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The need and practicalities to encode the ‘Roman Script Santali’ In the universal character set – a protest against efforts to encode the ‘Ol Chiki’ i

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Page 1
To Dr.Deborah Anderson,
Department of Linguistics,
C/o. Deborah Anderson,
University of California
Berkely, Department of Linguistics,
1203,Dwinelle Hall,
# 2650,Berkley,
CA 94720 2650 USA.
Sub: The need and practicalities to encode the ‘Roman Script Santali’
In the universal character set – a protest against efforts
to encode the ‘Ol Chiki’ in the universal character set.
CONTENTS
1.
General Objection.
2.
Brief History of Roman Script Santali and its influence.
3.
Roman Script used for Santali.
4.
evidences showing the incompetence of ‘Ol Chiki’to become national or
international Santali Script.
5.
(i)Appendix –I showing examples of Santali phoneme.
(ii)Appendix – II showing ‘Roman Script Santali’ charcter set used for writing
in Sandal with respective Unicode number.
(iii)Appendix –IV(A) showing numerals with Unicode numbers.
(iv)Appendix –IV(B) showing punctuations with unicode numbers.
6.
Bibliography.
JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2561
L2/02-443
Dear Dr. Deborah
GENERAL PROTEST
There has been a secret effort to get the ‘Ol Chiki’ or the ‘Ol Cemet’ script for the Santal
language encoded in BMP (Basic Multilingual Plan) of universal multiple-octet coded
character set –ISO/IEC 10646 (i.e. Unicode standard) by some fundamentalist Santals.
We are vehemently opposed to this irrational extravagant proposal on the following
grounds:-
(i)
That the ‘Ol Chiki’ has been anew script for the Santali language for only
about thirty years. This script has been propagated by some urbanized
affluent fundamentalist Santals in opposition to the more ancient Santali
Script which the ‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman Script’ which has been
in use for writing the Santali language for more than a century (130 years)
now.
(ii)
That only negligible number of the total santal populations have any
knowledge of the ‘Ol Chiki’ script.
(iii)
That the handful devotees of the ‘Ol Chiki’ have not been able to develop
any worthwhile basic materials in the ‘Ol Chiki’ script acceptable
majority of the Santals.
(iv)
Heaven forbid but if the aforesaid negligible number of the total
population who are basically militant person or members of some militant
organizations are succeeded in thrusting ‘Ol Chiki’ on the majority of the
total santal population for writing Santali, the nemesis will automatically
fall upon the entire Santal community, as the Santals of the southern part
of the Santali speaking area of India, the Santal language of whom has
deflected {deviated} from the path of rectitude to a very great extent, have
been teaching and preaching the Script along with the deviated language.
As, such, the Santals are bound to be divided into two separate Santal
communities as northern & southern Santals being influenced by the
educational institution of respective direction.
The deflection or deviation is an outcome of the inferiority
complex which the then educated class of the Santal society suffered from.
They considered their mother language “Hor-Parsi” i.e. Santal language as
‘ under develop’ local language blindly,without caring for the rules of
Santal grammar already framed by their ancestors and codified by the
pioneers in the books of grammar. The inferiority complex deadened their
intellect, chilled their senses, de-based their souls and enervated them to
such an extent that they could not help following the other local language.
As a result, the language sometimes throws the addressee or the listener(s)
into total confusion about the intention of the speaker as to what he means
as at the time of reporting on (speaking about) somebody in particular for
the purpose of showing respect to him to a great degree, he is referred to
as double (person), particularly in southern part of the Santal language
speaking area.
It become very difficult on the part of the listener(s) understand as
to whether the reporting is in respect of a single respected person being
reported as two or two persons in reality. Because there is a peculiar
practice in Santal language to each other address each other treating each
one as “dual number” as detailed below within bracket:-
{Alin’=hum do / Aben=Aap(Tum)log do ; Alian’ak’=Hum donon
ka /Abenak={Tum}donon ka;as the case may be}at the time of
conversation between two persons of certain relationships namely,
between a father/ Mother of a Man/Woman and the Father-in-law/Mother-
in-law of the same man]woman i.e. between ‘sambandhies’ in whose case
all the members of their families included in their conversation even in
their absence, such as{Ale= hum log(of the speaker’s side)/Ape=Aap
log(of addressee’s side);Aleak=Hum logon ka(of the speakers
side;Apeak’=Aap logon ka(of addressee’s side); as the case may be or
Aboak=Humlogon ka(of both the side);Abo=Hum log(of both sides)} but
not at the time of reporting on an “in-law’, while they talk to each other
only for their spouses are also included even in their absence.
In contravention of this rule, the correct treatment of one person as
double(as two){Alin=Hum do, Aben=Aap log(Tum log)do ;Alinak=Hum
dono ka (Tum dono ka)} as the case may be, at the time of conversation
between two “in-laws” has been generalize in the southern parts of the
Santal language speaking area in pursuance of the other languages for the
purpose of showing respect to a great degree to himself and also to the
addressee. Moreover, at the time of reporting on one person (speaking
about one person) this treatment is wrongly extended. For example,
“Pandit Raghunath Murmu takin kin hijuk’ kana”= “Pandit Raghunath
Murmu is coming alone”. As such, the confusion (occurs). For you cannot
understand by the above sentence whether Pandit Raghu Murmu is coming
alone or (he is coming) accompanied by someone.
Apart from above the following mistakes are committed:-
(a) The southerner(s) while talking to sister’s son/maternal
uncle addresses(address) each other treating such one as dual
number(alin/aben) by following the rule which is in vogue between and
limited to “in-laws” only.
(b) They do not discriminate (They fail to discriminate)
while talking about animate and inanimate objects such as, “ Kun re adi
thora(katic culun)dak will not sink”. In place of Ban(bnag)they use Bae
which is appropriate for a living being, well the man will not sink”. There
are numerous instances, where in inanimate object are being unnecessarily
personified.
(c) (i)The suitability of words in a sentence is being over
looked, such as Hewa=Habituated, Parkao=habituated due to temptation,
“Unihor doe taram ‘hewa’ gea=That man is habituated in walking”, “Nue
kora do kuri recoe ‘parkao’ akana, onate mit’ tala noa ato tei hijuk’a”=
“This man is habituated in having nice time with the some girl, that is why
he visits this village frequently”, the southerners use ‘parkao’ in both the
places without caring for the inner meaning (suitability) of the word.
(ii) They do translate Hindi/Bengali words and the words of the
other languages into Santal language and use the same even in place of
existing words of a\santal language, without caring caring for the actual
meaning of these words, such as, “us baat ko lekar gaowale apose me
jhogor pore”{Hindi} =oikotha ta niye gram basira nije der themselves on
that matter. “{English}=”ona katha ‘idikate’ ato hor ako mudre {ako
talare} kaphariau{jhora/rete- pete}ko ehope ket’a.
idikate=talking something from one place to another. Here in place
of ‘idikate’ the existing word ‘Babot’(or ‘Barkhra’) is appropriate.
Of course, we have to change ourselves according to the need of
time (as the situation demands) but at the same time , it must be borne in
mind that if a basic structure of a language is changed, its backbone will
also be dislocated. In that case, the separate entity itself of the Santals will
be endangered.
A language is so flexible that it is subject to oscillation even in a
normal natural current of air i.e. language easily swerved being influence
by
the
other
languages.
As
such,
we
find
slight
difference/deviation/diversion/deflection of the same language in different
regions. The Santal language is also not an exception. Therefore, grammar
is required to arrest the language from being deviated. The deviated
language of the southerners falsifies the existing Santali grammar written
by P.O. Bodding.
The Santal language, that is “Hor-Parsi” is unique with its
spatiality, peculiarity, beauty and sweetness which are being perverted
rapidly in southern part of Santal language speaking area of India. The
perversion is so alarming that it cannot be set right easily. The people of
the southern part of the Santli speaking area are so much accustom to the
deviated language that they cannot understand what is right and what is
wrong. The Santal language of the southern part should better be treated as
“Santal dialect”.
The language can be saved only by strict pursuance of the rules of
grammar, which is possible through educational institutions, if of course,
uniformity is brought about and maintained by adopting the Santal
language of a particular area as standard for imparting education which is
considered up to the mark, namely of Godda district and its adjacent area
of Santal Parganas or alternately the Santal language which is being taught
in all educational institutions of Santal Parganas.
Different scripts such as Romans, Deonagri, Bengali etc. with
diacritical marks are use for writing Santal language, of course, Late
Pandit Raghunath Murmu of Orissa plagiarized a new script known as “Ol
Chiki” (Ol Chiki is stated to have been invented by Late Mangal Murmu,
village-Laujoda, P.O.-Hatbandra, P.S.-Rairangpur, Dist-Mayurbhanj) for
Santal language. His followers have been trying to spread the script among
the illiterates ones fomenting thus sentiments of common people stating
that it is there own script, the language cannot be promoted without “Ol
Chiki” though the said appeared to be on imitation of Roman script.
However, they have succeeded in getting it recognized by the government
of West Bengal for teaching and writing Santal language through “Ol
Chiki” by putting pressure on the government, say more than thirty years
ago but without fruitful result. In Bihar Deonagri script was recognized
before hand for writing Santal language a weekly journal known as “Hor-
Sambad” has been published formarly from Deoghar and now from
Dumka (S.P.) by government of Bihar (now the government of
Jharkhand, after the state came into being) through the Department of
Information and Public Relations. Roman script has not been recognized
by any state for writing Santal language still it is widely used for writing
Santal language in Santal parganas(Jharkhand), North Bengal,
Assam(India) and in Bangladesh. As such, it is obvious that because of
different opinions regarding common script for Santal language,
consensus could not be arrived at so far. In absence common script
harmonious development of a language is not possible and as an inevitable
consequence the North remains as North and the South as South due to
non compromising attitude of the Southerners with the fact (truth) as they
are habituated in deviated language and accepted the same as universal
truth. However, their open argument is this that language cannot be
promoted or flourished without its own distinct and distinctive script.
There argument is not correct, as English languages flourished to such an
extent that it is recognized as an international language though it has no
script of its own.
The script which is used for writing English language is Roman
script. Hindi (Language) has also got no script of its own. The script
which is used for writing Hindi is Deonagri script. Even then, Hindi has
become the National Language of India. Moreover, the sophisticated
families are not interested in sending their children for learning “Ol
Chiki”, in other words, they are not interested in promoting “Ol Chiki”.
Existing general education is more important for common people and they
should better strive for the same than wasting their time and energy in
learning the new script. So far the common script is concerned, it may be
observed that the fittest will survive.
Some so called broadminded people being influenced by Bharat
Seva - Shram Sangh, Sangh Pariwar and other Hindu Organizations (that
want to divide the Santals nay all the Adivasis on the ground of difference
of religion, language and culture and annihilate them in the long run)
harbor such thought in their minds that Santal Christian are no longer
Santals as they have left their primitive religion and culture. Of course,
they have left their primitive religion, superstition etc. but not their
surname, language and culture, which are indispensable condition for
being Santal. The religion cannot be an essential ingredient of ‘Santalism’
in a secular country like India. Santal language and culture have been
furthered to the present extent in northern region of Santal language
speaking areas is mainly due to Christian Santals for Christian
missionaries have been talking great interest in promoting Santal
language, literature and culture since the time immemorial, they started
their activities in India.
Introduction of “Ol Chiki” as common script for writing Santali
will expedite division of Santals into two separate communities and the
credit for dividing them will go to the protagonist of “Ol Chiki” who
cannot think independently without the aid and advice of Bharat Seva
Shram Sangh and other Hindu organizations.
N.B. :-Santali = English
In’ = I
Alin’ = We(two)
Ale = We (more than two)
Am = You (alone)
aben = You(two)
Ape = You (more than two)
Abo = We (you and we all).
Nui = This (animate object) Uni/Hani = (animate)
Noa = This (inanimate object) Hana = That(inanimate)
In’ak= My;Alin’ak= Our(of we two); Aleak’=Our(of we, more than
two);
Amak’ = Your(s)(of you alone); Abneak’ = Your(s)(of you two);
Apeak’ = Your(s)(of you, more than two); Aboak’ = Our(of you and we
all)
On the following pages we shall substantiate with evidences the
above mentioned disqualifications of the “Ol Chiki” script for encoding it
for the BMP Unicode Standard.
Brief History of Roman Script Santali and its influence
The Santals in India ,Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have been using the
‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman script’ since 1867 for writing Santali.
However, in the post independent area, Indian Santals of each state
(union), having being convinced by their urbanized affluent
fundamentalist Santals, that the Roman script is a foreign script and that to
use it for Santali would be an abomination to the trible Santals, began to
write Santali in the script of the respective state language (that is, the
regional language script) where they resided.
India does not have a common script or a common language for all
its state (unions). Here English is being used for interstate and state-center
communications. Each state has its own language with its own script. In
the post independent era, Santals residing in different states of India have
started using the state’s language script of their respective state to write in
Santali as rival/s to the ‘Roman Script Santali’. Consequently, the West
Bengal Santals have the Bengali Script Santali, Orissa have Oriya Script
Santali, Bihar and Jharkhand, Devnagri Script Santali. All these scripts are
state sponsored scripts, except in West Bengal where the Government has
been patronizing Bengali Script Santali, at the same time it has published a
Roman Script Text book for the Higher Secondary Education, namely,
HIGHER SECONDARY SANTALI SELECTIONS (PROSE AND
POETRY), Calcutta, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary
Education, 1976, only from recent years the West Bengal Government has
started sponsoring the “Ol Chiki” script as well. Nevertheless, these rival
scripts sponsored by different State Governments have not been able to
dislodge and eliminate the ‘Roman Script Santali’ since all the basic
materials for learning the Santali language are found exclusively in the
‘Roman Script Santali’. (See Appendix-V showing Bibliography of the
various books and magazines written in Santali using the Roman script).
In the present situation of rival Santal scripts one state’s Santali litrarature
is unfamiliar to the Santals residing in other states within India and those
living in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
This is not so with the ‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman
Script Santali’. The ‘Roman Script Santali’ is received and read by all
educated Santals residing in the different states of India and abroad in
Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. In our country, English (which is written
in the Roman Script) is the recognized language between the center and
the states and for interstates communications, resides, all the states teach
English as a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and in Universities
from the primary level. Hence the ‘Roman Script Santali’ is not an extra
burden on students, when one is familiar with the English alphabets. What
they need is to know the language and the Santali phonetic value which is
given to the Roman Script, which in most cases are close to that given to
English
(See
Appendix-I)
except
the
following
whose phonetic value can be
taught to a Santali speaking literate Santal familiar with English alphabet
within half an hour. One should keep in mind that no one pursuing formal
education in India can avoid learning English.
That the Roman script is an anathema rendering Santals
underdeveloped , as propagated by some fundamentalist nationalistic
social workers with a goal to assimilate the Santals into the mainstream of
Indian Society is a myth and a fraud. All the wealthy and the influential of
the main stream of Indian Society send their children to English medium
school for education and to Europe, America and Australia for higher
studies. The tribals of North East India in Misoram, Nagaland and
Meghalya use the Roman script for their respective tribals languages. This
tribals are the most advanced tribals and formally united compare to the
tribal Santal. The credit for their overall development and unity is because
of a common script for literature for their respective languages.
Our concern is the preservation, development and unity of the
tribal Santals who speak Santali but are scattered all over India,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through a common literature. To achieve
this noble goal, we consider the ‘Extended Script’ or the ‘Roman Script’
to be the most competent easiest tool to employ.
As has been said above that the Santals have been using the
‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman Script for Santali’ since the time they
were introduced to literacy. They have used this script for literacy
activities for 130 years. T o this extended Latin or the Roman Scripts,
phonetic values have been given in such a way that they produce all the
sounds a Santal produces in speech form. The sounds which the normal
Roman letters do not produce have been modified by using diacritical
marks as common with most linguistic groups using the Extended Latin or
Roman scripts. Here we would like to stress that the letters or scripts do
not produce any sounds themselves; they are sounds symbols or
representatives of that sound which a community assigns to them.
Roman scripts used for Santali
The major sound symbol or scripts for Santali are:
a, b, c, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, and y with its
respective capital forms.
There are ten(10) aspirants found in Santali speech sound and they
are symbolized by juxtaposing ‘h’ to the consonant associated with the
aspirants e.g. bh, ch, dh, dh, gh, jh, kh, ph , th and th (see Appendix-I
dealing with the Santali phoneme for the Roman Script Santali.
There are some diacritical marks in the
Roman Script Santali, which are used either above, or below or on the top
right hand side of a letter to symbolize sound values not represented by the
normal roman Script(see Appendix-II ). They are as follows :
The sign ‘_’hyphen is used under e and o of capital
letters to indicate the open vowel sound associated with the respective
vowels and without the hyphen sound below they indicate a closed sound
in Santali e.g. :
E , e = Indicates open vowel sounds, e.g. Er, er as ‘hare’ in
English.
E , e = Indicates closed vowel sounds e.g.Ekal, ekal as ‘hen’ in
English.
O, o = Indicates open vowel sounds, e.g. Ol, ol as ‘all’ in English.
O, o = Indicates closed vowel sounds, e.g. Onko, onko as ‘pole’ in
English.
(see Appendix-II )
The slanted hyphen ‘_’ which is called prime , is used
above N, n to symbolize a sounds not found in English , but in many
Indian languages. It’s sound is close to English eng as in ‘engine’ , Santali
‘Bin’ meaning ‘Serpent’ in English.
The sign dot is used under d, r and t indicate the
hardened sound of the respective vowels, e.g.
D , d e.g. Data here the D, d , has the sound value of English D,d
as in ‘Dog’.
R , r e.g. Ror, Kora. English does not have any sound close to
this but is heard
in pronouncing Chandigarh, in the last syllable ‘rh’.
T , t e.g. Taka, taka here T, t have the sound vale of English T, t
as ‘Torn’ in English.
The sign ‘.’ A dot above n i.e. n is used to indicate it’s
hardened sound coming through the nose. The sound has no independent
English equivalent and may come close to English ‘n’ as in ‘Long’ ,
‘song’ , e.g. gon, hongor in Santali.
(See Appendix-II )
The apostrophe ‘’’ sign is used in the top right hand
close to the letter c, k, p and t to both in capital and small letters to
symbolize the jerk or checked sound associated with these consonants
found in the Santali language, e.g. c’, k’, p’and t’ a sound which is not
heard in other languages other than the Mundari group of language , e.g.
lac’, mak’, ap’, ret’.
(See Appendix-II )
To indicate a nasal sound which are innumerable in
Santali the Roman Script Santali uses the tilde sign above letters with
which the nasal sound is associated . The letters are
with their respective capital forms. English does not have equivalent
sounds for these e.g.
etc.
(See Appendix-II )
As such the ‘Extended Latin’ or ‘Roman Script Santali’
needs the following script code for Information Interchange ISCII (IS) : a,
b, c, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, and y with it’s capital
forms , and the following diacritical marks ;
(See appendix-II & III )
This is a total of 28 sound symbols , 22 basic letters or
alphabets and 6 (six) diacritical marks .
Combining these sounds symbols along with the usual
punctuation symbols as used in English (See Appendix –I & II ), namely,
All Santali words with their sounds are thus
conveniently represented.
Our Computer Engineers tell us that all these sounds
symbols necessary for writing Santali in ‘Extended Latin’ or ‘Roman
Script’ have already been encoded in the BMP Unicode Standard. They
only need is to put them together for the Santali language.
(See Appendix-II & III presented with Unicode number )
The Roman script Santali uses the Arabic numerals – 0,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 [See Appendix –IV(A)presented with Unicode
Number]. The roman script Santali letters and diacritical marks and
numerals in most cases , correspond with the English keyboard letters and
numerals.
[See Appendix-IV(B)]
The ‘Extended Latin’ script or the ‘Roman Script
Santali’ in India , Bangladesh and Nepal has all the basic materials for
developing the Santali language and literature uniformly for all Santals.
The script has no territorial boundary, whereas the State language script in
which Santali is also written has its influence only within the territory of a
particular state. Every state government in India teaches English from
class-I standard. From this point of view also the ‘Roman script Santali’
has greater advantage in terms of a common Santali literature. All literate
Santals in every state can easily read and write the ‘Roman Script’ or the
‘Extended Latin’ script Santali by virtue of their familiarity with English.
The Santals of Bangladesh and Nepal will also share extra effort for
learning a new script.
Therefore, we humbly request you to help us in entering the ‘
Extended Latin Script’ or the ‘Roman Script Santali’ into BMP Unicode
Standard.
II Evidences showing the Incompetence of ‘ Ol Chiki’ to become
National or International Santali Script
The ‘Ol chiki’ or the ‘Ol Cemet’ being a recently
invented script with a motive to counter the ‘Extended Latin’ i.e. the
‘Roman Script Santali’has only minimal influence among literate Santals.
A few Santals demand to the West Bengal Government to implement the
‘Ol Chiki’ in the education curriculum of West Bengal is based only on
emotion and not on reality. The group’s claim that the ‘Ol Chiki’ is rich in
Santali literature is false and malicious. Below we give the comments of
eminent scholars and prominent figures on the feasibility of Santali in the
‘Ol Chiki’ script in schools, colleges, and at the University level.
The committee on Santali language to examine and
review the feasibility of introducing teaching of Santali Language in the
‘Ol Chiki’ script in Secondary and Higher Secondary appointed by the
West Bengal Government (vide Resolution No. 57-CMS dated March 5,
2001) has expressed the fear that if the ‘Ol Chiki Script’ is imposed on the
Santals of West Bengal many educated Santals literate in other scripts will
suddenly become illiterate in Santali.
( The Report of the committee on Santali Language,
Government
of West Bengal, dated May 13, 2002, p. 51,
Recommendation-I )
Dr. R.K. Bhattacharya, Director of the Anthropological
Survey of India , in a letter No. RKB/2002, dated May 13, 2002 says the
following:
I am apprehensive about the presence of adequate infra
structure (e.g. trained teachers in Ol Chiki script to shoulder the
responsibility of a large primary student population, which is spread in
many districts of West Bengal, besides , non-availability of standard text
books )….
I have my doubts about hoe beneficial will be the introduction of
Ol Chiki script in studying Santali language in the context of
contemporary time…
[Quoted from Report of the Committee on Santali
Language(Government of West Bengal), Dated May 31,
2002, p.136].
Mr. Animeshkanti Pal(Ex-Professor, Midnapur College and Rabindra Bharti
University) makes the following comments :
In my opinion introduction of Santali (in Ol Chiki Script ) is not presently
feasible as adequate study materials are not available Ol Chiki Script. Such
materials may not be available in near future either.
[para 2(a)]
…Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and also Assam besides West Bengal should together
take a decision about Ol Chiki Script. West Bengal can not take a unilateral
decision in this matter. Bangladesh is also involved with nearly 8 lakhs of Santali
speaker in its Northern area.
[para 2( c)]
…At present Santali litrature is found in Roman, Bengali, Devnagri and Oriya
scripts…
[para 3(b)]
(Quoted from op.cit.,pp.137-138)
Peter B. Anderson, University of Copenhagen, Department of History of Religions
Artillarivej has the following comments on ‘Ol Chiki’:
…According to my on observation, the only script in which there is a wide spread
literary among adult Santals in West Bengal is the Bengali script. My on
experiences are limited to the southern and western parts of West Bengal,
however, I have heard that in other parts of West Bengal the Roman script has a
similar position among the Santals, but I have no personal experience from those
areas and my only suggestion is that any script commonly non among the grown
up Santals is the one to be recommended.
At present the Ol Chiki is not to be recommended as a medium for school
education as there has not yet been created any wide spread adult literacy in Ol
Chiki among the Santals.
(quoted from op. cit.,p.130)
Dr. Arun K. Ghosh, Reader, Department of Bengali, University of Burdwan pointing out
anomalies present in the ‘Ol Chiki’ Script makes the following comments :…
…when the question of script in case of unwritten languages arises it should be
dealt with logic and sense of practicability, our survey reveals that out of twenty
lakhs odd Santals in West Bengals almost 75% do not vote for Ol Chiki… As for
the script, most of them either do not have any knowledge about the script or do
not accept it as a possible medium of instruction, particularly at the Madhyamik
Level and beyond. Even in the southern region, the cradle of Ol Chiki , a good
percentage of people have heard about it but do not feel attracted by the script. So
from the standpoint of acceptability it does not reach even 50% of Santal
population in West Bengal…
…We should also be cautious that whether the introduction of the script for
appeasing a minority section of the people will push the whole people to a century
backward for whom the script is being introduced.
(Quoted from op. cit.,pp.142-43)
T. Hembrom, an Eminent Santal Educationist and Author has mace the following
comments on this new Santali script ‘Ol Chiki’.
…in West Bengal the issue of Santali script was further complicated by the
Government when in 1979 it recognized ‘Ol Chiki’ Script for publication of
Santali literature. The Government of West Bengal might have received some
additional votes in lieu of this grace at the time of election, but the ‘Ol Chiki’
script has remained as an abnormally born baby still in an incabator all through
these last twenty years.
(Quoted from op. cit., p. 209)
Dr.D.P. Pattanayak,formal Director, CIIL and Eminent Sociolinguist and Educationisrise
the following on the fate of ‘Ol Chiki’ :
The Academy of Tribal Dialects and Culture in 2001 did an impact study of the
30 schools where Ol Chiki was introduced on an experimental basis in 1992. The report
is not available yet. But the overwhelming impression of the parents, teachers, students is
that the experiment has failed. No strategy has been worked out to provide transition for
Ol Chiki. To Oriya and from Oriya to Ol Chiki. A lack of trained teachers, lack of
teaching learning materials, lack of incentive, lack of parental interest have contributed to
this failure.
(Quoted from, op. cit., p.134)
Report of The Committee On Santali Language
(Government of West Bengal)
Kolkata, May 31, 2002 :
The report on pages 45-46 has made the following comments on the aspect of print
technology of ‘Ol Chiki’ showing its incompetence in printing activities. Its question is
we quote :
(i)
Are there all kinds of options of ‘fonts’ and sizes available for the printing
script? That is, are there bold types, italics, other such variety of fonts, and a
scope of ‘artistic’ variations ? Roman has a profusion of such options, and
Indian scripts have quite a few.
The committee was not able to elicit a clear idea from what it has studied. It
thinks that the promoters of Ol Chiki should pay some attention to this.
(p.45)
(ii)
Are there many options of sizes also? Can the types be very big and very
small(say 8 or 10 pts.) and several sizes in-between?
What the Committee examined from printed samples did not convince it that
Ol Chiki could be printed in very small size, which is needed for footnoting
and other such purposes.
(p.46)
On the “Aspect of Social Acceptance” the Committee comments:
The Committee was led to conclude that Ol Chiki is yet to attain a total acceptance by
Santals living in West Bengal. In spite of the very vigorous efforts by its promoters, users
of Ol Chiki in real life are not more than 20% of literate Santals. Even this may be a
liberal estimate. The Committee has been provided with a list of books an generals and
other materials published in Ol Chiki by ASECS for which it thanks the organization, but
compare to what has been and are being published in Bengali, Devnagri or Roman, the
list is rather small.
(p.46)
The Committee also does not have the courage to hope that by recognizing Ol Chiki in
West Bengal, it can inspire all Santals living every where to accept the script as the only
script for there language. Neither can any Government do that. It there for rests on the
Santal leaders and intellectuals to arrive at a consensus on the use of Ol Chiki for every
Santal living in the country and abroad. However the fate of the Pakur Conference held in
1973(which recommended the Roman alphabet) raises a cloud oh cloud on such
prognostications. (Ibid).
(Quoted from op. cit.,pp.45-46)
Resolutions adopted at the Inter-State Seminar, Pakur held on 19
th
,
20
th
and 21
st
January, 1973 for the protection, Preservation and
Development of Santali Language, Literature and Culture says the
following :
It has been observed that in writing Santali four different scripts- Hindi, Bengali,
Oriya and Roman- are in use, in this time. Hindi is used mostly in Bihar and
similarly the use of Bengali and Oriya scripts is limited to West Bengal and
Orissa. The delegates do not know for certain whether Assamese script(which is
almost similar to Bengali script) is used in Assam or not. With great concern the
Santals are watching how involved are the different major language groups in
there own controversy. We Santals ourselves do not want to involve in any way
with such controversy. We are a peaceful people.
The Santals lived not only Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, and Tripura states
of India but they also reside in large numbers in the neighboring countries of
Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Bangladesh. The Santali language is, therefore, by
virtue of its very existence over so many countries and on its own right can claim
to be an international language. As such a script which could meet the demand of
such a language should be more suitable and the only answer to such a situation is
the use of Roman script.
SANTALI is being written in Roman script for more than 100 years.
Whatever development has so far been made in Santali language and
literature has been done through Roman script. Santali Dictionary,
Grammar and books have been written in large numbers in Romans script.
The International Phonetic Association has recognized Roman script as the
only script which is perfect on these lines. In order to express the peculiar
pronunciation and phonetics of Santali language, the Roman script has been
re-oriented for this purpose by means of diacritical marks…
It is therefore, resolved, that the Roman script which has been already been adopted and
is in the use in the different examinations of the Board of Secondary Education at the
Universities be given its due reorganization and Santali language and literature be given
its full scope for its proper development and perfection.
(Quoted from op.cit.,p.186)
In the light of the above mentioned blemishes, defects and literate Santals’ reservation
about accepting the ‘Ol Chiki’ for the Santali language as has been pointed out by the
eminent persons, educationists and the government official involved in the field of the
field of education, we request you in this age of globalization to kindly ignore the
fundamentalist minority group of Santals requesting you to encode ‘Ol Chiki’ or the ‘Ol
Cemet’ in B.M.P.(Basic Multilingual Plane) of Universal Multiple-Octet Coded
Character Set-ISO/IEC 10646 and nullify all initiatives taken in favor of the ‘Ol Chiki’ if
any by you. And instead we humbly urge you to standardized the usage of the ‘Extended
Latin’ or ‘Roman Script Santali’ utilizing existing Unicode Characters Set as we have
shown in Appendices I to IV and kindly to publish a notification for the standardization
of the ‘Roman Script Santali’ in the Unicode Standard. In closing we reiterate that the
‘Roman Script Santali’ has a universal application in our age of globalization to save the
santali language for the Santals and all others interested in Santali residing in India,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan rest of the world.
Thanking you
Yours faithfully,
(MR. DIVYENDU TUDU RASKA)
President, T.O.R.C.H.(TRIBAL AND OTHER RURAL CULTURAL HOUSE), KALAPATHAR
P.O.-Kalapathar,VIA-Chakulia, DIST-East Singhbhum(Jharkhand), India.
Founder Member and General Secretary of SANTAL
SANSKRITIC SOCIETY,
RANCHI(Jharkhand)
MR. ARCHER ANTHONY MARANDI
General Secretary, T.O.R.C.H., Kalapathar
P.O.-Kalapathar, VIA-Chakulia, DIST-East Singhbhum (Jharkhand),India
Dated 30 November, 2002
Encls : 1
Copy Report of the Committee on Santali Language (Government of west of
Bengal), May, 31, 2002.
2
bibliography of the various books and magazines written in Santali using the
Roman script.
3
Recent issue of Santali magazines written in Roman script e.g. ‘Jug Sirijol’,
‘Marsal Tabon’, ‘Hirla’, ‘Pera Hor’ etc.
Appendix-I
Example of Santali Phoneme
A
a
=
‘Am’ means ‘you’ in English and pronounced as ‘a’ in English ‘Army’.
E
e
=
‘Eskar’ means ‘alone’ in English and pronounced as ‘e’ in English ‘Net’.
I
I
=
‘Itil’ means ‘Fat’ in English, and pronounced as ‘i’ in English ‘India’.
O
o
=
‘Oda’ means ‘moist’ in English, and pronounced as ‘o’ in English
‘Ozone’.
U
u
=
‘Ul’ means ‘Mango’ in English and pronounced as ‘oo’ in English
‘school’.
______________________________________________________________________________
B
b
=
‘Botor’ means ‘Fear’ in English, and pronounced as ‘b’ in English ‘ball’.
C
c
=
‘Coilo’ means ‘pointed’ in English, and pronounced as first ‘ch’ of
‘Church’ in English.
D
d
=
‘Dokan’ means ‘Shop’ in English, and pronounced as ‘th’ in English
‘there’.
G
g
=
‘Gol’ menas ‘to whistle’ in English, and pronounced as ‘G’ in English
‘God’.
H
h
=
‘Hoho’ means ‘to call’ in English, and pronounced as ‘h’ in English
‘hall’.
J
j
=
‘jo’ means ‘fruit’ in English, and pronounced as ‘j’ in English ‘job’.
K
k
=
‘kolom’ means ‘pen’ in English, and pronounced as ‘c’ in English
‘column’.
L
l
=
‘Lolo’ means ‘hot in English, and pronounced as ‘L’ in English
‘London’.
M
m
=
‘Merom’ means ‘goat’ in English, and pronounced as ‘m’ in English
‘memorandum’.
N
n
=
‘Nehor’ means ‘request’ in English, and pronounced as ‘n’ in English
‘Nomad’.
P
p
=
‘Parkom’ means ‘cot’ in English, and pronounced as ‘p’ in English
‘population’.
R
r
=
‘Ran’ means ‘medicine’ in English, and pronounced as ‘r’ in English
‘rural’.
S
s
=
‘Sojhe’ means ‘straight’ in English, and pronounced as ‘s’ in English
‘soil’.
T
t
=
‘Tumdak’ means ‘drum’ in English, and pronounced as ‘t’ in English
‘Tazikistan’.
V
v
=
‘jivi’ means ‘soul’ in English, and pronounced as ‘w’ in English ‘wind’.
W
w
=
‘Nawa’ means ‘new’ in English, and pronounced as ‘w’ in English
‘water’.
Y
y
=
‘Toyo’ means ‘jackal’ in English, and pronounced as ‘y’ in English
‘yoyo’.
ASPIRANTS
DIACRITICAL MARKS
Santali
Diacritic
al
marks
Word
In
Santali
Meaning
In
English
Pronunciation in English
A a
Kami
Work
Pronounced as ‘u’ in Mummy
D d
Kada
Buffalo
Pronounced as ‘d’ in Canada
N n
Jondra Maize
Pronounced as ‘n’ in Sundry
Santali
Aspirants
Word in
Santali
Meaning in
English
Pronunciation in English
bh
bhagwa Loin cloth Pronounced as ‘v’ in English ‘vagabond’
ch
chatka
Court yard Pronounced as ‘tch’ in English ‘hotchpotch’
dh
dhabre
Broad foot No equivalent sound in English. It sounds as ‘dh’
in Gandhi.
dh
dhol
Drum It sounds as ‘dh’ in Dhaka, the capital of
Bangladesh.
gh
ghat
Sin Pronounced as ‘gh’ in English ‘ghost’.
jh
jhali
Net Pronounced as ‘jh’ in Hindi ‘jha jha’,
‘Jharkhand’.the sound not found in English.
kh
khalak
Large leaf
cup
Pronounced as ‘kh’ in English ‘khomeini’.
Ph
phen
Parable Pronounced as ‘f’ in English ‘fan’.
th
thamakur
Tobacco Pronounced as ‘th’ in English ‘Thailand’.
th
thenga
stick English has no equivalent sound.
R r
Gar
Fort
Pronounced as ‘r’ in Chandigarh
T t
Taka
Rupee, money Pronounced as ‘t’ in Toyota
N n
N n
E e
Ron
Kirin
Etom
Color
To buy
Right
hand
side
Pronounced as ‘n’ in song
Pronounced as ‘n’ in French
Pronounced as ‘a’ in Jam
O o
Ol
Writing
Pronounced as ‘O’ in London
A a
Kara
Blind
No equivalent sound in English
P p
K k
T t
Cahap
Ak
at
Open mouth
Bow
lost
No equivalent sound in English
No equivalent sound in English
No equivalent sound in English
C c
lac
stomach
No equivalent sound in English
Appendix-II
‘Roman script Santali’ Character Set
used for writing in Santali
with respective Unicode Number
---------------------------------------------------
A
0041
B
0042
C
0043
D
0044
E
0045
G
H
I
J
K
0047 0048 0049 004A 004B
L
M
N
O
P
004C 004D 004E 004F 0050
R
S
T
U
V
0052 0053 0055 0056 0045
W
Y
0057 0079
a
b
c
d
e
0061 0062 0063 0064 0065
g
h
i
j
k
0067 0068 0069 006A 006B
l
m
n
o
p
006C 006D 006E 006F 0070
r
s
t
u
v
0072 0073 0074 0075 0076
w
Y
0077 0079
Appendix-III
COMBINING DIATRICAL MARKS WITH UNICODE NUMBERS
Õ
0301
0303
0307
031B
0320
0323
0331
0341
Example :
à > 00C3 where A > 0041 a > 0061
ã > 00E3 Õ > 0303
N > 1E46 where N > 004E n > 006E
n > 1E44
O
> 0323
> 1E44 where O > 0307
> 1E45
> 1E5A where R > 0052
> 1E5B r > 0072
Appendix-IV(A)
NUMERALS WITH UNICODE NUMBERS
0
1
2
3
4
0030
0031
0032
0033
0034
5
6
7
8
9
0035
0036
0037
0038
0039
Appendix-IV(B)
PUNCTUATIONS WITH UNICODE NUMBERS
:
=
.
/
,
003A
003D
002E
002F
002C
(
)
‘
“
!
0028
0029
0027
0022
0021
;
?
003B
0038
Copy forwarded for information and necessary action to :
1.
ISO
2.
BIS
3.
C-DAC, National Resource Center, Bio-Informatics Center, 1
st
Floor, Pune
University Campus.
4.
Dr. D. Anderson, University of Copenhagen, Department of History of
Religions Artillerivej.
5.
M. Everson, C/o. Unicode Consortium

.
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