[Comments-kannada-oriya-telugu-08aug18] Review of the Odia proposal

[anindita sahoo]

I wish to write to the maintainers at ICANN to respond to the Proposal for an Oriya Script Root Zone Label Generation Request (LGR).
 
I happened to see this proposal through a friend's suggestion. I found certain things mentioned here are fundamentally flawed as far as Oriya/Odia as a language is concerned. Being a linguist and a native speaker of Odia, I wish to write a response to this proposal. 
 
However, I realize the deadline to send the response was yesterday. I was travelling, so could not send my response to you earlier than this. I request you to consider this mail now.

My response:
 
Example: Oriya script frequently uses “ଡ” (U+0B21), “ଢ” (U+0B22) as well as their respective allophones “ଡ଼”, and “ଢ଼”. In Oriya (Odia) script, these differ in use of nukta. Thus “ଡ଼” and “ଢ଼” as distinct letters are not allowed but their decomposed form i.e. “ଡ”, “ଢ” followed by Oriya (Odia) sign nukta (U+0B3C) can be used. Similarly, for allophones of other consonants like କ (U+0B15), ଖ (U+0B16), ଗ(U+0B17), ଚ(U+0B1A), ଜ(U+0B1C), ଫ(U+0B2B)nukta can be used.
 
The above given para in the original proposal caught my attention because of the wrong information it provides. The retroflex sounds “ଡ଼” and “ଢ଼” are NOT the allophones of "ଡ" and "ଢ". These are distinct consonants and "ଡ" and "ଢ"  should not be considered as the decomposed form of “ଡ଼” and “ଢ଼”. Rather they (“ଡ଼” and “ଢ଼”) deserve a special mention in the script because of their unique property and usage in the discourse.
 
The other wrong information that this proposal provides is the use of "କ", "ଖ", "ଗ", "ଚ", "ଜ" and "ଫ" with a nukta. My understanding about this language says this is an absurd suggestion. The above consonants have been originally there in the script and they do not have any allophone. So the inclusion of the nukta-ed version these consonants does not serve any purpose; rather it will create confusion to the speakers of this language (economy of grammar is compromised). 
 
As far as my understanding is concerned, this proposal would make things clumsy and complex for the learners Instead of simplifying it.  
 
Therefore, I request the maintainers to keep a note of my response and do the necessary changes in the proposal.

Sincerely,

Anindita Sahoo
Assistant Professor (Linguistics)
Department of Humanities & Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai
India
Ph. +91-44-2257-4534
Webpage: https://hss.iitm.ac.in/team-members/anindita-sahoo/ [hss.iitm.ac.in] <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__hss.iitm.ac.in_team-2Dmembers_anindita-2Dsahoo_&d=DwMFaQ&c=FmY1u3PJp6wrcrwll3mSVzgfkbPSS6sJms7xcl4I5cM&r=TXImqH3aa081rTlmfpke5098jkiNFEJyzc3wA5xsq1fXjN-MlTXo-7IZIDLzMQ2w&m=bYG8rdHYpH0cVdl_VzrNTMcKJpBirxUz6tp6MslnUhI&s=EySAQxzU6l1TFVT-W2B_i55lHsDTNHxrhQMEK2EIdPA&e=>
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