Invention of PIOA - Part 3: Latin versus Devanagari

Hello Friends,

There was a big issue going on during those days. People everywhere were using Latin letters in chat, messages, advertisements, reminders, notebooks, emails, posters everywhere to write Indian languages...

Wait, what am I talking about? Am I still in a dream?

Oh god! I am still dreaming like a Devanagarist, why god, why?

Yes, dreaming like a Devanagarist, speaking like a Devanagarist, thinking like a Devanagarist... these are the few things that give an experience of being a Devanagarist.

Devanagari Alphabets are Arranged based on Phonetic Characteristics

Devanagari script is indeed a phonetic script for the Sanskrit language. The arrangement of letters in Devanagari is purely based on the phonetic character of the sounds represented by the letters. Labials are arranged in one group, dentals, retroflexes, alveolars, and guttural, each of them are arranged separately.

But there is a problem with the alphabet. This alphabet is less relevant in the case of Modern Indian Languages. The phonetic arrangement is no more logical in the case of the approximants. Especially the 'Ra' and 'La' sound. 'Ra' is considered Retroflex and 'La' is considered Dental, as opposed to their alveolar nature in the modern Indian languages.

Let me tell you about one thing, what's special in this Devanagari alphabet, and why do people appreciate this? Haris Mahmood, a graphics designer from Islamabad, Pakistan says that he loves its aesthetic beauty. There is a location called the 'Androon' (Hindustani for 'interior'; actual meaning: the old city) in the city of Lahore where Devanagari calligraphy can be seen. Whenever it is used along with the Urdu script, it creates a contrast and looks more beautiful. He has already used Devanagari three times in his artwork (available on Instagram, Facebook, and Youtube).

One more thing which makes Devanagari super cool is that it is generally linked to the ancient Sanskrit Language and the Indian heritage, its glorious past, its scientific achievements.

But the reality is that, although it is simpler than Urdu, it is still hard. There is much debate about whether the standardized orthography is appropriate for the Hindi language or not; how ligatures should be used and how numbers should be written.

There are two major groups of Devanagarists. The traditionalists and the reformists. Reformists in the Department of Hindi Language periodically revise the Hindi orthography. The traditionalists oppose all sorts of reforms. The people, especially the students studying Hindi in schools, colleges, or universities get confused.

I am not going to do an in-depth analysis of all these things. As a matter of fact, I wish to put forward certain points regarding the relevance of Devanagari itself.

• The reformists didn't solve the problem of the depiction of nasalization in Devanagari reformed orthography. Instead, it created more confusion regarding the positions of nasalization.

• The reformists never considered standardizing rules to transcribe Arabic and Persian loanwords properly in Devanagari characters.

• The traditionalists, in the name of rectifying the errors of standardization, are actually complicating the orthographic rules, which means, a confusion is unnecessarily created.

• The traditionalists don't understand that using some 'Bhaaratiya' (Indian) script has nothing to do with the real 'Bhaaratiyataa' (Indianness).

• The prominent traditionalists like to use Indian numerals wherever they wish, a clear violation of the international order where the European version of the Indo-Arabic numerals is required to be used.

• There were times when only linguists had to learn more than one script. Nowadays many people are residing in places outside their native region. That means, you need to learn more than one language, you need to learn more than one orthography. This will complicate the whole scenario.

Nevertheless, it was the very spirit of Devanagari which actually helped me create the PIOA alphabet. I am thankful to this script (and all the scripts similar to it). It wouldn't have been possible if there was no prior knowledge about Devanagari and interesting facts related to it.


I think this is enough for this post. More still to come. 'Invention of PIOA' series is followed by 'The Story of PIOA' series.