Halvi Script of Bastar and Odisha, invented by Bikram Soni

7/30/2019 Halvi Script of Bastar and Odisha, invented by Bikram Soni

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Bikram Soni , 40, a Master in History, playing stage drama, serving in acourt for his livelihood has invented script for Halvi language of BastarRegion of Chhattishgarh. His empirical experience on languages of tribalBastar is a rich resource for the state to make language planing like

using the languages for school education and to use the knowledge ofthe language for ecology and literacy.Bikram Soni is an amazingpersonality of capturing the multidimensional aspects of culture which isabsent among the practitioners of fragmented disciplines found in theacademicia. We discussed with Mr Soni and found his work is compatibleto any trained linguist who claim his authority over the theory. But Soni isa person who also knows the grammar of the language while knowing theknowledge of the language. In the context it is maintained.

His key article Halvi Schipt is presented to the global audience for anappreciation.

Mahendra Kumar MishraFolklore Foundation, India

Halbi Script gkych yfifTo create a new script or to accept a new script for any language is not a

new matter. In 1925 A.D. a new script 'Ol Chiki' was invented for Santhali

language by Pt. Raghunath murmu. Now 'Ol chiki' script is authorized script forSanthali. With this script Santhali has been recognized as a language in eighth

schedule of the constitution of India. The old script of Manipuri language Maitei

had been forgotten and Manipuri was written with Bangali script until seventhdecade of the last century. In 1980 A.D. Maitei script is recognized as authorized

script for Manipuri. There are so many scripts invented for tribal languages likeSaura, Gondi, kurux etc. Not only in India, but also in other countries thistradition of invention and acceptance of a new script for any language is

continuing. In 1928 A.D. Roman script accepted for Turkish language instead of

Arabic.

Halbi (Hulbie) is an Indo-Aryan language mainly is spoken by about

5,00,000.00 people as mother tongue and about 2,00,000.00 people as second


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language. Its variations are spoken outside Bastar in Maharashtra, Madhya spoken

in seven districts of Bastar region of Chhattisgarh state, India. It is a creole of

Marathi, Oriya and Hindi.

Halbi has the status of the language of wide communication in Bastar

region, where several other Indo-Aryan and Dravidian languages/dialects arespoken. It has traditional (oral) and modern (written) literature practices. Modernliterature goes back to the 3rd decade of the 20th century. Halbi is written with

Devnagari script, because Hindi language is the official language of Chhattisgarh

state.

Though Halbi is a creole of Marathi, Oriya and Hindi language, it should not

be recognized as a dialect of Marathi, Hindi or Oriya as per its present form. It

should be recognized as a separate language like Nepali. To develop it as aliterary language a separate script Halbi Script has been devised. This script has

been designed after linguistic study of old and present scripts of the world and

essential elements for an ideal script.

OriginWhy Halbi script?

Devnagri script is not used for any particular language/dialect, it is

used for several languages of India and Napal; Halbi too is written withDevnagari. In beginning I wanted to use Devnagari script for Halbi, but I found

that Devnagari and other syllabic scripts aren't sufficient to write the actual

pronunciations of Halbi words. If we use to write actual pronunciation of Halbiwords with Devnagari or with other Indic scripts, it causes to use a number of

'halant' vowel lesser signs or 'half' forms/glyphs of consonants to show pureconsonants. If we use any Indic script to write a word ends with a consonant, we

have to have an inherent vowel 'a' () at the end of a syllable unnecessarily.

There are some dialects related to Halbi are spoken in Odisha andAandhra Pradesh. The speakers of these dialects use Oriya and Telugu scripts to

write their dialects. That is why Halbi speakers of various states couldn't

communicate in writing with each-others. Another purpose of creating Halbi

script is to generate self respect and to promote writing and reading in Halbiamongst the Halbi speakers.

No other specific script had been projected for Halbi languagebefore the Halbi Script. I studied many syllabic and alphabetic scripts of Asia,

Europe and Africa. I also studied about characters/glyphs of the scripts invented

in the last century. I felt a need of a new alphabetic script for Halbi. In 1996 A.D.,I roughly created a new script which was totally different from this script. I didn't

satisfy with the new script. I worked on the formula:


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(a) The glyphs of Halbi letters should be modified forms of Devnagari letters,

so that the people who know Devnagari script, can learn it easily.

(b) Each glyph of the letters and diacritics should be simple drawing and

written in a single stroke. That will make ease writing fast.

(c) The script should have single type of letters for handwriting and printing,not like Latin and other European scripts.

(d) Consonants, Vowels and Vowel diacritics should be written as these areappear in the pronunciation in a word.

(e) Each consonant should be written everywhere as it is, but for nasal

consonant there should be option to write as 'Anuswar' sign (a point sign) likeother Indic scripts.

Finally, I created the Halbi script in 2006 A.D.. I used this script to writeall the things in Halbi for a year and discussed with Halbi literaters and speakers.

After that in 2007 A.D., I redesigned the glyphs. I searched for font makers in

India and abroad, but nobody helped me. In 2010 A.D. a young man Mr. Dheeraj

Das met me who was a resident of my hometown and proposed to make fonts forHalbi script. He kept his words. Now, he is a good friend of mine.

Characteristics of Halbi script are as follows:-

1. Direction of writing: left to write in horizontal lines.

2. The glyphs of Halbi letters have been derived from Devnagari letters,so that the people who know Devnagari script, can learn it easily.

3. Each glyph of the letters and diacritics is simple drawing and beingwritten in a single stroke.

4. Halbi script has single type of letters for handwriting and printing. In

this script people have to learn one sign for one letter, not likeLatin /European scripts - four signs/glyphs for each letter.

5. It is an alphabetic script, but it has vowel diacritics (matras) like otherIndic script to indicate dependent vowels. These diacritic signs/glyphs

of diacritics are unique features of Halbi script. These diacritics marks

always appear after the related consonant. This is why the order of

pronunciation and spelling of a word matches.

6. Halbi script has eight vowels and thirty two consonants. Vowels and

consonants which are not pronounced in Halbi are not included inHalbi script, because the words borrowed from other languages in


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Halbi are not pronounced as these are in original. e.g. - f, q and z are

always pronounced in Halbi as ph, k and j.

7. There is a short vowel 'a' () also in Halbi, but it could be shown byapostrophe mark if needed.

8. Halbi script has a sign/glyph (Anunasik/Chandrabindu sign) to indicatenasalized vowels like other Indic scripts.

9. Halbi script has also a sign/glyph (Anuswar/Bindu sign) to indicatein short nasal consonants.

10. There is no conjunct letter sign/glyph in Halbi alphabet.

11. Halbi script has a sign/glyph (Anunasik/Chindrabindu sign) to indicate

nasalized vowels.

12. All the punctuation marks are same as in Latin/English.

13. Mathematical symbols (plus, minus, percentage etc.) are also same as in

Indo-Arabic. It has its own signs for numerals, but Indo-Arabic numeralsigns could be used as option.

Used to write

The Halbi script is being taught to the people. Efforts are being made to

publish books in this script.

gkych vdNkjeKyK(Hlb kchrmala)Halbi Alphabet

1. LOj Eu(Swar man/Swr mn)Vowels

v A b " m ~ , | a i u e o


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2. eKrjK pfuK Eu 'd' Laxs(Matra china man 'k' (ak) sange/Matra china mn 'k' (k) sge)

Vowel diacritics with 'k'

dk dK df dh dq dw ds dSk ka ki k ku k ke ko

3. vuquKlfd pfuK(Anunasik china/nunasik china)Nasalization sign for vowels

W

4. vuquKlfd pfuK lOj Ajq eKrjK Eu Laxs(Anunasik china swar aru matra man sange/

nunasik china swr aru matra mn sge)

Nasalization sign with vowels and diacritics

vW AW bW "W mW ~W ,W |WkW KW fW hW qW wW sW SW5. c;kZTu Eu(Byanjan man/Byjn mn)

Consonants


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d [ x ? z g ;k kh g gh ng h yk akh ig ugh ek oh y

p N t > Z lch chh j jh ny/ sc/t ach/ath ij/id ujh/udh ec/

et

os

V B M < _ G h h /

ah i uh e o/o

r F n / u j yt th d dh n r lt at id ud ent or li Q c H e op ph b bh m w

p aph ib ubh emp ow

6. vuqloKj pfuK(Anuswar china/nuswar china)Sign for showing in short the nasal consonants

a

7. Xurf Eu(Ganti man/Gnti mn)Numerals


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0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 90 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

sn ek di teen chaar paanch chhai saat aat nawsun ek duy tn car/

tarpac/pat

chy/ty

sat a nw

Sample text

b;K xSB;KmWxSB] gkjfd-mnfe pS]nq[-MkaM pS]Ejuh-thouh pS]xf;Ku-/f;Ku pS]Auf-cKuf pS]AiyS xSB] AiyS HKlK us]eSds yKxS

eSpS dSuf AlSr Cyqu.

Transliteration

Iyaa gothhyaaungothh, harik-udim cho,dukh-dand cho,marni-jiwni cho,

giyaan-dhiyaan cho,aani-baani cho,aaplo gothh, aaplo bhaasaa ne,moke laagomocho koni aasot balun.


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Translation

Come, let's talk toabout pleasure and joy,

pain and sorrow,

death and birth,knowledge and informationand other several matters,our talking, in our language,so that I could feelthere is someone of mine.

-- Vikram Kumar Soni

e mail :[email protected]

[email protected]

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Halvi Script of Bastar and Odisha, invented by Bikram Soni