Rajen da and Chandan da, We can't just stick to phonetics as you suggest. What makes phonetics more important than orthography or spelling? Both have to be taken into consideration. Ignoring either one is not an option. I know Rajen da's proposal about transliteration tries to focus only on the sounds of the language, but not the spelling. Rajen da's proposal also tends to produce several consonants in sequence making the language look unnatural and harsh!
The fact that we are typing on the computer immediately means to me that we are going to have to respect orthography too, the best we can. The act of typing is nothing different from writing by hand, and when one types or writes, one cannot ignore orthography or spelling totally. Use: ---- 1) I clearly see use in being able to type in the normal keyboard. I have a Mac and have Assamese fonts on it, but it's too time consuming and cumbersome. I would gladly type in Assamese if I could type English transliteration and then highlight the area and convert it into Assamese fonts. I can type fairly quickly in English and then, if by just two simple operations, I can covert it to Assamese, I will do so often. 2) The use would be for Assamese people to type Assamese on the computer. It's not for non-Assamese people, it's for people like you and me, and those in Assam who have computers with Roman keyboard, and want to type Assamese without buying a new keyboard and covering it up with stickers with Assamese letters. Many people are buying computers in Assam these days and I don't know anyone who has an Assamese keyboard or an extra keyboard with Assamese stickers all over, like I used to have. Soon a lot of educated people in Assam will have computers and without a good transliteration scheme, they will stop writing or typing Assamese, a grave loss to the language and our culture. If most people in Assam start using English in email and chatting, ]it could, in the worst case, lead to loss of written material in Assamese in the future. Rabin Deka's Internet Ratne fonts are fairly intuitive to type. I downloaded them a while ago to type for Axomi. For non-juktakhors it was nice and intuitive, but then for juktakhors it became complicated. Rabin, if he wishes, can easily add a highlight-and-convert plugin to Microsoft Word or some program like that, I think. Jugal Kalita > > Nice work. However, one need to stick to basic Assamese phonetics. > Please note that Assamese has EIGHT (8) vowel sounds although we have > more letters. Against this the English language has 22 vowel > sounds. Please note that in Assamese HORSO E & DIRGHO E , HORSO U > & DIRGHO U etc have the same sounds. (Please read Dr Banikanta > Kakaoty and others). Please see my comments below: >From: "S Saikia" > >Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Subject: [Assam] Transliteration Of Assamese Sounds > >Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2003 13:38:57 -0500 > > > > > > > > > > > >hi all..... > > > >In order to overcome the obstacles in the transliteration of > >Assamese words I propose the following transliteration scheme mostly > >based on the standard devanagari ITRANS transliteration charts. > This >scheme is not meant for use in software program just becaue it > is >too complicated and scores of mor practical systems can be > figured >out to do the same ... The following is based on the sound > of the >letter in International Phonetic Alphabet and its equivalent > > >expression in English and can be used to write Assamese words in > >English... > > > > > > > > > >VOWELS > >------------- > > > >Transliteration Suggested Sound/IPA Expression > >------------------- ----------------------------------------------- > > > > >a ................ Near-Open Central Unrounded(Inverted a) > CAN BETTER BE REPRESENTED BY O > > >aa ............... Open Front Unrounded (Lower case a) > CAN BETTER BE REPRESENTED BY A THUS AVOIDING USE OF DOUBLE > LETTER. > > >i .................. Close Front Unrounded (Lower case i) > NO COMMENT > >ii or I ........ Close Central Unrounded (Barred i) > > IN ASSAMESE WE DONOT HAVE A SEPARATE SOUND FOR DIRGHO E. BOTH THE Es ARE > PRONOUNCED SAME. >u .............. Close Back Rounded (Lower case u) > NO COMMENT > >uu or U ........ Close Back Un-Rounded (Turned m) (???) > > IN ASSAMESE WE DONOT HAVE A SEPARATE SOUND FOR DIRGHO U. BOTH THE Us ARE > PRONOUNCED SAME. >rri or R^i ..... Near- Close Front Un-Rounded > (Small Capital I) NOW A DAYS THIS LETTER IS NOT WRITTEN IN ASSAMESE > LANGUAGE. > > >e .............. Open- Mid Front Unrounded (Epsilon) > NO COMMENTS > > >ai ............. Close-Mid Central ROunded (Barred O ) > THIS IS ACTUALLY A DIPHTHONG. MAY BE WRITTEN AS OI>o ............. > Close- Mid Back Rounded (Lower Case O ) > > MAY BE WRITTEN AS W. THIS SOUND IS NOT THERE IN ENGLISH, NOR IN HINDI OR > BENGALI. >au ............. Close- Mid Back Unrounded (Baby Gamma ) > AGAIN IT IS A DIPTHONG. NOT A BASIC VOWEL. > IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE, ASSAMESE HAS THE FOLLOWING TWO ADDITIONAL > VOWEL SOUNDS. O' = KO'LA (BLACK) AS OPPOSED TO KOLA (DEAF) > E'= BE'L (BELL) AS OPPOSED TO BEL (FRUIT) > Thanks > Rajen Barua > > > >CONSONANTS > >-------------------- > > > >Transliteration Suggested Sound/IPA Symbol > >-------------------- ------------------------------------------ > > > >ka ............. Voiceless Velar Plosive (Lower Case K) > >kha ............ Aspirated Ka(???????) > >ga ............. Voiced Velar Plosive (Lower case g) > >gha ............ Aspirated ga (????????) > >nna or N^a ..... Voiced Uvular Nasal (Small Capital N) > >cha ............ Voiceless Aveolar Fricative (Lower Case s) > >chha ........... Voiceless Post-Aveolar Fricative (Esh) > >ja ............. Voiced Postaveolar Fricative (Yogh) > >jha ............ Palatalised ja ( ja^j) > >jjnna or JNa ... Voiced palatal Nasal(Left tail N at left) > >tta or Ta ...... Voiceless Aveolar Plosive (Lower case T) > >ttha or Tha .... Aspitated Ta (tta^h) > >dda or Da ...... Voiced Aveolar Plosive (Lower case D) > >ddha or Dha .... Aspirated Da (dda^h) > >nna or Na....... Voiced Aveolar Nasal(Lower Case N) > >ta ............. Voiceless Retroflex Plosive (T with Right Tail) > >tha ............ Aspirated ta (ta^h) > >da ............. Voiced Retroflex Plosive (Right Tail D) > >dha ............ Aspirated da(da^h) > >na ............. Voiced Retrofelx nasal (N with right tail) > >pa ............. Voiceless Bilabial Plosive (Lower Case p) > >pha ............ Voiceless Bilabial Fricative (Phi) > >ba ............. Voiced Bilabial Plosive (Lower Case b) > >bha ............ Voiced Bilabial Fricative (Beta) > >ma ............. Voiced Bilabial Nasal (Lower Case M) > >ya ............. Voiced palatal Fricative (Curly Tail J) > >ra ............. Voiced Aveolar Approximant (Turned R) > >la ............. Voiced Aveolar Lateral Approximant (Lower Case L) > >wa ............. Voiced Retroflex Lateral Approximant(l with > >tail)(?) > >xha ............ Voiceless Labiodental Fricative (Lower Case F) > >xhha ........... Voiceless Epiglottal Fricative (Small Capital H) > >xa ............. Voiceless Uvular Fricative (Chi) > >ha ............. Voiceless Glottal Fricative (Lower Case H) > >ksha or xa ..... Aveolo-palatal Fricative (Curly Tail C) > >jya ............ Voiced Palatal Approximant( Lower case J) > >ra(?) > >ra(?) > > > >In the above chart there has been quite a few deviations from the > >devanagari system. For Example the "sha, shha, sa" have been > >transliterated as "xha, xhha, xa" because unlike Hindi or Sanskrit, > >the "s" in those is often pronounced as "x" e.g. Axam in assamese > >instead of Asam in Hindi. Also the "va" has been transliterated as > >"wa" in Assamese. > > > >I stated before and I repeat now, that I am not a phonetician. What > >I am trying to do is to present enough starting material for a > >debate so that the long-standing dispute on how Assamese words > >should be transliterated into english might be put to rest once and > >for all. The sounds I have "suggested" for the corresponing Assamese > >Alphabet is by no means the final word nor do I claim that all of > >them are correct....It is simply a suggestion so that it can be > >discussed and the correct sounds be recorded. I have tried to model > >the above on the transliteration charts of ancient Egyptian. > > > >If a system like the one stated above can be agreed upon by one and > >all, then to transcribe Assamese words we just have to replace the > >assamese letters with their corresponding english group of > >alphabets..(omitting the the "a" in the consonants whne they appear > >at the end of the word). It will remove all ambiguity whatsoever on > >the question of how an assamese word should be written in English. > > > >The only way the system envisioned can be a success is if people > >debate over the transliteration and the sounds of the language until > >it reaches an acceptable level of accuracy. > > > >The reference to the devnagari script transliteration chart can be > >found at... > >http://www.angelfire.com/linux/tugg/devnagari.html > > > >The IPA help file which contains the IPA chart and all the sound > >files for individual sound for reference can be downloaded from > >http://www.sil.org/computing/speechtools/softdev2/Downloads2/SatDL2/Release2/setup-ih.exe > > > >or you can go to the link from > > > >http://www.angelfire.com/linux/tugg/devnagari.html > > > > > > > >yours, > > > >Syamanta Saikia > > > >_________________________________________________________________ > >STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > >http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > > >_______________________________________________ > >Assam mailing list > >[EMAIL PROTECTED] > >http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam > MSN 8 helps ELIMINATE E-MAIL VIRUSES. 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