Abstract
This chapter outlines the basic characteristics of Assamese orthography from the northeastern part of India. Some of the inconsistencies in the orthography that should be taken into consideration while providing beginning literacy instruction are highlighted. The main purpose of this work lies in reducing the inconsistencies between the written and spoken synchronic Assamese keeping in mind the issues pertaining to learners. It is found that Assamese phonology adopts different repair strategies in order to incorporate borrowed syllables and segments into its native phonotactic domains. However, such patterns and scientific insights are absent in the orthography used in the language which causes difficulties on the part of the learners. The phonological and graphemic consistency is more visible in English loan words than in Sanskrit loan words which have been regularized in Assamese in the course of time.
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I am grateful to the editors for their comments and suggestions on earlier version of this chapter. Correspondence regarding this chapter can be sent to Dr. Hemanga Dutta (hemangadutta1@gmail.com).
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Dutta, H. (2019). Assamese Orthography: An Introduction and Some Applications for Literacy Development. In: Joshi, R.M., McBride, C. (eds) Handbook of Literacy in Akshara Orthography. Literacy Studies, vol 17. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05977-4_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05977-4_10
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