Dear All,
We are Indians, we are proud of our heritage and our languages. However, the Internet understands widely only a single script, that being Roman(English) script.
- Problem with Spelling
Most of us that want to write Hindi(or other regional language) end cooking-up our own spellings for Hindi words. This sometimes is hard to understand, or sometimes is plain absurd. Also, we have umpteen english spellings for the same hindi word.
Take a look at our movie names, for an example.
- Problem with Special Words
We have special words in hindi like aa(how do I write it now) etc that don’t have a corresponding symbol in the english alphabet. We end up doubling the vowels to get desired effect. This sometimes leads to confusion.
You must be knowing the famous’zh’ for Tamil or Malayala LHA. PuLHA is written as Puzha. -> This is called adaptation. Now, we have no problem what-so-even in understanding Puzha, because the spelling is formalized and known by all.
I think, the way internet spreads, we need to do something about saving our national language, lest it be lost coz it can’t be written in English.
A. Don’t argue about a new hindi-font.
These things don’t work. Look at the reviews here, for example. There are reviews in which people have written Hindi words in English script. If we had a formal way to do it, that guy whom-so-ever wrote the review could have done it better, in a way you and I would understand, rather than spinning his own spellings.
B. Be passionate about your language please
Don’t let our heritage die down. If need be, we can definitely have a hindi(or your local language) font. Let’s not lose our language just because we can’t write it in Roman(English) script.
Let me know if anything can be done about this.
Sincerely,
Arvind