Computers and the Humanities 33: 241–245, 1999. © 1999 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
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The User-Oriented Bengali Easy Orthography S.M. BABULANAM1 and K.F. BEENA2 1 Bengaliska Magasinet (Educational Material Publishers), Box 17052, 402 61 Gothenburg, Sweden; 2 Bjorndammens School, section: Svanen 433 44 Partille, Sweden
Abstract. A work on user-oriented Bengali orthography has been carried out while teaching Bengali as a Third language. Learning Bengali is difficult because of the presence of innumerable conjunct letters and the absence of a vowel-sign for the first vowel in Bengali orthography. It is extra difficult for foreigners because the working memory in learning a foreign language is quite limited. It is easy to make a computer-key-board with a thousand letters and signs, but it is difficult to use in practice. It is shown in this work that the Bengali conjunct letters not used as initial letters in word-making were redundant in its orthography and could be dissected to their components, if a missing-letter sign for the unborn first Bengali vowel-sign was raised in accordance with Bengali orthographic rule. Only 30 conjunct letters used in Bengali as initial letters in word-making which could be kept intact. Thus only 108 signs on a key-board, including 10 digits and 20 punctuation and other signs were sufficient in case of a user-oriented Bengali orthography. Key words: Bengali, conjunct-letter, hidden-vowel, letter, orthography, user-orientation
1. Introduction Bengali is the 4th language from the aspect of first language speakers or the Mother tongue (after Chinese, English and Spanish). It is the prime language in Bangladesh, West Bengal and Tripura in Eastern India. The hardest barrier in learning Bengali is the presence of innumerable conjunct letters and the absence of a vowel-sign for the first Bengali vowel. In Bengali aged orthography, there exist nearly a thousand conjunct letters, many of which are inherited from Sanskrit. A conjunct letter (Chowdhury et al., 1983, p. 36; Majumder, 1974, p. 102; Radice, 1994, p. 265) is built by packing 2 or 3 consonants together. The conjunct letters are like shorthand. It is an advantage. But now the disadvantages with conjunct letters overweight its advantages when everybody will use his own composition at a computer-desk. The conjunct letters in Bengali are very difficult to recall for the learners of Bengali as a foreign language (or as a second or third language) because the working memory for learning a foreign language is quite limited (Service, 1989), specially for adults. It is difficult to recall the numerous conjunct letters in Bengali and the situation becomes worse in case of small sized letters. It is difficult to type conjunct letters or to arrange them alphabetically. The use of computer-keyboard and other
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computer facilities in Bengali is laborious and painful because of the presence of numerous conjunct letters. Nevertheless, it is relevant to mention that a hundred million Bengalis are yet illiterates. In teaching Bengali as a third language by hermeneutic perspective, it was revealed that both of the problems were interrelated and could be eliminated by use of a missing letter sign (’) as a proxy for the first vowel-sign. The missing letter sign is already in use here and there in Bengali orthography. An easy spelling based on the partial use of this proxy mechanism is an ad hoc solution to the problem. The use of a thousand conjunct letters in the traditional spelling is still a frightening feature of Bengali orthography.
2. The Difficulty of the Problem Dissociation of the conjunct letters in Bengali has been tried for last a few decades but without remarkable success probably due to lack of knowledge in pedagogy or want of pragmatism. The problem pronunciation could not be solved. Here we describe the origin of the trouble. There are 11 vowel and diphthong letters in Bengali. Except the first vowel letter, each vowel in Bengali has a shorthand sign also, which is attached to consonant letters in syllable making. A shorthand for the first vowel in Bengali is yet unborn. The first vowel letter in Bengali has a sound nearly that of \o\ in the word “bomb” in English, and this sound is denoted here by a sign [∋]. In phonetic configuration it is a back-lower cardinal vowel (Hudson, 1965, p. 5). When pronouncing Bengali consonants on their own, this [∋]-sound follows after and it is called the inherent vowel. The consonant letters in Bengali are taught as [k∋], [g∋], [b∋] et cetera. Therefore, it is tacitly understood that all consonant letters naturally carry an [∋] sound with it (Chowdhury et al., 1983, p. 21). The lack of the first vowel sign is a problem for those whose first language is not Bengali. A foreigner does not know where a back-lower vowel [∋] is present with a consonant and where it is not (Radice, 1994). However, in a conjunct letter configuration, the back vowel sound [∋] is absent in the component letters of a conjunct letter except the last constituent letter. The puzzle is left for the last constituent letter. If it is not the last letter of a word, the [∋] sound always follows after it. But if a conjunct letter comes at the last position of word, then the [∋] sound is again uncertain, even for the last constituent letter. Now, when a conjunct letter is dissected, nobody knows where the back vowel [∋] sound is inherent for these letters. We illustrate the situation in case two words “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) and “flask” [flask] (flask) in Bengali. If we substitute Bengali consonant letters used in these two words by IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), we may use [g], [l], [p], [f], [s] and [k] instead. The words “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) and “flask” [flask] (flask) appear as {g(l p)} and {(f l)a(s k)} in Bengali conjunct letter configuration, where (l p),(f l), (s k) are
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different letters in a computer key-board. In such a way there exist a thousand conjunct letters in Bengali for its 35 full consonant letters. The first consonant letter in a Bengali word, from the tradition of Sanskrit, has always an [∋]- sound if no other vowel sign is attached to it. Thus the orthography g(l p) [g∋lp∋] has two choices of pronunciation: [g∋lp] and [g∋lp∋]. The orthography of {(f l)a(s k)} (flask) has a choice between pronunciations [flask] and [flask∋]. If now these conjunct letters are dissociated, we get an orthography where the word “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) may be pronounced in 8 ways: [glp] [g∋lp]
[glp∋] [g∋lp∋]
[gl∋p] [g∋l∋p]
[gl∋p∋] [g∋l∋p∋]
and the word “flask” also may be pronounced in 8 ways: [flask] [f∋lask]
[flas∋k] [f∋las∋k]
[flask∋] [f∋lask∋]
[flas∋k∋] [f∋las∋k∋]
We may assume that no more than two consonant sounds can come together and reject the options [glp] and [glp∋]. We are still left with 6 alternatives for the word “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) in the dissociated Bengali orthography! 3. Previous Attempts to Dissociate Conjunct Letters Attempts have been made to solve the problem of pronunciation of dissected conjunct letters by putting a slash under of a consonant letter (as in Sanskrit) in order to exhibit R the absence of the [∋] sound (Hudson, 1965, p. 23). It is called “hashanta” [h∋ ∋nt∋] sign. We use the sign (`) here for it. Then the word “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) in dissociated conjunct letter configuration can be written as [gl`p] and “flask” [flask] can be written as [f `las`k]. But this method did not achieve remarkable success. This process of using a R “hashanta” [h∋ ∋nt∋] sign is a negative logic. A special sign is added to show the absence of the [∋]-sound with a consonant and the presence of an [∋]-sound otherwise. Bengalis just neglect it (Hudson, 1965). 4. To Raise a Sign for the Hidden Vowel: A Positive Logic In teaching Bengali as a third language by hermeneutic didactic, we searched R for a solution based on Bengali orthographic rule. The use of “hashanta” [h∋ ∋nt∋] sign was incompatible with the transcription of Bengali pronunciation by IPA. A positive logic was the setting of a sign for the hidden [∋]-sound. But in Bengali, the insertion of its unchanged first vowel letter elsewhere, other than the initial position of a word, disturbs the orthographic tradition and that hinders the pronunciation too.
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It was revealed that we are allowed to use the missing letter sign, (’) as a proxy for the hidden [∋]-sound and this is in accordance with Bengali orthography (Dev, 1980, p. 45) and already in use. An apostrophe (’) sign in Bengali is not used for Genitive, but to show the omission of a letter in a word. Therefore, this sign is a suitable choice to be used as a proxy for the hidden [∋]-sound. In such a configuration word “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) could be written as {g’lp’} in Bengali. 5. Exempt the Initial Conjunct Letters Empirically, it was found that the dissection of conjunct letters used as initial letters was an impractical idea, because it hinders the fluency in reading. If we dissect the conjunct letters in the word “flask” [flask] (flask) from {(f l)ask)} to {flask}, it is often read as “falasak” [f∋las∋k]. This crude simplification would face the same fate of the radical orthographic reform attempts in 1960s. Bengalis say, the first syllable of a word bears half of the information contained in it. Fortunately, only about 30 conjunct letters are used as initial letters in Bengali. So, these 30 initial conjunct letters may be kept intact. There is an additional bonus in keeping the initial conjunct letters intact. Then we can follow the tradition of Sanskrit: An initial letter in a word, to which there is no other vowel sign is attached, has always an inherent [∋]-sound. If we keep the initial conjunct letters intact while dissect others, we get the maximum benefit. There are too many Bengali words which have initial letters carrying the [∋]-sound. The advantage of keeping those above 30 conjunct letters intact overwhelms the trouble of extra signs in Bengali orthography. We can afford it. Therefore, we (i) accept the tradition that an initial consonant letter in a word to which there is no vowel sign attached, has always an inherent [∋]-sound (ii) dissect the conjunct letters except the initial conjunct letters (iii) put the missing letter sign (’) as a proxy for the hidden [∋]-sound elsewhere (other than the initial letter). In such a configuration the spelling for word “galpa” [g∋lp∋] (story) becomes \glp’\. Here we have only one choice of pronunciation i.e. [g∋lp∋]. The word “flask” [flask] appears as (f lask) when the initial conjunct letters are exempted from dissection. Here also we have only one choice of pronunciation i.e. [flask]. 6. Discussion The total number of Bengali simple letters and signs is 64. We may keep thirty initial conjunct letters intact. Then only a hundred signs in total are necessary and sufficient for an easy orthography in Bengali. This is acceptable in case of a normal keyboard (the English key-board has 95 signs). The ASCII has a capacity (including higher ASCII) of 256.
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The [h∋ ∋nt∋] sign still may be used to show the absence of [∋]-sound in spelling foreign words (other than English) with peculiar consonant clusters at the beginning of a word. It may be used to denote a “mute” letter elsewhere. However, such words are rarely used in Bengali. This Bengali orthography obtained by dissecting the conjunct letters (except those used as initial letters in Bengali) and raising the missing letter sign (’) for the hidden back-lower vowel [∋] is in accordance with Bengali orthographic rule. It has been developed through pedagogic experiments in teaching Bengali as a third language. 7. Conclusion In User-Oriented Bengali Easy Orthography, the total number of signs is 108 only and there is no new sign invented. This orthography appears to be the appropriate one in order to reduce the total number signs in Bengali from a thousand to a hundred only. References Chowdhury, M., M.H. Chowdhury and I. Khalil. A Grammar of Bengali Language (in Bengali). Eds. D.M. Kazi and S. Lahirdi, Dhaka: Bangladesh School Text-Book Board, 1983. Dev, A.T. Samsad English-Bengali Dictionary, 5th ed. Calcutta 9: Sahitya Samsad, 1980. Hudson, D.F. Teach Yourself Bengali. Warwick, London: The English University Press, 1965. Majumder, S.C. Phonetic Changes in Indo-Aryan Languages. Vaishali, India: Res. Inst. of Prakrit & Jainology, 1974. Radice W. Teach Yourself Bengali. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1994. Service, E. Phonological Coding in Working Memory and Foreign-Language Learning. Department of Psychology, Rep. No. 9, University of Helsinki, 1989.