assamese script and iso standards

ASSAMESE SCRIPT AND

ISO STANDARDS

Presented by

Dr Satyakam Phukan

Dr Satyakam Phukan 1

Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS

a i i u u

ri e ai o au


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT

CONSONANTS

Velar plosive Alveolar plosive 3 ka kha ga gha khya 1

ta ta ta da da dha dha


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Alveolar nasal 4 Alveolar approximant na na nya

ra ra rha

Alveolar lateral Alveolar fricative la sa

sa za za zha

Dr Satyakam Phukan

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Velar nasal Voiceless Velar fricative 2 nga xa

xa xa

Bi-Labials Semi-vowels pa pha ba bha ma

ya wa Glotal Fricative ha


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT SIGNS i i u u ri e ai o au au (represents Tibeto-Burman sound of many languages of Assam) Anuswar Bixarga Sandrabindu Urdha-coma 5

ang ah nasal intonation ' "o" intonation Reph Restricts manifestation of the vowel part of a consonant.


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT NOTES 1 In Sanskrit and most other Indian languages khya" is considered a conjunct form (LIGATURE), from the joining of "ka" and "sha" and is pronounced as "Khsya". In Assamese it is a consonant and is the last letter of the Assamese alphabet and is pronounced as "khya". 2 These letters and their pronunciation "xa" is unique to Assamese, and is a voiceless velar fricative, it is not present in any other Indian languages except in a bit different form in the Bhilli dialect. It is same as the German and Scottish "ch" as used in words like Bach, Ulrich or Loch. It is represented in the Greek by the letter "" (chi).


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT NOTES 3 & 4 Assamese like the European Indo-European languages and unlike the Indian Indo-European languages, do not have cerebral pronunciations. Therefore Assamese do not have two forms of ta, tha, da, dha and na. 5 Urdho-coma or the apostrophe is used after a consonant to change the vowels ending of a consonant from "a" to "o". For example = lar and ' = lor , the "o" in this particular example sounding exactly as like it does in English note, mote, boat etc. It is represented in the IPA by "".


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Earliest specimens of Assamese form of script have been discovered in areas of Assam state of India and the Arakan/Rakhine state of Myanmar, dating back from the period, as early as 4th-5th century AD


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Dr Sat

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Nagajuri Khanikar village inscription

4th-5th Century AD, ASSAM, INDIA


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Inscription of Queen of King Nitisandra, Wethali, Arakan/Rakhine state, Myanmar

5th-6th century AD


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Ugratara Temple inscription,

Uzanbazar, Guwahati,Assam, India early 18th century AD


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT Shittaung pillar inscription of King Ananda

Sandra, Mrauk-U, Arakan/Rakhine state, Myanmar, around 8th century AD


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ASSAMESE LANGUAGE IN ISO

ISO 639-1 Code : as ISO 639-2 Code : asm English name of language : Assamese French name of Language : Assamais


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ISO 639-1 the alpha-2 code in Codes for the representation of names of languages ISO 639-2 the alpha-3 code


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT IN ISCII 1991

Assamese was one among the scripts included in ISCII 1991


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ASSAMESE SCRIPT IN ISO STANDARDS

Assamese script excluded from inclusion in ISO standards for scripts,

namely : ISO 15924 : Codes for the representation of names of scripts ISO 10646 : Defines the The Universal Character Set (UCS) ISO 15919 : Transliteration of Indic scripts to Latin


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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WHY ASSAMESE SCRIPT IS NOT IN ISO STANDARDS

Assamese script eclipsed into Bengali in the Unicode Standard by Unicode Consortium/Inc in the name of UNIFICATION. Because ISO 10646 standard is synchronised with Unicode Standard Assamese Script is excluded there also.


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Dr Sat

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WHY ASSAMESE SCRIPT IS ECLIPSED INTO BENGALI

IN UNICODE STANDARD

1. Graphical representation of most of the characters of the Assamese and Bengali script are similar.

2. Fact that similar looking glyphs represent differing characters with differing identities totally ignored by the proponents of the Unicode.


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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HOW UNICODE COMPENSATED ASSAMESE SCRIPT ECLIPSATION INTO

BENGALI !!!!!

Inclusion of two graphically dissimilar Assamese script characters into Unicode/ISO 10646 Bengali code chart by converting them into Bengali characters. Assamese letter "" (Ra) is being described as Bengali letter ""(Ro) with middle diagonal Assamese letter "" (Waba) described as Bengali letter ""(Ra) with lower diagonal.


Dr Sat

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CONSEQUENCES OF ECLIPSATION OF THE ASSAMESE SCRIPT

Loss of heritage hundreds of years old

Loss of identity of the Assamese Script

Handicaps and disabilities in the operation of the script


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CONSEQUENCES OF ECCLIPSATION OF THE ASSAMESE SCRIPT

Assamese script missing from all the ISO standards that are there for scripts of the world

Except for the ability to type in computers, most other functions distorted, disabled or handicapped


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Assamese script missing from the ISO 15919 standard

Since Assamese script is not included as a distinct script in ISO 15924 and ISO 10646 Assamese script is not there in ISO 15919, which is the Transliteration Standard for Indic scripts. So there is no transliteration standard for Assamese in ISO.


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Assamese script missing from the ISO 15919 standard

Assamese typed in computers with ISO 10646/Unicode encoding has to be transliterated as per the Bengali chart of ISO 15919. But Assamese differs radically with Bengali in transliteration Bengali and most other Indic scripts conforms to the IAST (International Alphabet for Sanskrit Transliteration) ASSAMESE DOES NOT


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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IAST The IAST (International Alphabet for Sanskrit Transliteration) which is based on a standard adopted in the International Congress of Orientalists at Geneva in 1894. The transliteration differences between the Assamese and Bengali Scripts are in reality, differences between Assamese and Sanskrit rather than with Bengali.


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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Bengali chart ISO 15919, it is as per IAST


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Differences between the Assamese

and Sanskrit Assamese do not have long vowels

() = () = i () = () = u The letters corresponding to Sanskrit Palatals are Assamese Alveolar Fricatives, have no stressed forms and two characters represent the same sound. Assamese = = sa Sanskrit = ca Sanskrit = cha Assamese = = za Sanskrit = ja = ya (semi-vowel)


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and Sanskrit

Assamese do not have the cerebrals or the retro-flexes Assamese = = ta there is no a Assamese = = tha there is no ha Assamese = = da there is no a Assamese = = dha there is no ha Assamese = = na there is no a Dr Satyakam Phukan 35

Dr Sat

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and Sanskrit

Velar fricative x is unique to Assamese, it is represented by three letters of the Assamese alphabet. This sound is present in many European Indo-European languages like Greek, German, Russian and the Scottish dialect of English and also Persian Assamese = = = xa


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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and Sanskrit

In Sanskrit is not considered a letter but a conjoint form of joining with and is transliterated as khsya. But for the Assamese, is the last letter of the Assamese Alphabet and is named and transliterated as khya. Since it not considered a letter in Sanskrit, it is not represented in the ISO 10646-1 Standard as a character, hence it is not there in ISO 15919 as well


Dr Sat

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Dr Sat

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and Sanskrit

Vowel sign peculiar to Assamese for representing au sound from Tibeto-Burman affiliated and influenced languages in Assam missing in Sanskrit and is misrepresented as a Length Mark in ISO 10646/Unicode Bengali Chart.

Assamese Au is a Vowel sign Bengali Au is a Length mark This vowel sign is missing in ISO 15919 Dr Satyakam Phukan 38

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SORTING DIABILITY DUE TO ABSENCE OF THE LETTER Khya

Assamese Khya is the last letter of the Assamese alphabet but in Bengali the graphical form is Kshya and is a LIGATURE formed by combination of + =

Due the absence of the graphical form of the last letter of the Assamese alphabet, (Khya) in ISO 10646/Unicode, proper sorting operation impossible in the Assamese


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SORTING PROBLEM SCREENSHOTS


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Khya comes after Ka and not at the last Dr Satyakam Phukan 44

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TRANSLATION OF ASSAMESE WEBPAGE translating between Bengali and English


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TRANSLATION OF ASSAMESE WEBPAGE


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TRANSLATION OF ASSAMESE WEBPAGE translating between Bengali and English


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SEARCHING IN BROWSER If the search word contains or then all search results show Assamese contents.


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SEARCHING IN BROWSER If the search word does not contains or then all search results show mostly Bengali contents.


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DEVELOPMENTS ON THE ISSUE

ISO approached by me for inclusion of Assamese script in ISO 15919 on 21st of July 2012

ISO refers the matter BIS on the 2nd of October 2012

BIS asks me to submit a Proposal

Proposal submitted to the BIS by me on the 24th of November 2012


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DEVELOPMENTS ON THE ISSUE Issue of Assamese script non-inclusion in ISO standards was discussed in the meeting of the MSD of BIS on the 14th of December 2012 and I was informed of the same. The matter thence handed over to LITD division of BIS, excerpts below


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PROBLEMS IN ENCODING ASSAMESE SCRIPT SEPARATELY FROM BENGALI

1.Adamant attitude on part of the Unicode Consoritum

2.Duplication of graphical forms


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Dr Sat

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Adamant attitude on part of the Unicode Consoritum

For a script to be included in ISO 10646 it needs to have its name registered in ISO 15924. ISO 15924 Registry is run by Unicode Consortium/Inc and Mr Michael Everson is its Registrar. Mr Michael Everson is adamant in not allowing a separate place for Assamese script. Comments of Mr Everson in Unicode Forum shown in next slides Dr Satyakam Phukan 55

Dr Sat

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Comments of Mr Everson BENGALI LETTER RA WITH MIDDLE DIAGONAL

could be named ASSAMESE LETTER RO. But it hasn't been, because Bengali is spoken by 230 million speakers, and Assamese is spoken by 13 million. Moreover, the script was encoded about two decades ago, because it had been brought in because of its standardization in ISCII.

Do you really think it is unfair that, 230 million speakers vs 13 million speakers, the name Bengali has been preferred? Well, tough. Grow up. YOU DON'T KNOW HOW LUCKY YOU ARE to have your script already encoded.


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Comments of Mr Everson

I am going to say this ten times, so that you understand it: The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed. The block name and character names cannot be changed.


Repeating the same thing ten times Dr

Satyak

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DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646 There is substantial duplication of graphical forms or glyphs between different scripts encoded earlier in the Unicode Standard. Among the European scripts such duplication is quite apparent between Latin, Cyrillic and the Greek scripts, the number of such duplications which are at times triplications is substantial. Although the glyphs are identical the encoded characters connected to these identical glyphs are having different Unique Codes. This duplication has generated lacunae for unscrupulous elements to pursue nefarious activities like phishing on the Internet Dr Satyakam Phukan 58

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DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646


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VARIATIONS OF SOUNDS AMONG DIFFERENT LANGUAGES USING THE LATIN SCRIPT


There is considerable variations of sounds of the same character among various language of Europe using the Latin script like the English, French, Spanish etc. All these languages do not have their own script and are borrowers of the Latin script, hence their case cannot be equated with Assamese. The Assamese is a primordial script and historically linked to the Assamese language.

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SOLUTION FOR ASSAMESE SCRIPT ISSUE


Problems arising out of duplication is the responsibility the Government of Assam and the Assamese people.

Government of Assam has already written to the DEITy for a separate slot for Assamese script.

Since duplication has been allowed for Latin, Cyrillic and Greek. Disallowing duplication for Assamese and Bengali will be an injustice and will mean adoption of double standard.

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SOLUTION FOR ASSAMESE SCRIPT ISSUE


Encoding of the Assamese script separately from Bengali is the only viable solution Application of patching software for all the disabilities will further complicate the functionality of Assamese script. Without a separate Assamese script in ISO 15924 and ISO 10646 there cannot be any entry of Assamese script in ISO 15919

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ASSAMESE SCRIPT AND ISO STANDARDS Slide Number 2Slide Number 3Slide Number 4Slide Number 5ASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTASSAMESE SCRIPTNagajuri Khanikar village inscription 4th-5th Century AD, ASSAM, INDIAASSAMESE SCRIPTInscription of Queen of King Nitisandra, Wethali, Arakan/Rakhine state, Myanmar5th-6th century AD ASSAMESE SCRIPTUgratara Temple inscription, Uzanbazar, Guwahati,Assam, India early 18th century ADASSAMESE SCRIPTShittaung pillar inscription of King Ananda Sandra, Mrauk-U, Arakan/Rakhine state, Myanmar, around 8th century ADASSAMESE LANGUAGE IN ISOISO 639-1 the alpha-2 code in Codes for the representation of names of languagesISO 639-2 the alpha-3 codeSlide Number 20ASSAMESE SCRIPT IN ISCII 1991ASSAMESE SCRIPT IN ISO STANDARDSWHY ASSAMESE SCRIPT IS NOT IN ISO STANDARDSWHY ASSAMESE SCRIPT IS ECLIPSED INTO BENGALI IN UNICODE STANDARDHOW UNICODE COMPENSATED ASSAMESE SCRIPT ECLIPSATION INTO BENGALI !!!!!CONSEQUENCES OF ECLIPSATION OF THE ASSAMESE SCRIPTCONSEQUENCES OF ECCLIPSATION OF THE ASSAMESE SCRIPTSlide Number 28Slide Number 29Assamese script missing from the ISO 15919 standardAssamese script missing from the ISO 15919 standardIASTBengali chart ISO 15919, it is as per IASTDifferences between the Assamese and SanskritDifferences between the Assamese and SanskritDifferences between the Assamese and SanskritDifferences between the Assamese and SanskritDifferences between the Assamese and SanskritSlide Number 39SORTING DIABILITY DUE TO ABSENCE OF THE LETTER KhyaSlide Number 41Slide Number 42Slide Number 43Slide Number 44Slide Number 45Slide Number 46TRANSLATION OF ASSAMESE WEBPAGEtranslating between Bengali and EnglishTRANSLATION OF ASSAMESE WEBPAGETRANSLATION OF ASSAMESE WEBPAGEtranslating between Bengali and EnglishSEARCHING IN BROWSER SEARCHING IN BROWSER DEVELOPMENTS ON THE ISSUEDEVELOPMENTS ON THE ISSUEPROBLEMS IN ENCODING ASSAMESE SCRIPT SEPARATELY FROM BENGALIAdamant attitude on part of the Unicode ConsoritumComments of Mr EversonComments of Mr EversonDUPLICATION IN ISO 10646DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646DUPLICATION IN ISO 10646VARIATIONS OF SOUNDS AMONG DIFFERENT LANGUAGES USING THE LATIN SCRIPTSOLUTION FOR ASSAMESE SCRIPT ISSUESOLUTION FOR ASSAMESE SCRIPT ISSUESlide Number 67