Rajen da: There are two general aspects to a language: 1) How it sounds, and 2) How it is written. When we are typing on the computer, we are WRITING it, not SOUNDING it. As soon as you WRITE, whether you like it or not, SPELLING becomes paramount. Hence, being true to the real spelling, as far as possible, is important. Our goal, I think, is NOT just to TRANSCRIBE the sounds of Assamese, but come up with a scheme to WRITE Assamese in Roman script.
I am not confusing the issue. Being able to WRITE Assamese in Roman script will allow individuals such as you and me to communicate in real written Assamese. Internet communication, like you and I are doing here now, is WRITTEN communication, not spoken communication! If standard Assamese written in Assamese fonts wants to simplify spelling (like Nathan Brown and others tried in the early 1800s, but later disowned by the Assamese big-shots) , I have no problems in simplifying the way we write it in Roman script. However, without any simplification in Assam, if we simplify it only when we type in the computer, we will do a great disservice to the language. There will be two discordant versions of Assamese, one written in Assamese fonts, and the other written in Roman script (a growing segment with the increasing popularity of computers). The ones who write in Assamese fonts will laugh at us as being Westernized or bastardized Assamese without any real knowledge of Assamese, without any respect to the many hundreds of years of history of writing in the Assamese language. Jugal Kalita > > Jugal: > My question is, if we are simply writing Assamese in Roman script, why > we have to address the original Assamese SPELLING? What purpose it will > serve? I understand that if we write Assamese FONTS, we need to write in > traditional Assamese spelling. If you will answer this, I will know what > is your point. Otherwise, I am really confused what you are trying to > achieve. Thanks > Rajen Barua _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam
