Romanisation of Bengali and Other Indian Scripts

2009 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-74
Author(s):  
DENNIS KURZON
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Indian Languages ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
The Status ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Roman Script

AbstractThis article will discuss two attempts at the romanisation of Indian languages in the twentieth century, one in pre-independence India and the second in Pakistan before the Bangladesh war of 1971. By way of background, an overview of the status of writing in the subcontinent will be presented in the second section, followed by a discussion of various earlier attempts in India to change writing systems, relating mainly to the situation in Bengal, which has one language and one script used by two large religious groups – Muslims and Hindus (in modern-day Bangladesh and West Bengal, respectively). The fourth section will look at the language/script policy of the Indian National Congress in pre-independence days, and attempts to introduce romanisation, especially the work of the Bengali linguist S. K. Chatterji. The penultimate section deals with attempts to change the writing system in East Pakistan, i.e. East Bengal, to (a) the Perso-Arabic script, and (b) the roman script.In all cases, the attempt to romanise any of the Indian scripts failed at the national – official – level, although Indian languages do have a conventional transliteration. Reasons for the failure will be presented, in the final section, in terms of İlker Aytürk's model (see this issue), which proposes factors that may allow – or may not lead to – the implementation of romanisation.

scholarly journals Writing systems as modular objects: proposals for theory design in grapholinguistics

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Neef
Keyword(s):  
Solution Space ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Specific Level ◽  
Language System ◽  
The Status ◽  
Pertinent Question ◽  
Typical Component ◽  
Notational System

AbstractThis paper gives an outline of the Modular Theory of Writing Systems by answering the question: what are the elements or modules that are necessary for a writing system to work? A writing system is a notational system for a natural language. Based on this characterization, it is obvious that a necessary component of a writing system is a specific language system. What eventually constitutes a writing system in addition to this language system is a device that, put simply, relates units of a language system to units of a script. This component is termed ‘graphematics’ in the present framework and is regarded as a necessary module of a writing system. Above that, another typical component of writing systems, namely ‘systematic orthography’, applies to the ‘graphematic solution space’ and restricts the spelling possibilities of specific words in accordance to their belonging to a specific level of the vocabulary of the language. Supplemented by reflections on the status of scripts as well as of IPA as a writing system, an answer is finally given to the pertinent question how spoken language and written language are related to each other. The answer is that this relation is of a considerably indirect nature.

Writing in Two Scripts

1998 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 225-248 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiu Hak-Khiam
Keyword(s):  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Southern Min ◽  
Educational Implications ◽  
Roman Script

Three writing systems are currently available for writing Taiwanese, the variety of Southern Min Chinese which is spoken in Taiwan. Traditionally, it is written either in choan-han 'all character writing' or choan-lo 'all Roman script'; however, a mixture of these two scripts, called han-lo, has been developed in recent decades. This article evaluates these three writing systems from linguistic and socio linguistic perspectives. It is argued that han-lo can efficiently achieve the goals of corpus planning: graphization, standardization, and modernization. The educational implications of a mixed writing system are also discussed.

Writing systems and language contact in the Euro- and Sinocentric worlds

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Coulmas
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
System A ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
And Function ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractOn the social level languages contact usually implies hierarchies, reflecting historical processes of adaptation and power relations between groups of speakers. This paper considers language contact in the written mode from the point of view of choice, that is, choice of language and choice of writing system. A wider range of factors that have a bearing on choice in contact situations of languages and their writing systems must be taken into consideration: political, social, linguistic and ideological. Examples of each kind from the Eurocentric and Sinocentric worlds are discussed and compared with each other. Particular attention is paid to the relationship bilingual writers create between the units of two languages and two writing systems which, from a sociolinguistic point of view, is seen as indicative of the status and function of the languages involved.

Learning to Write Words

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 521-526
Author(s):  
Rebecca Treiman
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Older Children ◽  
Visual Appearance ◽  
English Writing ◽  
Alphabetic Writing

Learning to produce the written forms of individual words is an important part of writing. In this article, I review research on how children acquire this skill. I begin by discussing young children’s knowledge about the visual appearance of writing and then consider how learners of alphabetic writing systems begin to use letters to symbolize the sounds they hear in words. The English writing system, the focus of this review, is complex. In the final section of the article, I discuss how older children learn about its subtler patterns. Implications of the research for how children learn and for how spelling should be taught are considered.

scholarly journals Tendency or Trend? The Direction Towards Modern Latin-Like Arabic Script

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 119 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hisham S. Alkadi
Keyword(s):  
Main Trend ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
The Past ◽  
Word Level ◽  
Arabic Script ◽  
Latin Script ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Level 2

The past few decades have witnessed an aesthetic trend in the Arabic Writing System and its well-known calligraphic arts, which have exploited features of other writing systems, including Latin and Chinese scripts. Although there are great differences between almost every aspect of the Arabic and Latin scripts, this trend has blended certain characteristics of Arabic script with some features of Latin script. This study examines this trend and its experiments and transitions, from the moment it first emerged until the present day. It investigates the motivations underpinning the trend and analyzes its artistic and linguistic characteristics, in which the researcher visually analyzes all possible details and disassembles both orthographic items and calligraphic features into their basic essential scripts. The findings reveal an aesthetic and linguistic trend that is substantial and significant, based on linguistic, cultural, and sociocultural factors, including increased levels of communication, culturalism, advances in technology, transportation, migration, and globalization. Script tools and features are used to divide the main trend into three sub-trends: 1) Script switching, where scripts are interchanged at word-level; 2) Script fusion, where scripts are altered at letter-level; and 3) Faux fonts, which dissolve certain features of Arabic script to mirror Latin script. All of the techniques used to make Arabic script match Latin script have been shown to be culturally-induced and linguistically informative, rather than merely aesthetic. The findings of this study also indicate that this new phenomenon is likely to be in the early stages, with further developments expected to unfold in future.

From Spiritualism to Theosophy: “Uplifting” a Democratic Tradition

1993 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 197-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Prothero
Keyword(s):  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
American Religion ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Democratic Tradition ◽  
The Status ◽  
Taboo Topics

The status reversal ritual that American religious historiography has undergone in the last two decades has done much to “mainstream” previously taboo topics within the field. Many religious groups once dismissed as odd and insignificant “cults” are now seen as “new religious movements” worthy of serious scrutiny. One subject that has benefited from this reversal of fortunes is theosophy. Thanks to the work of scholars such as Robert Ellwood and Carl Jackson, theosophists are now part of the story of American religion. Exactly what part they are to play in that story remains, however, unclear.

An Error Analysis of Hiragana and Katakana Writing Systems in the Learning of Japanese as Third Language at UiTM

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 46
Author(s):  
Norhazlina Husin ◽  
Nuranisah Tan Abdullah ◽  
Aini Aziz
Keyword(s):  
Error Analysis ◽  
Foreign Students ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Language Skills ◽  
The Other ◽  
Japanese Language ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Third Language ◽  
Main Challenge

Abstract The teaching of Japanese language as third language to foreign students has its own issues and challenges. It does not merely involve only teaching the four language skills. Japanese language has its own unique values. These unique values also tend to differentiate the teaching of Japanese language as a third language from other third language acquisitions. The teaching of Japanese language as third language to foreign students also involves the teaching of its writing system. This makes the teaching of Japanese language rather complicated because Japanese language has three forms of writings, namely: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Students are required to fully understand the Hiragana system of writing first before proceeding to learn the other two forms of writings. The main challenge in the teaching of Japanese writing systems is the time allocated that can be considered as very limited as other language aspects need to be taught too. This, which relates directly to students’ factor very much contribute to the challenges foreseen. Students are likely to face problems in understanding and using the writings as they simultaneously need to adhere to the findings teaching and learning schedules. This article discusses on the analysis conducted in terms of the learning of the Hiragana and Katagana systems of writing among foreign students. The discussion in this article is based on the teaching of Japanese language to students of Universiti Teknologi MARA(UiTM), Shah Alam. Keywords: Third language, Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji

Micro and Macro-level Analysis of Crop Diversification: Evidence from an Agrarian State West Bengal

2020 ◽  
pp. 489-499
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
West Bengal ◽  
Farming Systems ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Structure Questionnaire ◽  
Crop Diversification ◽  
The Status ◽  
Block Level ◽  
Diversified Farming Systems

The farming system in West Bengal is being shifted by integration between the set of cash crops and the main food harvest process. This change in diversified farming systems, where smallholders have a production base in rice can complement production; affect technical efficiency and farm performance. The goal of this study was to investigate the status of crop diversification on smallholders in West Bengal. First, crop diversification regions were developed in West Bengal based on the Herfindahl index, which were categorized into three regions. Three sample districts were studied separately at the block level, and 915 small farmers from 41 sample villages of 9 sample blocks were interviewed through a good structure questionnaire for field studies from the sample districts. West Bengal was gradually moving towards multiple crop production. Furthermore, increasing rice production reduced the marginal use of inputs for the production of other crops. Farming and other vital factors such as HYVs area to GCA, average holding size and per capita income in some districts of West Bengal can be identified as determinants of crop diversification.

The Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movements

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Final Section ◽  
Religious Studies ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
New Religious Movements ◽  
Oxford University ◽  
New Religions ◽  
New Age Movement ◽  
Book Award ◽  
The Status ◽  
Social Scientific

The first edition ofThe Oxford Handbook of New Religious Movementsappeared in early 2004. At the time, it was a much-needed overview of a rapidly-expanding area of study; it received recognition in the form of aChoicebook award. The second edition brings this task up to date. In addition to updating most of the original topics, the new edition takes in more topics by expanding the volume from 22 to 32 chapters, and enlarges the scope of the book by doubling the number of contributors from outside of North America. Following an introductory section devoted to social-scientific approaches to New Religious Movements (NRMs), the second section focuses on what has been uppermost in the minds of the general public, namely the controversies that have surrounded these groups. The third section examines certain themes in the study of NRMs, such as the status of children and women in such movements. The fourth section presents religious studies approaches by looking at NRM mythologies, rituals and the like. The final section covers the subfields that have grown out of NRM studies and become specializations in their own right, from the study of modern Paganism to the study of the New Age Movement. Finally, the present volume has a thematic focus; readers interested in specific NRMs are advised to consult the second edition of James R. Lewis and Jesper Aa. Petersen’s edited volume,Controversial New Religions(Oxford University Press 2014).

Populism and Religion in Brazil: The View from Education Policy

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Catarina Ianni Segatto ◽  
Mário Aquino Alves ◽  
Andrea Pineda
Keyword(s):  
Education Policy ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Religious Groups ◽  
Welfare Services ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Over Time

This article is a case study of Brazil, a country where Catholic-based organizations have historically played a key role in providing education and welfare services. Since the 1980s, these organizations have supported progressive changes at both the national and subnational levels. Nevertheless, the influence of religion on education policy has shifted in the last few decades. Pentecostal and Neopentecostal groups have gained prominence through representatives in the National Congress, and, in 2018, formed a coalition enabling the election of a right-wing populist President. We analyse the trajectory of religious groups’ influence on Brazil’s education policy over time (colonization to the 1980s, the 1980s to the beginning of the 2000s, and the 2000s until now) through a qualitative-historical analysis of primary and secondary data. This article argues that both Catholic and Protestant groups have influenced progressive changes in Brazil’s education policy, but they also share conservative ideas impeding further advances.

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