Developing a Devanagari-Based Multi-Language Orthography for Nepalese Languages
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Chapter 2 Language Use in Nepal
CHAPTER 2 LANGUAGE USE IN NEPAL Yogendra P. Yadava* Abstract This chapter aims to analyse the use of languages as mother tongues and second lan- guages in Nepal on the basis of data from the 2011 census, using tables, maps, and figures and providing explanations for certain facts following sociolinguistic insights. The findings of this chapter are presented in five sections. Section 1 shows the impor- tance of language enumeration in censuses and also Nepal’s linguistic diversity due to historical and typological reasons. Section 2 shows that the number of mother tongues have increased considerably from 92 (Census 2001) to 123 in the census of 2011 due to democratic movements and ensuing linguistic awareness among Nepalese people since 1990. These mother tongues (except Kusunda) belong to four language families: Indo- European, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic and Dravidian, while Kusunda is a language isolate. They have been categorised into two main groups: major and minor. The major group consists of 19 mother tongues spoken by almost 96 % of the total population, while the minor group is made up of the remaining 104 plus languages spoken by about 4% of Nepal’s total population. Nepali, highly concentrated in the Hills, but unevenly distributed in other parts of the country, accounts for the largest number of speakers (44.64%). Several cross-border, foreign and recently migrated languages have also been reported in Nepal. Section 3 briefly deals with the factors (such as sex, rural/ urban areas, ethnicity, age, literacy etc.) that interact with language. Section 4 shows that according to the census of 2011, the majority of Nepal’s population (59%) speak only one language while the remaining 41% speak at least a second language. -
Writing Systems Reading and Spelling
Writing systems Reading and spelling Writing systems LING 200: Introduction to the Study of Language Hadas Kotek February 2016 Hadas Kotek Writing systems Writing systems Reading and spelling Outline 1 Writing systems 2 Reading and spelling Spelling How we read Slides credit: David Pesetsky, Richard Sproat, Janice Fon Hadas Kotek Writing systems Writing systems Reading and spelling Writing systems What is writing? Writing is not language, but merely a way of recording language by visible marks. –Leonard Bloomfield, Language (1933) Hadas Kotek Writing systems Writing systems Reading and spelling Writing systems Writing and speech Until the 1800s, writing, not spoken language, was what linguists studied. Speech was often ignored. However, writing is secondary to spoken language in at least 3 ways: Children naturally acquire language without being taught, independently of intelligence or education levels. µ Many people struggle to learn to read. All human groups ever encountered possess spoken language. All are equal; no language is more “sophisticated” or “expressive” than others. µ Many languages have no written form. Humans have probably been speaking for as long as there have been anatomically modern Homo Sapiens in the world. µ Writing is a much younger phenomenon. Hadas Kotek Writing systems Writing systems Reading and spelling Writing systems (Possibly) Independent Inventions of Writing Sumeria: ca. 3,200 BC Egypt: ca. 3,200 BC Indus Valley: ca. 2,500 BC China: ca. 1,500 BC Central America: ca. 250 BC (Olmecs, Mayans, Zapotecs) Hadas Kotek Writing systems Writing systems Reading and spelling Writing systems Writing and pictures Let’s define the distinction between pictures and true writing. -
Part 1: Introduction to The
PREVIEW OF THE IPA HANDBOOK Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet PARTI Introduction to the IPA 1. What is the International Phonetic Alphabet? The aim of the International Phonetic Association is to promote the scientific study of phonetics and the various practical applications of that science. For both these it is necessary to have a consistent way of representing the sounds of language in written form. From its foundation in 1886 the Association has been concerned to develop a system of notation which would be convenient to use, but comprehensive enough to cope with the wide variety of sounds found in the languages of the world; and to encourage the use of thjs notation as widely as possible among those concerned with language. The system is generally known as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Both the Association and its Alphabet are widely referred to by the abbreviation IPA, but here 'IPA' will be used only for the Alphabet. The IPA is based on the Roman alphabet, which has the advantage of being widely familiar, but also includes letters and additional symbols from a variety of other sources. These additions are necessary because the variety of sounds in languages is much greater than the number of letters in the Roman alphabet. The use of sequences of phonetic symbols to represent speech is known as transcription. The IPA can be used for many different purposes. For instance, it can be used as a way to show pronunciation in a dictionary, to record a language in linguistic fieldwork, to form the basis of a writing system for a language, or to annotate acoustic and other displays in the analysis of speech. -
Writing Systems: Their Properties and Implications for Reading
Writing Systems: Their Properties and Implications for Reading Brett Kessler and Rebecca Treiman doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199324576.013.1 Draft of a chapter to appear in: The Oxford Handbook of Reading, ed. by Alexander Pollatsek and Rebecca Treiman. ISBN 9780199324576. Abstract An understanding of the nature of writing is an important foundation for studies of how people read and how they learn to read. This chapter discusses the characteristics of modern writing systems with a view toward providing that foundation. We consider both the appearance of writing systems and how they function. All writing represents the words of a language according to a set of rules. However, important properties of a language often go unrepresented in writing. Change and variation in the spoken language result in complex links to speech. Redundancies in language and writing mean that readers can often get by without taking in all of the visual information. These redundancies also mean that readers must often supplement the visual information that they do take in with knowledge about the language and about the world. Keywords: writing systems, script, alphabet, syllabary, logography, semasiography, glottography, underrepresentation, conservatism, graphotactics The goal of this chapter is to examine the characteristics of writing systems that are in use today and to consider the implications of these characteristics for how people read. As we will see, a broad understanding of writing systems and how they work can place some important constraints on our conceptualization of the nature of the reading process. It can also constrain our theories about how children learn to read and about how they should be taught to do so. -
Ancient Writing
Ancient Writing As early civilizations developed, societies became more complicated. Record keeping and communication demanded something beyond symbols and pictures to represent the spoken word. This resource explores the early writing systems of four ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. You'll also learn about the Rosetta Stone, the 19th-century discovery that gave scholars the key that unlocked the language of ancient Egypt. Grade Level: Grades 3-5 Collection: Ancient Art, East Asian Art, Egyptian Art, Pre-Columbian Art Culture/Region: America, China, Egypt Subject Area: History and Social Science, Science, Visual Arts Activity Type: Art in Depth HOW ANCIENT WRITING BEGAN… AND ENDED As early civilizations developed, societies became more complicated. Record keeping and communication demanded something beyond symbols and pictures to represent the spoken word. This gallery explores the early writing systems of four ancient civilizations: Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Mesoamerica. Here you’ll also learn about the Rosetta Stone, the 19th-century discovery that gave scholars the key that unlocked the language of ancient Egypt. Why were writing systems developed? Communication – Sounds and speech needed to be visually represented. Correspondence – There was a desire to send notes, letters, and instructions. Recording – Bookkeeping tasks became important for counting crops, paying workers’ rations, and collecting taxes. Preservation – Personal stories, rituals, religious texts, hymns, literature, and history all needed to be recorded. Why did some writing systems disappear? Change – Corresponding cultures died out or were absorbed by others. Innovation – Newer, simpler systems replaced older systems. Conquest – Invaders or new rulers imposed their own writing systems. New Beginnings – New ways of writing developed with new belief systems. -
Writing Language
Writing language Linguists generally agree with the following statement by one of the founders of the modern science of language. Writing is not language, but merely a way of recording language by visible marks. Leonard Bloomfield, Language (1933) Some version of this is clearly true, as we can see by looking at the history of the human species and of each human individual. In both regards, spoken language precedes written language. Speech Writing Present in every society Present only in some societies, and only rather recently Learned before writing Learned after speech is acquired Learned by all children in normal Learned only by instruction, and often not circumstances, without instruction learned at all Human evolution has made speaking Evolution has not specifically favored easier writing Another way to express Bloomfield's point is to say that writing is "parasitic" on speech, expressing some but not all of the things that speech expresses. Specifically, writing systems convey the sequence of known words or other elements of a language in a real or hypothetical utterance, and indicate (usually somewhat less well) the pronunciation of words not already known to the reader. Aspects of speech that writing leaves out can include emphasis, intonation, tone of voice, accent or dialect, and individual characteristics. Some caveats are in order. In the first place, writing is usually not used for "recording language" in the sense of transcribing speech. Writing may substitute for speech, as in a letter, or may deploy the expressive resources of spoken language in visual structures (such as tables) that can't easily be replicated in spoken form at all. -
The Challenge of Chinese Character Acquisition
University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Learning and Teacher Education Education 2017 The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem Justin Olmanson University of Nebraska at Lincoln, [email protected] Xianquan Chrystal Liu University of Nebraska - Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub Part of the Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Curriculum and Instruction Commons, Instructional Media Design Commons, Language and Literacy Education Commons, Online and Distance Education Commons, and the Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons Olmanson, Justin and Liu, Xianquan Chrystal, "The hC allenge of Chinese Character Acquisition: Leveraging Multimodality in Overcoming a Centuries-Old Problem" (2017). Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. 239. http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/teachlearnfacpub/239 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. Volume 4 (2017) -
Learn to Read Korean: an Introduction to the Hangul Alphabet* Z
Proceedings of IPAC2016, Busan, Korea THEA01 LEARN TO READ KOREAN: AN INTRODUCTION TO THE HANGUL ALPHABET* Z. Handel†, University of Washington, Seattle, USA Abstract Here, for example, is the graph writing the word mǎ In the mid 15th century the Korean scholar-king Sejong meaning ‘horse’. invented Hangul, the native Korean alphabet. This was the beginning of a long process by which Hangul gradual- ly supplanted Chinese characters as Korea's primary writ- Figure 1: Oracle bone character for ‘horse’. ing system, a process which is still ongoing but nearly It’s sideways, but otherwise quite recognizable: we can complete today. This presentation will introduce the his- see the mouth, the eye, the mane, two legs, and a tail. torical and cultural background behind the invention of Here’s the modern form. Hangul and describe the systematic linguistic principles on which the script is based. The 1446 text that intro- duced Hangul proclaimed that it was so simple that “a Figure 2: Modern character for ‘horse’. wise man can master it in a morning, and even a stupid By the fourth century, Chinese characters had essential- person can learn it in ten days.” In this presentation we ly reached their modern form. As you can see, they have put this claim to the test by attempting to learn to read become highly stylized and conventionalized, losing their Korean in under an hour. pictographic quality. INTRODUCTION Early Korean Writing If you leave the convention center where IPAC’16 is It was this type of writing that was first encountered by held and have a chance to look around during your stay in the Koreans, as the expanding Chinese empire moved into Korea—you will everywhere see the Korean alphabet, an the Korean peninsula. -
World Writing Systems Other European and Middle Eastern Scripts a Large
Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction, 5th edition, Chapter 16: World writing systems, 1 World writing systems Other European and Middle Eastern Scripts A large number of alphabetic systems other than those of Greece and Rome evolved and flourished in Europe and the Middle East. In this Web site, we briefly present some of the ones that are of historical significance or interest. Runic writing Germanic tribes occupying the north of Italy developed an early offshoot of the Greek/Etruscan tradition of writing into a script known as Runic writing. This system emerged shortly after the beginning of the Christian era, and its developments were eventually found as far north as Scandinavia. Runic writing persisted until the sixteenth century in some areas before giving way to the Roman alphabet. Figure 1 illustrates some signs from one of the oldest known Runic inscriptions, which dates from about the third century A.D. The angular style of the letters arose because the alphabet was carved in wood or stone, the former especially not readily lending itself to curved lines. The script is read from right to left. Cyrillic script Another offshoot of the Greek script was created for the Slavic peoples in the ninth century A.D. The Greek missionary brothers Constantine (Cyril) and Methodius introduced a writing system for the translation of the Bible that is now known as Glagolitic script. A later development, which combined adaptations of Glagolitic letters with Greek and Hebrew characters, has come to be known as the Cyrillic alphabet. The current Russian, Byelorussian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian, and Bulgarian alphabets, as well as those used to represent many non-Slavic languages spoken in the former Soviet Union, have evolved from this early Cyrillic script. -
Writing As Language Technology
HG2052 Language, Technology and the Internet Writing as Language Technology Francis Bond Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/fcbond/ [email protected] Lecture 2 HG2052 (2021); CC BY 4.0 Overview ã The origins of writing ã Different writing systems ã Representing writing on computers ã Writing versus talking Writing as Language Technology 1 The Origins of Writing ã Writing was invented independently in at least three places: Mesopotamia China Mesoamerica Possibly also Egypt (Earliest Egyptian Glyphs) and the Indus valley. ã The written records are incomplete ã Gradual development from pictures/tallies Writing as Language Technology 2 Follow the money ã Before 2700, writing is only accounting. Temple and palace accounts Gold, Wheat, Sheep ã How it developed One token per thing (in a clay envelope) One token per thing in the envelope and marked on the outside One mark per thing One mark and a symbol for the number Finally symbols for names Denise Schmandt-Besserat (1997) How writing came about. University of Texas Press Writing as Language Technology 3 Clay Tokens and Envelope Clay Tablet Writing as Language Technology 4 Writing systems used for human languages ã What is writing? A system of more or less permanent marks used to represent an utterance in such a way that it can be recovered more or less exactly without the intervention of the utterer. Peter T. Daniels, The World’s Writing Systems ã Different types of writing systems are used: Alphabetic Syllabic Logographic Writing -
Phonology and Fieldwork in Nepal: Problems and Potentials KRISTINE A
Phonology and fieldwork in Nepal: Problems and potentials KRISTINE A. HILDEBRANDT Linguistics and English Language/The University of Manchester 1. INTRODUCTION One goal of this paper is to highlight some contributions that continued analysis of prosodic properties (specifically, tone and consonant phonations) of Sino- Tibetan (and Indo-European) languages spoken in Nepal can make towards a number of domains of linguistic inquiry, including: phonological theory, prosodic typology, models of contact-induced language change, approaches to sound change in a more general sense, models of sociolinguistic (socio-phonetic) variation, and also psycholinguistic aspects of tonal production and perception. Another goal here is to discuss the methodological and analytical challenges that fieldwork of this nature in Nepal presents to such contributions. Hopeful outcomes of this account include increasingly flexible and creative approaches to phonetic data collection as well as collaborative interaction on methods of data collection in these types of field settings, such that the findings are meaningful to broader domains of theory, typology and socio-linguistic research. 2. PROSODIC SYSTEMS OF NEPALESE LANGUAGES: ISSUES AND CONTRIBUTIONS Peter Ladefoged notes that phonetic description begins only once the phonological system of the language has been determined (1994: 13). With respect to the prosodic systems of Nepalese languages, it is in fact the case that the complexity of such systems cannot be fully appreciated until the phonetic details have been better understood, both in terms of category compositions and variation across speech communities and potential paths for change. A word on the definition of terms like ‘prosody and ‘prosodic typology’ in this account is in order first. -
EVOLUTION of WRITING Abstract
1 THE EVOLUTION OF WRITING Abstract Writing - a system of graphic marks representing the units of a specific language - has been invented independently in the Near East, China and Mesoamerica. The cuneiform script, created in Mesopotamia, present-day Iraq, ca. 3200 BC, was first. It is also the only writing system which can be traced to its earliest prehistoric origin. This antecedent of the cuneiform script was a system of counting and recording goods with clay tokens. The evolution of writing from tokens to pictography, syllabary and alphabet illustrates the development of information processing to deal with larger amounts of data in ever greater abstraction. Introduction The three writing systems that developed independently in the Near East, China and Mesoamerica, shared a remarkable stability. Each preserved over millennia features characteristic of their original prototypes. The Mesopotamian cuneiform script can be traced furthest back into prehistory to an eighth millennium BC counting system using clay tokens of multiple shapes. The development from tokens to script reveals that writing emerged from counting and accounting. Writing was used exclusively for accounting until the third millennium BC, when the Sumerian concern for the afterlife paved the way to literature by using writing for funerary inscriptions. The evolution from tokens to script also documents a steady progression in abstracting data, from one-to-one correspondence with three-dimensional tangible tokens, to two-dimensional pictures, the invention of abstract numbers and phonetic syllabic signs and finally, in the second millennium BC, the ultimate abstraction of sound and meaning with the representation of phonemes by the letters of the alphabet.