years back. But now problem is that you will face many communities who speak a native Assam language (say Hill Tiwa from Karbi Anglong or Zeme Naga from NC Hills or Sylheti from Karimganj )who may profess to be strickly monolingual as they may not have come in touch with any Assamese speaking guy to a pick a word or two. What do we do then? As I see it it is very difficult issue and people will have tough time working out a definition. It will lead to an interesting (or may be frustating debate). Regards Chittaranjan Pathak ____________________________________________________________________________________ Get your own web address. Have a HUGE year through Yahoo! Small Business. http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains/?p=BESTDEAL _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
