Transliteration of the Assamese script to the Roman Script

Along with the growing popularity of computers and the Internet as a principal mode of communication, the need to write with an Assamese script in the electronic media is not only welcome but also imminent. The development of any Roman-input-Assamese-output software would constitute a major leap in tuning the English keyboard to Assamese needs the first step to the same revolving on the fixation of a standard for the transliteration of Assamese script to the Roman script, which ought to be both accurate and easy to use. An effort to this end is being undertaken which has resulted in a scheme which complies with all the major ISO directives, so necessary for its universal acceptance. The path to popular acceptance is really not very windy. Apart from individual efforts here and there, there are only four major universities in Assam, which are involved, in serious research concerning Assamese linguistics. Once a scheme is accepted and used by these four universities and then, hopefully, baptized by the Oxom Xahityo Xobha, it can be considered to be a de facto standard; pending the approval of ISO.

To this end, a few members of the Assamese community of N. America are in communication with the concerned individuals in these institutions, as their opinion and involvement in the subject will pave a smoother way for the general success of the scheme.

Seeded in a stray discussion on AssamNet, the transliteration scheme was soon viewed as having quite a bit of constructive potential as far as developing a standard transliteration scheme was concerned. Any standard transliteration scheme, to be popular and widely accepted, has to fulfill three basic requirements: pronounce ability, simplicity of graphic representation and traditionality. Incidentally, it is interesting to note that, even though not concurrent to the ISO standards, quite a few schemes of "popular" transliteration are being currently used all over the state and is being cataloged by some members of the Assamese community. Among these, the scheme of transliteration, which developed out of discussions in AssamNet, has its own unique position simply due to the fact that it is simple to use: being almost instinctive and pronounceable. Of course, transliteration from one script to another can never be perfect; it is just a matter of striking the right balance between the preservation of spelling and sound.

A few years ago a very popular movie in Assamese had a name which meant "You are mine; only mine". The name was mis-transliterated, unfortunately, into English as "Tumi Mur Mathu Mur" which, as Prof Deven Dutta pointed out, essentially meant "You are a head; and nothing but a head!!" A standard transliteration scheme, hopefully, will weed out most of such unfortunate mistakes.

(Contributed by Syamanta Saikia, Wichita, Kansas)