Posted by: naivelyStupid June 27, 2009
Open challenge to all NEWARS!!! Do you know about Ranjana ??
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I feel that there is nothing special about writing your name using the Ranjana script or for that matter any other scripts that you've mentioned. They are all variants of the Brahmi script and were used to write several languages including Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit etc in our region at some points of time in the past and also at present. Since it has almost the same set of alphabets as the Devanagari script, I won't have any problem writing my name using this script. What is the challenge here?? If you meant learning to use the script to write in everyday use, then that's a different thing.


Scripts are a matter of identity, however I'm not so fond of the ways in which modified sets of symbols representing the same alphabet set were brought into use and promoted in specific regions of the subcontinent in the past for no obvious reasons (such as the fundamental limitations in representing language specific sounds). It might have happened in the past because of geographical isolation and parallel development but that does not appear to be the natural course of development in the future. Anyway, I would not be too obsessed with the technical (writing script) aspect of the language's use, what's natural is the spoken part and it's inherent style of expression, and what's important is its usability and popularity. Once you decide a set of alpbhbets to write it, I would not see the set of symbols as a massively important 'natural' aspect of it, unless the set was unique in the sense of being able to represent specific sounds not found in the other languages. Sometimes I find some positive things in the Chinese system of writing. At least, any written document would be intelligible to everyone irrespective of the language spoken.

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