WORLD COMMMON SCRIPT

I am concerned with evolution of common script where all symbols are available for all sounds that occur in all languages.
Then we can select the symbols required to learn a particular language [spoken form only].

Then writing at least 100 [or more] questions and answers thereof pertaining to each situation.
This is mainly useful for tourist visiting many countries where a number of languages are spoken.
Then translation of those sentences from source language to target language printed in common script. Of course, the questions may not be the same in each language. We can modify the question according to the requirement of the target language.
The ultimate aim should be to understand well what the other person utters.

We are not concerned with the difficulty or easiness of a particular script.

Those who want to go through the literature of a particular language, necessarily have to learn the script of that particular language.

Some universal organization should come forward to execute the project.
Linguists of different language are to sit together and evolve the World Common Script.

Persons engaged in evolving UNICODE font for each language should evince interest in this project. Academics should also come forward to coordinate and execute this project. Respective Governments should also finance for the execution of this project.

The ultimate aim is free mobility of the people to all countries and to increase their knowledge about their counter parts living in other countries.

I will be happy if my dream comes true.

Sourashtram in Roman Script (1) & (2)

UPAMANYU’S examples for writing Sourashtram in roman script. (1)

‘a’ Vowel short

akaraadi=dictionary

akaasu=sky [sometimes the final ‘u’ can be deleted]

akSaru=letter, alphabet, script

agastir=lady’s finger vegetable [in Madurai dialect]

ankro=sprout [ankraam khuDi tagatte=nip in the bud]

angiLi=finger

ajjabo=mother’s father [Madurai dialect]

ajiirNu=indigestion

aTcaste=slap [paaTur aTcaste=slap on the back (as punishment)]

aTTu=dirt, a person who is dirty

aDpi=close friend of a bridegroom or bride accompanying him/her during marriage rituals.

aNDo=egg

atto=now

antro=small intestines

apul=ourselves, our [apul bhaaSo=our language]

ayin=mother’s relatives [ayin ghEr=mother’s father’s home][Madurai dialect]

aykaste=to hear, to listen

ayyambo=mother’s mother [Madurai Dialect]

asko=whole [gaamasko=whole town]

Please adhere to the above spelling. People should shed their hesitation and come forward to comment on the meaning and pronunciation variation in their dialects. Those who cannot read, without recourse, have to skip this. [to be continued]

UPAMANYU’S examples for writing Sourashtram in roman script. (2)

Words in which vowel aa=A= i.e. lengthened form of ‘a’ is used.

aakSEpaNo=objection , opposition

aangu=body

aacamano=sipping little water from the palm of the right hand uttering mantras

aanandam=joy, delight, happiness, pleasure, gladness,ecstasy

aalOcano=considerat ion, reflexion, considered opinion

aaso=desire, wish, yearning

aasti=property, asset

aahuti=oblation, sacrifice

iraaNu vEL=odd time, especially midnight

karnaaTakam= State of Karnataka; conservative person

kalaacaar=culture, tradition

kaancano=gold; love; affection

khaambu=pillar, post

gaaN=anus; abusive term

ghaan=bad smell

jaajiphuul=a kind of jasmine flower

taandu lipi=a form of traditional Saurashtra script in which vowel and consonant symbols are distinct

thaam=place, seat

daat=tooth

dhaak=fear

naastiko=atheist [one who do not believe God]

paancu=five

phaar=three hour duration [Tamil yaamam/jaamam]

baaLu=child

maatram=only

maayi=mother; young female child; female goddess

raajji poDaste=to fall in love

laat=kick

laani=not bad; not necessary

vaaT=way,road, street

vaat=wick of lamp

vaaL=time, turn[kitko vaaL=how many times]

shaastri=scholar or authority on the scriptures

saaTTuhoraaD= celebrationof one’s 60^th birthday

saanti=peace; a female name; pacifying a god, evil spirit etc.

haat=hand

haatukaam=busy [engaged in work]

haatumago=handloom

Please adhere to the above spelling. People should shed their hesitation and come forward to comment on the meaning and pronunciation variation in their dialects.

TMSoundararajan's Felicitation Function at Madurai.

A felicitation function felicitating Sri T.M.Soundararajan was arranged by DMK Party's VIP Sri M.K.Alagiri on 6th August 2008 at Tamukkam Grounds, Madurai around 6 pm.
Chief Minister Dr.M.Karunanidhi gave a gift cheque of Rs. 5 Lakhs.
This is an unique gesture on the part of Sri M.K.Alagiri, son of the Chief Minister. People could not find out the motive behind this. It is doubtful that because of this felicitation to Sri T.M.Soundararajan, people belonging to Sourashtra community will vote for DMK candidates.
Perhaps, if they select Sourashtra candidate for Madurai Constituency, there is a slight possibility of support by Sourashtra Community. It is to be seen whether they select a Sourashtra Candidate for Madurai Constituency in the ensuing General Elections.

ROMAN NOTATION

Please follow my notation for uniformity and clarity.

I am not imposing my notation. It is left to you to evolve a better notation.

But you should come out what is your notation.

Where you differ with my notation?

How your notation is better than mine – which you should explain.

I again repeat that ambiguity in pronunciation is to be avoided.

What you pronounce, in the same way it should be spelt.

If you differ, please furnish your notation.

PRONUNCIATION AND SPELLING SHOULD BE CORRECT. AMBIGUITY SHOULD NOT BE THERE. YOU PEOPLE ARE NOT BOTHERED ABOUT THE SPELLING.

You should not give room to others to correct.

You are at liberty to point out my spelling mistakes etc.

What is on your back, you may not know. Somebody should point out. Of course,

with the help of a mirror, you can detect what is on your back.

The pity is most of the writers do not check what they have written before they are posted.

Though there are many dialects in every language, we realize them when we hear them. But in the written form only STANDARD form is used.

Of late, some people are writing colloquial form of their area. This is difficult to follow. In some Tamil Books, this is adopted. But the sales may go down for the person hailing from some other region may not be able to understand the colloquial form of a different region.

THAT IS WHY I SAY WRITTEN FORM IN SOURASHTRAM IS TO BE STANDARDISED TO AVOID AMBIGUITY.

Now let me give the notations for writing Sourashtram in roman script.

Vowels a aa i ii u uu e E ai o O au am ah

ru ruu lu luu am ah

Consonants k kh g gh n

c ch j jh n~

T Th D Dh N

t th d dh n

p ph b bh m

y r l v sh

S s h L kS

nh mh rh lh

Consonant + vowel

ka kaa ki kii ku kuu ke kE kai ko kO kau

kru kruu klu kluu kam kah

Explanation

For lengthening the vowel, the same vowel is written again

Ex: a aa i ii u uu e ee ai o oo

Instead of repeating you can use Capital letter

Ex. a A i I u U e E ai o O

But to write, capital letter, you have to operate shift key. This will arrest your typing speed. So it is suggested that the vowel can be doubled. But it creates the problem because of the usage of English words i.e. the way in which they are pronounced.

Ex. keep is pronounced as kiip only i.e. ee à ii and not lengthened form of e

room is pronounced as ruum only i.e. oo à uu and not lengthened form of o

You can also put a dash on the top/head of the letter. But that is not possible while typing with the existing English Key Board.

With the result, use of Capital letter for lengthening vowel e, is the best choice.

Similarly, use of Capital letter for lengthening vowel o, is the best choice.

In this way, we avoid the ambiguity by making use of Capital letter.

In respect of consonants, we have to use Capital Letter for minimizing the space.

If you do not use Capital letter, then the 3^rd varga of letters are written like this

t th d dh n

Then to write the 4^th varga of letters, you have to write like this

th thth dh dhdh nn

For me, it does not look nice. It occupies more space because of increase in the number of letters. Instead of one letter t, we have to use two letters th

For the second letter in the 4^th varga, we have to use 4 letters i.e. thth instead of two letters th. Similarly for 3^rd and 4^th letter of the 4^th varga, we have to write as dh and dhdh. This method is not aesthetic.

There are 3 sa in our language. sh is termed shakti sa. S is termed Shanmugam sa. In Tamil Shanmugam is written using this S only. The third one is called saraswathi sa.

We have got two la in our language. They are kaal=yesterday poLLo=fruit

The third la in Tamil is called Special la cirappu Lagaram

It is written as zh as in pazham=fruit mozhi=language

In Sourashtra we do not have any word in which the special La occurs.

We have to use it only when we write the borrowed Tamil words.

The other Tamil letters viz. Big ra is written as R. ex. aRai=room

Two circled na – reNDu suzhi na is written as n_ ex. man_am=mind

Witness is written as saakSi. The final consonant kS in our consonant chart.

Now the Notation for writing Tamil Language in roman script is as under

Vowels a aa i ii u uu e E ai o O

Consonants ka na

ca n~a

Ta Na

ta na

pa ma

ya ra

la va

zha La

Ra n_a

Consonant + vowel ka kaa ki kii ku kuu ke kE kai ko kO kau k

The aayutha ezhuttu can be denoted by k_ ex. ak_tu = that which occurs rarely.

If Tamil is written in the above manner, representing the Tamil orthography, it will be like English. That is writing one spelling and pronouncing the word in some other way. You have to practice spoken Tamil emulating the native Tamil speaker. By this learning process becomes tedious and time consuming.

Tamil is the only Dravidian language where instead of 4 ka, only one ka is available. In other words, ka can be spelt like ka, kha, ga and gha.

If we remove the four Sanskrit letters ja, sa, Sa and ha from the orthography of Tamil, it will lose its charm and it will be confined within Tamil Nadu only. Some foreign language word cannot be written in Tamil correctly.

In Japanese also to represent Ta and la, there is no symbols.

Petrol is written as petoru. Italy is written as itarii. But ,somehow Japanese are surviving without the symbols for Ta and la. There are also some other peculiarities in that language that we need not discuss here.

A small exercise for you.

You write one or two sentences in Tamil. Afterwards you transliterate in roman script. That is, you change the lipi/ezhuttu/script.

Now you read what you have written. It will be horrible.

I bathed in the river Ganges. = naan_ kankai aaRRil kuLittEn_.

Now you can understand why foreigners find it difficult to learn and speak Tamil.

UPAMANYU.

The other names of Ramanuja

In his childhood he is known as 'ILAYA ALWAAR'[because he resembled Lakshmanan, brother of Raman]
At Madurantakan Periya Nambi accepted Ilaya Alwar as his disciple and gave the name 'RAMANUJA' .
When Thirukacci Nambikal saw Ramanuja in the dress of a Sanyasi,he called Ramanuja as YATIRAJA. [King of Sanyasis]
When Ramanuja went to a temple in Kanchi, as a Sanyasi, the Priest called Ramanuja as RAMANUJA MUNI.
When Ramanuja sung the Thiruppaavai songs while he went for begging,{biDchai] he was termed by the people of Srirangam as THIRUPPAVAI JEEYAR.
When he went to Srivilliputhur Temple, he was called 'NAMKOVIL ANNANAAR'
When he assumed the Adeenam of Alavandar and went to SriRangam to worship Sri Ranganatha, in front of Sri Ranganatha, devotees honoured him with the title UDAYAVAR i.e. he has the qualification to teach God's grace [takudi uDayavar]
He sat at the feet of five acharyas, and hence he is termed as'PANCHACHARYA SIIDAR'
He submitted to Tirupati Venkatesa, Sangu and Chakram and so he is knowns as APPANUKKU SANGU AAZHI ALITTA PERUMAAN.
Vaishnavas will address Perumal as 'EMPERUMAN' Because, Vaishnavas saw Ramanujar in the form of Perumal, he is quoted as EMPERUMANAR.
As per the wish of Alavandar, Ramanuja wrote the Commentary [Bhashyam}to Brahmasutra in accordance with Thiruvaymozhi, and so he became famous by the name BHASHYAKARAR.

elyo aski moko ikkedi lentu kaLaanaattak hoteyo. atto oNTe patrike chevde pharaatu kaLaan avesi.tunko kaLai rhaana jiyeti, tumi meLLi kaLaLLuvo.

Thoughtful thought

Thoughtful thought

Time is the melody sung by GOD. If time is wasted, we may not get it back. As a year passes, we are old by one more year. Age has only ascendancy and no descent.

‘How many years a person lived?’ is not the relevant question.

‘What one did in his/her each age?’ - That is more important.

Who cared Chatrapathi Shivaji’s age? His heroic deeds became history that inspires us.

Adi Sankarachariyar attained Samadhi at his 32^nd age, but he finished so many things.

His work is a milestone for the renaissance of HINDUISM.

It is he who paved the way for India’s National Integration.

If the history is written that in such and such year a person did the heroic act, in that history somewhere your name should find place. People who lead the life of simply eating, sleeping and awaking are nothing but animals. They do not know the purpose of human life.

Those who spend time in useless activities are useless born creatures. What you have to do in a particular year that you should do in the same year failing which you will repent later.

Knowledge is gained after lot of experience, but time comes beforehand with the result we become old when we want to do certain things. Had we listened to our elders and based on their advice acted prudently, we need not repent in our old age.

There is a fixed age limit for entry into Government Service. If you have missed the bus, then you have to work in private shops or do own business only. The phenomenon occurs once in a year only [for instance the appearance of Sabarimala Jothi]. If you miss, then you have to wait for a year. Mahamagam comes once in 12 years! If you do not realize the importance of time, you have to lose.

In our young age, we spend lavishly; eat anything and everything without the awareness of our good health. In old age we reap the reward for not having saved enough money for our retirement. We ignored our diet in our middle age and so we have to spend a lot for our medical expenses in later years.

Time is our friend and time is our enemy. It downpours and it drains away. It makes us laugh and it makes us to shed tears. The success of our action is based on timeliness.

When the offer of a good bride is rejected, a stage will come; that it is enough if one gets any bride. In other words you lose your choice. So you should not postpone things.

Fortune is nothing; it is grasping the available time firmly. If you can analyse your acts you will come to know whether you have acted in time and because of which you became fortunate.

In our community, in the past, because of a number of children in a family, the parent wanted to conduct the marriage of both their son and daughter together. They used to wait for the materialization of the marriage of their daughter taking ample time making the best choice, even beyond their means; but in the case of their son, they took scant time and least consideration for the son with the result the son could not have his choice and his life was miserable. But now that there are two or three children only, the marriages of sons and daughters are not clubbed. But bridegrooms still postpone their marriage till they establish themselves in good jobs and start earning a lot by which time they become old and find it difficult to get a suitable match. Similarly well educated girls go on seeking a well qualified bridegroom for a number of years and finally they could not marry or could get less educated groom.

Unco sangiriyo aski mundaDiis oLDyaan sangeyOs. Phivri phivri ami sangi havTan kerno poDarEsi.

avre kalaachaar kaayo menatte avre nhannohoDaan kaLaLLaraani. avre bhaasho vruddhi kerno meni havTaryaani. Avre tenko seraaDi avre bhaashaam vatto kerattak pastokkaryaasi (hesitate).

VidEshum [foreign country] sEttenu English bhaashaamuus aski kertuvaayi meni havTaryaasi.

Avre bhaasho havTan javaLLiDiyeti, Indiyaaku avatte meLLi havTan javaLLuDuvaayi.

If you do not speak Sourashtram properly, you shall be treated as haddu paLkaar.

Our girls are becoming haddu paLkaars by marrying non-sourashtras. Our boys are marrying non-sourashtras to make their sons and daughters as haddu paLkars. A day is going to come, when an Association will have to be formed for haddu palkars to search for bride and bridegrooms when their offspring have no courage to go in for love marriage selecting their partner of their own choice, which their parents did.

Parents are neglecting the care of their children and so they are punished by their children especially with regard to their marriage. For lack of proper counselling, our girls are becoming the victims and bring bad name not only to their parents but also to their relatives and to our Community. It is surprising how an educated girl is brainwashed by a worthless fellow or by a person of inferior origin.

Our community should have more journals and newspapers so that the untoward incidents are brought to the knowledge of our youth. The consequences and failure of such inter-caste marriages are to be reported in journals so that our younger generation may exercise ‘vivekam’ instead of acting with ‘vegam’. Then they can take right decision with their prudence.

Kaas dii patrike khaDi chevdattak roDaryaas. Tappu taNDa chale pharaatu ‘teno kaay kereyo, eno kaay kereyo’ ‘pillal vaaT toppi jEDaryaasnaa’ meni polambaryaasi. kOT tET dhairiyamkan sommar avattak musarani [They select the last bench!]

More Political activity and much publicity are required for our community at this juncture.

Upamanyu.

Sayujya - Monyly News Letter

I have received a copy of "SAYUJYA" a monthly News Letter of Saurashtra University, Rajkot from Registrar of Saurashtra University for the month of March 2008.
RISHI was inaugurated on 5th April 2008 at Madurai by Dr. Kamalesh P.Joshipura, Vice Chancellor of Saurashtra University, Rajkot.

The news letter is completely in Gujarati language.

I have already started learning Gujarati language for I am to visit Saurashtra University and make a comparative study of both Gujarati and Sourashtram.

I hope in the next month news letter, news about RISHI may appear. We will also come to know the starting of a chair for study of Sourashtra Language in Saurashtra University.

Young Sourashtras are to come forward to undertake research work.

Already two students are doing their M.Phil in Linguistic Dept. of Madurai Kamaraj University.
Let us hope for good progress in the development of our language.

UPAMANYU