Balti scripts

[Greg Cooper]

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Dear James,

Just a postscript in response to your reply: I've just submitted a PhD
thesis on issues in the development of a writing system for another minority
language in Pakistan (Kalasha). One of my chapters looks specifically at the
whole topic of alternative writing systems for minority languages across
that region of the world (Central and South Asia). There are many examples
of the employment of different (sometimes up to three or four) scripts for
particular minority languages. Sometimes it is synchronic variation,
depending on the countries in which various pockets of each language
community happen to reside, and sometimes it is diachronic variation,
depending on various social, political, religious and phonological factors,
all of which I have discussed in the chapter. Sometimes both categories of
variation come into play. If you would like more details, I can forward them
to you.

Regards,

Greg Cooper.


-----Original Message-----
From: South Asian Linguists [mailto:VYAKARAN at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU]On Behalf
Of James Ward
Sent: Tuesday, 8 April 2003 3:57 PM
To: VYAKARAN at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
Subject: Re: Balti scripts


VYAKARAN: South Asian Languages and Linguistics Net
Editors:  Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, New York
          John Peterson, University of Osnabrueck, Germany
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Thank you to both Peter Hook and Greg Cooper for your replies to my
questions about Balti scripts.  It was certainly a surprise to hear that
Roman letters are being used by younger writers.  My first impression
from the responses is that the scarcity of published works in Balti does
not necessarily indicate that there is not an active writing culture,
even if it is in a state of flux currently.  I suppose most of the
printed works are in Urdu.

I wonder if this is a fairly unique situation?  I can't immediately
think of any other "minority languages" which are in a social position
to switch among unrelated script systems in this manner.  Often there
will be instability of spelling in the languages of smaller communities
within nations that use different official languages.  This is only to
be expected if they haven't been standardized due to widespread print
media, but usually in those cases there isn't much question about which
alphabetic system to use.

Anyway, many thanks again for your responses.  They have given me food
for thought.

Sincerely,

James Ward