Script and identity – the politics of writing in South Asia: an introduction

Finite-state script normalization and processing utilities: The Nisaba Brahmic library

“…Our library supports languagespecific customizations that can be combined with languageagnostic script logic. For example, the modern Bengali-Assamese script (Beng) is shared by both Bengali and Assamese languages, among others (Brandt and Sohoni, 2018). For both of these languages our library provides customizations, 6 such as the transformations required for visual normal ization of Assamese that transform Bengali let ter ra into its Assamese equivalent when it par ticipates in a consonant conjunct (which gener ally occurs when following or preceding virama, e.g., { র (U+09B0), ◌্ (U+09CD) } → { ৰ (U+09F0), ◌্ (U+09CD) }).…”

The Art of Not Being Scripted So Much

“…Current Anthropology Volume 61, Number 2, April 2020 region is a relatively modern phenomenon. The implementation of specific scripts as well as the rise of monoscriptality go back to the spread and dominance of particular religions, the emergence of modern geopolitical entities, standardization processes with the introduction of the printing press, and so forth (Brandt and Sohoni 2018). It is highly interesting to now see an ongoing process among some ethnolinguistic groups basically reminding us of an older state.…”

“…My contention is that there seems to be no agreement on which script should best represent "the Hmong," leading therefore to the persistence of multiscriptality (I thank Brandt for this most apposite term). Brandt and Sohoni (2018) pointedly remarked that monoscriptality has generally been a by-product of state appearance, central control, the press, and state religions, a well-known process leading commentator Stéphane Gros to think that the Hmong case is not so much a refusal of literacy as it is a rejection of cultural and political standardization. For Lonán Ó Briain, the Hmong's tactical refusal of a common script could be summarized in a bold statement: "We could do that if we wanted to, but we choose not to.…”

From Transcript to “Trans-Script”: Romanized Santali across Semiotic Media

“…Yet the work both of Androutsopoulos and of Wei and Zhu is predicated on an assumption of a monographic stability between language and script, as well as the unique potential of the online space to disrupt this stability. This understanding of "trans-scripting," I suggest, does not adequately address the sociolinguistic realities in highly diverse graphic environments such as South Asia, where the isomorphism between language and script is frequently contested and multiscriptality is ubiquitous even outside the sphere of digital media (Singh 2001;LaDousa 2002;Sohoni and Brandt 2018).…”