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Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 02:46:30 -0000
To: agathiyar@yahoogroups.com
Subject: (Fwd) Re: Common alphabet for Indian languages
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From: naga ganesan@...
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--- In IndianCivilization@y..., Anthony.Appleyard@u... wrote:
<<<
--- In IndianCivilization@y..., radha_canada@y... wrote:
> ... Devanagari, with the addition of a few more letters may be an
> alternative but it too is not an optimal solution. ...
If so, we would have to let people routinely write consecutive
consonants separately with the viraama symbol. The present
multiplcity of combined consonants (sometimes called "ligatures") was
fine as long as everybody wrote by hand, but every combination needs
its own separate type sort and they are a headache for printers and
impossible to fit them all on a typewriter.
>>>
Yes, the cluster-consonants, called samyuktaaksharas, make
the entire combination of Sanskrit alphabets impossible in
a typewriter. And the entire set runs typically into
pages and pages.
Tamil got rid of most of the cluster-consonants by invention
of a letter called "puLLi" (dot) which subtracts out
an "a" from "Ca" to produce a pure consonant, "C".
This puLLi letter is an invention of the ancient grammarian,
TolkAppiyar, it's said. It's archaeologically attested
in inscriptions from second century onwards.
On puLLi in Tamil:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CTamil/message/386
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CTamil/message/311
On TolkAppiyar
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CTamil/message/253
The presence of non-clustered alphabets in Tamil
is what made Tamil printing with movable type,
typewriting, computerization, ... achieved first
among Indian and even Asian languages.
Taking "C" to stand for a consonant, Cu and Cuu
syllabaries only remain clustered in tamil. They can be
more systematized than the current form, and I've
given a suggestion at:
http://home.swbell.net/speri/ganesan/u-uu-uyirmey.jpg
Even better than the above is choosing a separate
symbol for -u- and -U- vowels. Ie., when they join with
consonants, two separate letters. My suggestion for this
is the first recommendation in the top half of the page:
http://home.swbell.net/speri/ganesan/ezhuththu.jpg
(The lower half is of course the same as the
clustered consonants given in u-uu-uyirmey.jpg).
When Tamil adopts the breaking of the clusters in
Cu and CU syllabary, with C = a consonant,
there are only 40 letter-forms to learn the entire tamil!
That's all, it's even smaller set than english
with 52 letter-forms (small letters 26 + capitals 26).
Regards,
N. Ganesan
PS:
With the globalization, diaspora growth, and computers,
efforts must be made to provide a roman letter (with diacriticals)
file along with Nagari publications. Basically Urdu
and Hindi are same except that high Hindi favors Sanskrit,
while Urdu seeks Farsi-Arabic words. For an essentially
same language, two scripts - based on religions.
Roman script variants are easy to pick up, and
Roman-like script with no clusters will be ideal
for all India to read Sanskrit, Hindi, ... - N. Ganesan
