Hi,
Thanx for putting in valuable input. So that the problems are duly addressed I would like to put forward the following points...
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.
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.
I have a separate 'ii' for two reasons...
1. The baisc idea of transliteration is to establish a one-to-one correspondence between a letter in the source language to an alphabet(or a group of alphabets). So we cannot have any ambiguity while translitering. If we have an alphabet in Assamese we MUST have an english counterpart so as to remove any ambiguity..
2. I am pretty dumb in this respect but i thought the name Dirgho-e implies in itself that the sound is supposed to be longer and when i tried to observe the Assamese words with that alphabet i thought that they sounded/ can be sounded a little longer. Now in other languages while elongating a sound from another very close sound (esp vowels) what happens phonetically is that the sounds starts a little backwards in the mouth.....it gives a sense of elongation. For example in Arabic alphabet the "ayn" is an elongated form of the "Alif" and so the mouth position is same while pronouncing both but 'ayn' starts further inside the mouth than 'alif'.. and in egyptian the 'h' corresponding to the Hebrew "h�" and the "h.a" both are same but one is longer than the other and so starts later than the other...
So I guessed since ' i ' is the Close Front Unrounded, so Dirgho-e should be Close Central Unrounded and when i compared the sounds it sounded much like what the dirgho-e is expected to be. This is the reason I put two different alphabets.
The same explanation for the dirgho-u..
rri or R^i ..... Near- Close Front Un-Rounded (Small Capital I)
NOW A DAYS THIS LETTER IS NOT WRITTEN IN ASSAMESE LANGUAGE.
I am not aware of what is going on right now but if you donot write"rri" then how will you write "rrixhhi"(saint) ?? also there is the rri-kar we have to consider !!
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)
The small comma in o' and e' are not actually new vowels......they are called the SUPRASEGMENTALS...
They are used to experss Tones and word accents..... /o/ mean it is flat../o'/ means we have to say it at a high level ../o''/ means we have to say it at a higher level. Even in english we have o'...like seven o' clock... but it doesnot qualify o' or for that matter e' to be a new vowel.
All the rest of your concerns stem from the fact of whether we ahould tranliterate Assam as axam or oxom ......and I am right hearing from everyone that it should be oxom......but i guess it will be better to give this thing some more thought..... But in the end there has to be some form of accepted standard.....
Hope you will continue giving us your suggestions.. thanking you,
Syamanta Saikia
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:
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
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