Re: [WMASTERS] charset and grantha

["C.R. Selvakumar" <selvakum@valluvar.uwaterloo.ca>]

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Dear Nagu,

Many thanks for your reply. I'm sorry I didn't get back to this
earlier.


*Dear Selvakumar, Mani, Kathiravan Dr.Kalyan and others,
*
*My comments on the contents of your webpage:
*
*  1. "aq" + a = ha is an excellent idea. It comes very naturally
*     Thats very important. Though lot of suggestions sound very
*     logical, it should look very simple and natural for the
*     people to adopt it. I think aq+a=ha can be successfully
*     implemented.

         Almost everyone feels so and I think this will be a good 
  	substitution without too much difficulty. However, there is
  	one catch and so far no one had pointed out. In this system,
  	the pure consonant 'h' ( 'mey' without a vowel) will be a 
  	slight problem, though we can simply use 'q' itself. Like 
  	Rahman as ra_q_mA_n.
*
*  2. For other letters (sa, sha, and ja), I dont find them so
*     natural as "aq"+a=ha. But I really appreciate the idea
*     behind that. Yes you have used those letters that pulls
*     tongue inside and converts the sound of "ca" to sa, sha
*     and ja. But it is still a kind of technique. I doubt if
*     people will take it. You can notice that this technique
*     works very naturally in the case of aq+a=ha.

        The idea is NOT to FULLY reproduce the non-tamil sounds, but
        only to PROMPT by association.

*
*  3. Also, usage of z and nj will become ambiguous.

         I don't understand how ambiguity arises.

         The z ( which I presume you're meaning the Saraswati S)
         is produced by aytham(q)+ c. 

         The nj is used in front of 'c' to produce 'j' which is
         really very close and here I don't understand the objections of
         Dr. Kalyan as well.


*
*  4. Same point applies to G, D and B sounds.

  	The point of writing the 'pure consonant' ( uyir ERaa mey) in front
  	WILL PROMPT the reader to pronounce the following letter
  	with G, D, B, and Dh. We are NOT to pronounce the pure consonant.
  	But even if we did pronounce, it would only cause a small distortion
  	( unwanted initial transient 'i' sound). This initial transient 'i'
  	is to be supressed. We do remember so many 'wonderful' combinations
  	in English, and this is similar and less difficult  imo.
*
*  5. For F sound, as you said we can use aq+v=f technique.

  	I'm glad you think so.

*
*  6. Regarding aq+p, I think its actually used in the place
*     of "ph" sound not in the "f" sound.
*
*     Eg. pharmacy is written as aq pa r ma ci


           Well, this kind of extentions will lead us into
           more difficulties ( we're only trying to APPROXIMATE
           the sound not IMMITATE the full complexity of
           pronounciation and spelling etc.)
*
*
*One more point I want to add (which you have mentioned in you web
*page) is:
*   **We have grammar** to support these sounds in majority of the
*   cases. In the name of finding new letters/letter combinations
*   we should make these rules ambiguous and we should leave these
      ~~~~~~~~~

    'should not' ( taken notice of)

*   rules behind. If we do that, I dont know what will be there to
*   say that it is Tamil.



         My whole idea of introuducing the initial mey is for NOT
         causing confusions to our beautiful tamil rule.

         For example if we want to say viKadan and not vigadan
         we can use vi(k)kadan in tamil to point out that the 'ka'
         is to be pronounced hard and not as per tamil nature 'ga'.

         I'm violating tamil rule of not starting with a pure
         consonant, but this is only for non-tamil words. If we want to
         use Tholkaappiyam rule, we can, but then we should also follow
         other rules. I feel it is okay to make an exception to
         non-tamil words and by this method we are able to expand 
         into expressing more phonemes and in non-tamil sequences,
         without adding any new characters. 
*
*Regarding your encoding again:
*    I just want to warn(please do not think that I am discouraging you
*    and its not used in a harsh way) any of the effort of this kind
*    that We should always have the simplicity of Tamil in mind. Touching
*    the script (particularly adding something to it based on the sound)
*    should be avoided as much as possible. We should not just think
*about
*    the sounds that have come into Tamil in these recent(say 100/200)
*years
*    and add a letter to the script. If that is the rate a script gets
*    modified (particularly addtions based on new sounds!), We'll not
*have
*    Tamil after 1000 years.


       Nagu, as you can guess, I'm 100% with you. I will write about
       this in a separate thread. Many people including people don't
       understand what is the system used in Tamil and what are the guiding
       thoughts. Our forefathers have so carefully designed a system
       which has served us so well. Tamils explicitly avoided certain
       sounds and in certain sequences. 

       We are not averse to 'progress' and adopting new features,
       as is known  'puthiyan puguthalum, pazayna kazithalum 
       kaala vakaiyinaanE', but not anything new and novel is beneficial.
       puthiyathellaam puthumai alla. ivaLam perukkum puthuppayan
       tharuvathu puthumai.
*
*anbudan,
*nagu.
*PS: I do not know anything about linguistics. But somehow I love Tamil
*    in all of its present form(except for some difficulties that we
*    face in ukara uukaara varisai).

       We should not touch ukara Ukaara varisai because that'll 
       cause major jitter at a time that is too precarious and dangerous.
       Continuation of tamil in the next 30-50 years is crucial. 
       After 50 years or so when we have achieved certain social,
       political changesand above all economic affluence, we can do it.
       First let us have tamil in music, temple worship, administration,
       courts, primary, secondary and higher education, .. then
       we'll think of 'improving' the script. 

       anbudan selvaa

      


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