So, the debate is on for the correct phonetic spelling for a new name of the state whether it should be Asom or Oxom. In this debate, however, it is important to understand the essence so that we are not too much caught in some non-issues and fail to see the forest because of the trees. There are basically three main issues to the debate. FIRST Issue: Assam Sahiya Sabha ex President Mr. Chandra Prasad Saikia proposed, as recorded in the February 2006 issue of Assamese magazine, ‘Gariyoshi’, that the name ‘ASSAM’ is a word coined by the British during the colonial rule for their convenience, and therefore the name ASSAM should be changed.
SECOND Issue: Mr. Chandra Prasad Saikia also proposed that the name should be changed to the spelling ASOM suggesting that is the proper Roman spelling of the Assamese pronunciation of the word OXOM (O+Dontiyo-XO+ MO).
THIRD Issue: Based on the above suggestion from Mr. Chandra Prasad Saikia, Assam Government hastily adopted a resolution to change the name of the state to ASOM without discussing the merits of the suggestion in any democratic manner with any official literary organization or any other entity.
In the following analysis, we will try to see rational of these three issues.
The FIRST issue brings us directly to the question how the English spelling of the name of ASSAM actually came to be. Records show that the British first used the spelling ASHAM in 1590 which was later on changed to ASAM and finally to ASSAM. Now the question is, did the British coined this phonetic spelling ASSAM for their own convenience because they could not pronounce the Assamese spelling OXOM (O+Dontiyo-XO+ MO) or this ASSAM pronunciation was already in vogue outside Assam in India before the arrival of the British? From the following analysis, it is clearly seen that the later is the correct situation. The pronunciation ASAM or ASHAYM was there in vogue outside Assam with the Mughols during the Ahom days. This is evident from the various treaties of the Mughols and the Ahoms. Also, this ‘Assam’ pronunciation was popular among the Indians outside of Assam during that time. In order to understand why that was so, we will have to know a little of Assamese vowels sounds in comparison to the Hindi-Urdu-Sanskrit vowel sounds. There is a basic difference how we Assamese pronounce the letter Hosro-O in words and how the Hindi-Urdu non Assamese belt pronounce the same letter Hosro-O sound. In Assamese the basic Hosro-O sound is invariably pronounced as O as in the English word ‘hot’. Now, in Hindi as well as in Sanskrit, the Hosro-O has the sound as the U as in the English word ‘but’. (Please note that in Sanskrit this Hosro-O is called Hosro-Ah for this reason) This is evident from any Sanskrit or Hindi dictionaries. It is also evident from the Roman script spelling of the Hindi words such as ‘Pundit’, ‘Punjab’, ‘Suttee’ etc adopted by the British for these Hindi words with Hosro-O-kar sound. The letter U sounding as in ‘but’ is being used for the Hindi Hosro-O sounds. The British listened carefully to the local speakers and found that is how they pronounce the Hosro-O sound. (Please note the spelling of the word Dalda in Hindi which is actually spelled with the first vowel as Hosro-O but pronounced as U as ‘Dulda’). So the British also heard the pronunciation of the name of the state clearly as ASAM or ASHAM from outsiders in Assam, although the local Assamese spelling was OXOM. The British simply used that Indian pronunciation and finally used the English phoneme SS as used in the English words ‘issue’ or ‘tissue’ for the S sound in ASSAM. This makes perfect sense with the phonetic sound of the name of the state as used by outsiders during that time. So to answer our basic question, the word ASSAM is not a word suddenly coined by the British overnight for their convenience, but they simply used the proper English phonetic spelling of ASSAM for the existing Indian pronunciation for the word OXOM. By claiming that the word ASSAM is a British colonial invention, both Mr. C.P Saikia and the Government of Assam have simply shown that they do not have proper knowledge of the development of the spelling ASSAM, and the proposal to change the existing name does not have any justification at all.
Now let us see the claim made by Mr. C.P.Saikia, that the spelling ASOM actually represents the proper Assamese pronunciation of the words OXOM (O+Dontiyo-XO+ MO). For reasons stated above, the first vowel A in ASOM simply does not represent the Assamese vowel sound of Hosro-O. It represents the sound of U as in the word ‘but’. So with the word spelling ASOM, people will pronounce it either as USOM or as ESOM. In all Romance languages, the letter S stands for the sound S as in ‘sun’. It is well known now that S does not represent the Assamese velar fricative XO sound which is a guttural kh sound. So the claim made by Mr. Saikia that the S letter would represent the Assamese ethnic XO sound is simply not correct. So we see that Mr. C.P.Saikia as well as the Assam government is wrong in selecting the spelling ASOM for the Assamese word OXOM (O+XO+MO). They have simply shown that either they are not familiar with the Assamese phonetics or they donot care.
Now let us come to the THRID issue of the action of Assam Government in hastily adopting the wrong suggestion made by Mr. C.P. Saikia. In a democratic country like India, one simply cannot think that such an important issue of changing the name of the state will be taken so lightly without a discussion or debate with any official literary organizations such as the Sahitya Sabhas or any other entity. This simply shows a mockery of Indian democracy, and concerned citizens should strongly voice against such dilution of democratic values in the biggest democracy in the world.
By Rajen Barua, Houston, Texas
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