>They were separate. Annex A of ISCII 1991 shows Bengali ("BNG") and
>Assamese ("ASM") in
>separate columns. *Every* character in those two columns is >completely
>identical, except the
>entries (no surprise) in the "r" row and the "v" row. And in >Annex D,
>the listing of Inscript keyboards,
>there is one keyboard overlay for Bengali and one for >Assamese. These
>again are completely
>identical, except for the "B" key (where the "v" goes) and >the "J" key
>(where the "r") goes.
>Why? Well, I presume the Bureau of Indian Standards ran into >the same
>linguistic political
>buzzsaw that you have seen rehearsed on this thread.
Well Thanx Ken for you at least bothered to go through the original ISCII
script list probably published in 1991. I was very young then. You could also
recognise the point of differences. Now have you noticed that in the BNG script
there are two nos of 09B0 ( as per Unicode codification) Is it possible that
same letter occurs two times in a script ( or alphabet list) ( Well some
people have understood that I am not a language expert; Well am not. Therefore
there may be some errors in my writings mixing up script, alphabet, letters etc
etc. Plz bear with me , I hope you understand my sense at that time and don’t
go technically). I am not going into the technical matters of coding characters
. My point , I hope many of you understood, was regarding naming the script in
Unicode ( well ISO also ) as “Bengali” instead of “ Assamese”. Naming the
Script as “Assamese” should be more appropriate so is to include the unique
Assamese characters 09F0 and 09F1 which the Be!
ngali alphabet list can’t claim as theirs.( If they have claimed so at some
point of time earlier , then their claim should have been scrutinised and
rejected. I wonder whether any native Assamese was there in such selection or
voting situation) . “ Linguistic politics” as you have worked out , was
definitely there. There was indeed a situation like imposing German in French
here also during British Rule in India. I hope I will give links to you shortly
to go into the details of that story. The “Dark age of Assamese language” ran
for about 37 years in this region when it was tried to kill a the language by
vested interests with the help of British Political powers imposing Bengali as
medium of instruction in school and colleges and for all official purpose. But
even then the Assamese re bounced and there echoed “ Viva La Assamese”.
I think now naming the script as “ Bengali” that too by stealing two unique
letters from the Assamese alphabet list and coloring them with Bengali hue is
part of that notorious linguistic invasion.
For someone who call me fanatic, well he may call me lunatic as well. For them
I can only say that “ Someone can be awakened up only if he is asleep, but
not if he is pretending to be asleep ; so keep sleeping (??) tight”
