switching scripts

Peter Hook pehook at UMICH.EDU
Wed Apr 9 14:50:55 UTC 2003


VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
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Dear James,

        Adoption of a "foreign" script may reflect some desire on the part
of minority elites to maintain ethnic or regional distinctness in
situations where outright independence is inconceivable. Use of Roman in
particular may indicate a group's aspiration for modernity or its desire
for an ideal cosmopolis in which small populations are protected from
absorption by or assimilation into local hegemons. An interesting problem
in "sociopsychopoliticolinguistics"...

        All the best,

                Peter

On Wed, 9 Apr 2003, James Ward wrote:

> VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
> Editors:  Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
>           John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
> Details:  Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say: INFO VYAKARAN
> Subscribe:Send email to listserv at listserv.syr.edu and say:
>           SUBSCRIBE VYAKARAN FIRST_NAME LAST_NAME
>           (Substitute your real name for first_name last_name)
> Archives: http://listserv.syr.edu
>
> Dear Peter,
>
> Curious!  What stimulus could be making Roman letters the "script of
> choice"?  Urdu and especially the modified Uighur alphabet as used in
> Xinjiang demonstrate that variations in consonants and vowels can be
> symbolized pretty adequately with the use of new diacritics.  Wouldn't
> this indicate that the script choice embodies a changing cultural
> situation?  Is there some kind of desire to create distance from the
> prevalence of Urdu?  Or is it more or less a trend based on utility?...
>
> James
>
> On Tuesday, April 8, 2003, at 07:27  AM, Peter Hook wrote:
>
> > Dear James,
> >
> >         You will find that (in the Northern Areas of Pakistan) a similar
> > situation obtains with Burushaski (Nastaliq ceding to Roman) and with
> > (if I'm not mistaken on this - John Mock at UCSC is the expert) Wakhi.
> >
> >         All the best,
> >
> >                 Peter
>



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