[Assam] Submission of Memorandum Required
Rajen Barua
barua25 at hotmail.com
Fri Mar 24 09:33:01 PST 2006
OK I will agree to ASAM. But please donot use such words as 'bloody' to the British.
History has an expalantion why things are, and unless read history well, one does not see the truth. More on this later.
BTW I have sent another article to AT, "On the origins of the Names OXOM and ASSAM". The article explains how these names actually came to be. This was never properly explained in our history books. No-Xomo = Oxomo is a later and false interpretation. Please watch for that article and let me know your comments. Also please read 'Kamrupor Buronji" edited by Dr SK Bhuyan and see that till 17th century Assam was written as ACHAM (that is prothom SO) even in Ahom Buronjis.
Anyhow we don't have problem with the name ASAM.
But one must know the facts.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua ; webmaster at assam.org
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 11:07 AM
Subject: Re: Submission of Memorandum Required
I agree to most of the points forwarded by you. But, I would like to dispel a wrong notion about the word "ASSAM". "ASSAM" was inducted first in the Treaty of Yandaboo (1826 A.D.) by the bloody British traders of the erstwhile East India Co. according to their convenience. Prior to 1826 A.D., it was written as "ASAM" in the inscriptions and documents for centuries.
Also, alongwith Ahom, "ASAM" has a Bodo connection too. The Bodo tribe used the word "Ha-Sam" for the State while later turned to "ASAM" (especially by coming into contact with the their Mongoloid cousins the Ahoms). As, such "ASAM" has connection with both these sections of the populace of the State.
So, I sincerely appeal to you to stand by "ASAM" (if there should be any change at all). I read your letter in "Aamaar Asam" a few days back. Kindly take these points into consideration and try the level best to rectify "Assam / Asom" to "ASAM".
With all my best wishes,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
As we all know the whole controversy is being created by Mr Chandra Prasad Saikia and GOA. The battle is far from over, and this is only the beginning, it seems. As it stands now, they are trying to get rid of the Tai-Ahom name ASSAM (originally written as ACHAM) and want to install the ASOM (OXOM) which is an Assamese Aryan word. By doing this they are splitting the whole community into Aryan and Mongoloid groups. The papers show that Tai-Ahoms are vehemently opposing this change, and GOA is silent due to the Elections. Unless those in control take the right step right away, this may lead to a bigger fight due to reasons you cited.
On the other hand nobody will pronounce ASOM as OXOM as proposed. Just ask Mr Chandra Prasad Saikia how he thinks Ms. Sonia Gandhi will pronounce the name ASOM in meetings. Will she say ESOM or OXOM?
We are really surprised that GOA is dragging Assam into this for nothing , and lot of dumb people are supporting without knowing what they are supporting.
People should have some sense and learn to see the writings on the wall, and should stop this change for the benefit of all.
If they want to change, it should be acceptable to the Tai-Ahom community who ruled Assam for 600 years. Don't you think so?
I think both ASSAM, or ASAM or even original ACHAM will be acceptable to them and all.
With the last spelling, we can even pronounce it as AXAM since CH is pronounced as X in many language, and have both the worlds.
Regarding the pronunciation of O and A, I think in Assam, we should start writing Onil, Orpon, Onjona, Otul, Boruah, etc in Assam in keeping with Assamese phonetics. The letter A is actually used all over rest of India to represent the short vowel sound U as in But in keeping with Sanskrit and Hindi phonetics.
Think about this, and discuss among the literary groups in Assam.
Rajen Barua.
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua ; webmaster at assam.org
Sent: Friday, March 24, 2006 3:13 AM
Subject: Re: Submission of Memorandum Required
Thats nice. Even we the Baruas pronounce ourselves as Borua in Asamese. So, also "Asam" will be "Osom" for us. There is no point in retaing "A" and changing to "O" in the later part. Thats bcoz its pronounced as "O" in the "A" of "Asom". So, lets ask this literary figure to consider the better, more reasonable and more practical option "ASAM".
[ Also, its better not to use the word Mongolian while terming the name of our state. That would stir a controversy among the Mongoloids and the Caucasoids (or the Alpines and the Aryans). After all, our mode of pronunciation is all the same when speaking in this indegenous language of the North-East India. Isn't it ? Lets take pride of being a Mixed Race. Lets think in terms of Asamese. Alpines are not welcome in Scandinavia nor are the Aryans in Germany nor are the Mongols in Mongolia (just bcoz of the racial factor). We have made a transition from the concept of Races to that of a Unified Nation. However, we shall be aware of our ancestry in ceremonies. Thats the only way we can make our Uniqueness felt in the world and surge ahead socially as well as economically.]
With sincere regards,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
Thanks. First we have to make Mr Chandra Prasad Saikia (correct Assamese phonetic spelling: Sondro Proxad Xoikia), the prime mover of the proposal see his mistake and agree that ASOM (people will pronounce A as in 'act', S as in Sun, etc ) is really a 'bhusung-pohu' spelling and does not make any sense ate all. That spelling will destroy two things: The Assamese X sound in OXOM (we already lost the X sound in Saikia, Sarma etc) and the Assamese-Mongolian name ASAM). We should convince him that he has done a great damage to the Assamese people. He should therfore now write another editiorial in his Garaiyashi (correct spelling Assamese phonetic spelling 'Gorioxi') stating that if there is any need for change of the name at all, it should to ASAM and not ASOM. If he does that, GOA will automatically pull out from ASOM and go for ASAM.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua ; webmaster at assam.org
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 1:16 PM
Subject: Submission of Memorandum Required
I wrote to the Tribune and The Sentinel today. But, some more voices would be required to bring the matter into notice. Hope u and many others to send mails appealing for "ASAM".
Infact, both NRAs and RAs ought to submit a memorandum to the Govt of Asom/ Assam (?), as well as to the Govt of India demanding the change to be "ASAM" and not "ASOM". That would be the best way to make public opinion heard to the otherwise deaf Govt out here.
Regards,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
If there should be any change at all, then it ought to be "ASAM" and not "ASOM".
I will agree with you on this point.
This way we donot have any controversy at all.
People will pronounce the way it is written ASAM.(ie both As as in Father and S as in Sun)
No problem.
Would you now write a letter to the Editor in any newspaper to that effect?
That will be one correct voice in midst of so many noises going on with wrong voices.
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua
Sent: Thursday, March 23, 2006 12:13 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd: Enough of this Controversy !
Personally, I am in favour of the word "ASAM". "ASSAM" is in accordance with the pronunciation of the British traders of the erstwhile East India Co. No native stresses on the second 'S' in "Assam". Also, in the pre-British era, it was inscribed as "ASAM" in the documents and not "ASSAM". If there should be any change at all, then it ought to be "ASAM" and not "ASOM". That also helps in retaining the brand name. I hope you and many would agree to this point.
Look, the legal formalities which must be completed before using the new name "Asom" has not yet been done. As such, we can garner public opinion in favour of the word "ASAM" instead of "ASOM".
With all best wishes,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
Regarding the name Assam, I think this is what happened.
The British listened to the local pronunciation, and found that the /S/ phoneme which resembles the sound most is the /SS/ as used in their words such as 'issue', 'tissue' etc. Please note that /SS/ phoneme has the sound like /sh/. Anyhow that is how we got the double SS I think.
Aren't you happy that we have SS in the word Assam instead of a single S?
I am sure many like me would like the present spelling Assam which has now been established as an International brand name known all over the world either for Assam Tea, Assam Silk, Assam Oil, or for (Dinjan and Chabua) Assam etc.
Let us keep it.
We have much more important things to worry about.
Like the Assam;s economy as revealed in the report per the following link.
Assam's Economy:
http://planningcommission.nic.in/plans/stateplan/sdr_assam/sp_sdrassam.htm
Rajen Barua
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua ; webmaster at assam.org
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 1:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd: Enough of this Controversy !
"Asam" might be ours. But "Assam" is definitely the one of the British colonial masters of yore.
Best wishes,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
Frankly speaking, even is others call us OkSOM instead of OXOM, I don't see what is the problem.
Let others pronounce it wrong. We mispronounce mexico all the time.
They will mispronounce it with ASOM anyway and will say ESOM or USOM.
My million dollar question is why we are worrying for people saying OkSOM and not worrying if they call us ESOM or USOM?.
And why we want to change the beautiful Mongoloid International name ASSAM anyway. That is our Mongolian name, and people are pronouncing it right.
What is our problem?
Amar ki ukohe khaise?
It bits me.
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua ; webmaster at assam.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 12:05 PM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd: Enough of this Controversy !
I agree to ur points. But just see the way people pronounce the words like Xavier (with reference to St. Xavier), X-mas, Excuse etc.
Well, I believe that when the State surges ahead economically, the whole world would try to pronounce the way we do. It wouldn't matter even if it is written as Asom, Asam, Osom, Oxom et al. However the bright side of the change is the dropping of the second 'S' from "Assam". Now, we have to prove that our state is "Asam" not "Assam" and we the people are not "Ass-amese" but "Asamese" / "Asamiya". Isn't it ?
Regards,
Praantik
Rajen Barua <barua25 at hotmail.com> wrote:
> A layman who has no idea about the symbol 'X' according to the codes of the IPA (International Phonetics Association), can hardly pronounce >AXOM / OXOM properly.
If you don't mind let me ask you the question back. How a layman has the idea what sound to pronounce for X for the following
English words?
xenophobia / xylophone / axiom /examination /excise / exit
Or Chinese name : Xingjiang
Or Spanish name : Mexico
Or Russian : Xruschev, Chexov
Or Greek: Xarish
The answer to all these is that we will have to learn the correct pronounciation of X in all these words in different language. Even in English we cannot take it for granted that it will be pronounced as X in Box all the time. Similarly people will have to learn the correct pronunciation of X in Oxom, Xongkordev, Xotriya, Xukanguri etc in Assamese.
And how do we teach people?
Very simple, we simply tell that the X in Assamese is pronounced like
X = kh, a guttural sound pronounced as 'ch' as in the Scottich word 'Loch' or german word 'Bach', or Zurich etc
Now against the above, what we have on the table:
ASOM :(Ppronounced ESOM)
How do we teach people to pronounce S in ASOM?
S as in Sun or S as in kh =?
I wil write leter why the first vowel need to be O and not A for OXOM.
RB
----- Original Message -----
From: Praantik Barua
To: Rajen Barua ; webmaster at assam.org
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 5:59 AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Fwd: Enough of this Controversy !
Thats very true.
A layman who has no idea about the symbol 'X' according to the codes of the IPA (International Phonetics Association), can hardly pronounce AXOM / OXOM properly. But at least the Sahitya Sabha Stalwarts ought to be aware of the significance of 'X' and re-christen the "ASS" as Asom Xahitya Xabha (AXX). I am leaving out the word "Asom" (for as I said, a lot of controversy surrounds it).
Anyways, thanx for ur mail.
Regards,
Praantik
all the time.
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