|
|
|
|
Articles: TP Features | | 'vari' cheppE telugu sAkshyaM | |
|
| Mr. Reddy garu,
There is no point in carrying further this discussion about deleting letters and words. We are not the deciding authority anyway and you do not seem to follow my logic. Let us leave it at that.
Posted by: Dr. Rohiniprasad Kodavatiganti At: 20, Sep 2006 8:58:02 AM IST
Mr. Rohiniprasad garu,
We had this discussion in Eemata. If you can write Sanskrit words with 26 alphabets and no problem in pronouncing the words, but you have problem with 37 letters in Theta telugu script? If I misprounce a borrowed Sanskrit word, who cares? How many English words misprounced in telugu and do we care? I never say not to borrow words from other langauges whether it is Sanskrit, Urdu or English as long as we don't have such words, and its pronounciation must fit according to our language script. You can't just add new letters for every new sound of a foreign language. Theta telugu is not a new language nor a new script. It is simplified version and adhere to meet the needs of Telugu language. I am some what puzzled with your comment 'This idea of separate script actually encourages caste and class divisions I am afraid.'. By using simple, clear and pure theta telugu words to communicate among the Telugu speaking people divide our society by caste and class?
Posted by: Mr. M kakulavaram At: 20, Sep 2006 5:57:56 AM IST
I wonder whether this is the right place to discuss the issue but I want Mr. K.M.Reddy garu to know that I am no proponent of Sanskrit. But I know the trouble languages like Tamil face due to limited alphabet.
As I already suggested, it may be a good idea to promote Basic Telugu in a limited way but it is unthinkable that anyone should suggest that the capabilities of a language should be shrunk. At one time Sanskrit may have had class and caste overtones but today it is just another (dead) language which is being learnt by a limited number of people.
Among other things, Sanskrit is being promoted as THE language for coining scientific terms though I personally don't like the idea. Sanskritized words have entered Telugu 1000 years ago and today it is nearly impossible to separate them from regular Telugu usage. Even in Tamil, they have not done away with any letters except for a few like ha and ja which the Dravidian parties like to reject. They are in use anyway.
The proposal for language reform can only be launched in a very big way as in Tamil self-rspect movement where they did monumental work by reviving native Tamil equivalents for every technical term. It will not happen merely by the wishes of some individuals trying to promote their own ideas. Let Mr. Reddy and his friends start by actively using native Telugu terms in regular usage in place of sanskritized equivalents. That will go a long way in promoting native Telugu. Mispronouncing and misspelling words is no solution. Can you do that in English? Many experiments have been carried out for spoken and phonetic English but there have been few takers.
You cannot reform Telugu script unless you reform the language itself. Then you can evolve a suitable script. This idea of separate script actually encourages caste and class divisions I am afraid.
Posted by: Dr. Rohiniprasad Kodavatiganti At: 19, Sep 2006 6:59:14 PM IST
MahAprANas seem to be unique to Indian languages and so one suspects their 'foreign' origins.
Mr. K.S.R.Prasad is right in insisting on keeping the full Telugu alphabet in tact, unlike some friends who are advocating a curtailed one for easier instruction. Perhaps someone can start Basic Telugu alphabet separately for limited purposes. Inability to pronounce mahAprANAs by the less literate groups seems to be a problem only in South India. As everyone knows, there is no such difficulty anywhere in the North. In fact even villagers in UP and Bihar sprinkle their conversation liberally with aspirated consonants.
The distinction between 'us' and 'them' is of course totally blurred after all these millenia. South Indian languages are 'better' for having short 'e' and 'o' (the editors of this site are yet to tell me how to type here in Telugu!) in addition to the rest of the alphabet and Telugu has borrowed the softer ja (zsa) and ca (tsa) from Marathi.
Elsewhere I have suggested the creation of additional letters to write English words properly rather than come up with monstrosities like yactor and yanchor in Telugu script. This can probably be initiated by our tech-savvy friends who can configure new fonts.
Posted by: Dr. Rohiniprasad Kodavatiganti At: 18, Sep 2006 0:32:09 AM IST
This article is very interesting.
What is needed is 'objective research' free of prejudice.
Regarding the adoption of 'mahaapraaNa' letters cited by Sri Rohini Prasad Kodavatiganti, I have the following observations.
Sri Tirumala Ramachandra, in his book 'mana lipi puTTupoorvOttaraalu' (Visalandhra Publications) mentioned that 63 (64?) 'moolOchchaaraNalu' are possible. Perhaps by adopting the 'necessary & sufficient' letters for Telugu, our ancestors might have decided that 56 letters are needed for Telugu. Later, some were found to be redundant and some are yet to be adopted, keeping in view the pronunciation of some English words which have already entered our Telugu dictionaries too. (Unlike in English, there can be one and only one pronunciation associated with each letter in Telugu,Sanskrit and Kannada. Tamil is some what an exception, as they use same letters for 'parushas' & 'saraLas' (the pronunciation varies according to the position of the letter in the word) and the consequent confusion is anybody's guess.)
Whether the mahaapraaNas are taken by Aryans from 'us' or 'we' have taken from them ( this will be known gradually when research throws more light on these aspects), the retention of these letters is very much desirable in Telugu. (If these are lent by 'us' to the 'others', we can feel prouder. After all, 'aadaana' and 'pradaana' take place in all languages. What is desirable is to give respect for the 'pronunciation' of the borrowed words without mutilating them. Hence we need not be 'overzealous' in declaring ourselves to be belonging to 'Dravidian blood' and create more confusion worse confounded by deleting these mahaapraaNas from our usage.
Posted by: SATYA RAMA PRASAD KALLURI At: 16, Sep 2006 11:00:48 PM IST
Congratulations for a very detailed piece. My suggestion is that it should be re-written as a series of essays, letting the readers understand history and proto history bit by bit. I have been trying to do that in my own column in apweekly.com. The average reader's familiariy with even the well-known aspects of our history may fall far short of the author's expectations!
Vedic language accepted, among other things, maha praNas (kha, gha, bha etc) from Indus valley speakers since they do not seem to occur in Avestan or other west Asian languages of the time. The pre vedic culture was certainly in full bloom and the blind worship of the vedas in the latter periods totally eclipsed a whole culture which included Charvaka or lokayata philosophy.
Indigenous people were reportedly living from 6500BC in the present Baluchistan area and had 4500 years of history before Indus valley civilization reached its peak. It certainly did not come out of thin air. Aryan language speakers started coming into the subcontinent from the northwest and gardually corrupted the highly urban Indus valley civilization with their pastoral ways. It is said that ultimately it was their iron weapons and horses, among other things, which gave them the upper hand. They also integrated with the locals gradually. What really gained supremacy was their ritualistic approach and their patriachal attitude.
The author has made important references to Dravidian words (it hardly matters now whether it was proto Telugu or proto Tamil) in the ancient agrarian terminology. People have pointed out Telugu-sounding city names like Nippur in Mesopotamia. I shall be happy to see the author spending some more time on the subject to come up with a more detailed work.
Posted by: Dr. Rohiniprasad Kodavatiganti At: 16, Sep 2006 5:33:52 AM IST
| |
|
|
 |
| Advertisements |
|
|
|
|
| Advertisements |
|
