[WMASTERS] Selvaa's ideas

[George Hart <ghart@socrates.berkeley.edu>]

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I should like to applaud Selvaa's efforts -- I think it would be quite nice
if the Tamil writing system were modified to make it more flexible and
allow it to represent all the sounds that Tamilians actually use.
Admittedly, some of Selvaa's suggestions look ungainly -- I'm sure they
will not all be adopted exactly as he has suggested.  But Selvaa has
initiated a very important process, and we should all give it a great deal
of thought.  The fact is, making the Tamil alphabet more versatile can only
benefit the language.  Whether this is done by keeping the grantha
characters or replacing them, I don't care -- as I've said, I find the
grantha characters quite adequate and personally do not feel they need to
be replaced.  But I am willing to support any system that allows the sounds
of grantha (s, h, j, sh) to be represented in some reasonable fashion.  I
cannot support a system that simply removes them and does not allow one to
represent those sounds -- that would be a serious step backwards.

And I totally approve of Selvaa's idea with regard to voiced initial stops
(g, d, b).  I hope this will lead to serious discussion.  George Hart




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