Ho Kaji

Standardizing Latin Ho Alphabet CONSONANTS: K G Ṅ (Ḱ) CH* J Ń (Ć) Ṭ Ḍ Ṛ T D N T́ P B M Ṕ R L S H Y (V) *CH better aligns with English pronunciation, and is used by Deeney, but C can be considered. Letters for Preglottalized consonants (Ṕ, T́) and the Glottal Stop (Ḱ, Ć) are taken from Bodding. Letters inside brackets are used only for etymological reasons, their pronunciation is no longer preserved in Ho. Retroflex Nasal is not phonemic, therefore not included. Y only occurs in medial positions, never in the initial and final positions. VOWELS: SHORT LONG NASALIZED SHORT NASALIZED LONG DISAMBIGUATION A Á Ã Ã́ Â E É Ẽ Ẽ́ Ê I Í Ĩ Ĩ́ O Ó Õ Ṍ Ô U Ú Ũ Ṹ Deeney uses a macron above to indicate long vowels, an acute accent is chosen here for aesthetic purposes. ÂÊÔ can be used either in dictionaries to indicate the weaker forms of AEO or to distinguish between words, for example, 'ka' (negative particle) vs 'kâ' Optative Mood marker, English word 'Era' vs Ho 'Êra

Alexander the Great 𑢶𑣁𑣜𑣁𑣊 𑢡𑣚𑣈𑣌𑣞𑣁𑣓𑣔𑣈𑣜 Herodotus 𑢹𑣈𑣜𑣉𑣔𑣉𑣉𑣑 Homer 𑢹𑣉𑣉𑣖𑣈𑣜 Archimedes 𑢡𑣜𑣌𑣂𑣖𑣈𑣑 Aristotle 𑢡𑣜𑣂𑣞𑣕𑣉𑣕𑣈𑣚 Hippocrates 𑢹𑣂𑣘𑣉𑣌𑣜𑣁𑣁𑣑 Plato 𑢡𑣘𑣚𑣁𑣕𑣉 Socrates 𑢾𑣉𑣌𑣜𑣁𑣁𑣑 Thales 𑢵𑣁𑣁𑣚𑣂 Pythagoras 𑢸𑣁𑣈𑣕𑣁𑣋𑣉𑣉𑣜 Xenophon Protagoras Euclid Epicurus Solon Demosthenes Diogenes Zeno Heraclitus Parmenides Anaximander Democritus Anaxagoras

 𪁵 𑣌𑣉𑣄, 𡳛 𑣂𑣎, 𨄴 𑣞𑣁𑣗, 䣷䣷 𑣎𑣉𑣎𑣉, 𨫈 𑣞𑣃𑣄 蛭 𑣞𑣂(𑣌𑣉), 拮 𑣙𑣈𑣎 鵶 𑣌𑣁𑣁𑣄  𩄎𑣋𑣁𑣖𑣁 𪖫 𑣖𑣃𑣁, 𠬠 𑣖𑣂𑣈𑣑, 眜 𑣖𑣈𑣑, 𩄲 𑣜𑣂𑣖𑣂𑣚, 𣈜 𑣞𑣂𑣊𑣋𑣂, 𠻼 𑣓𑣃𑣃, 𥙩 𑣚𑣂𑣂, 唿 𑣇𑣑,  𩙍 𑣙𑣉𑣈𑣉, 搛 𑣞𑣁𑣋𑣉𑣖, 撣 𑣕𑣈𑣍, 抌 𑣈𑣕𑣉𑣖, 搭 𑣔𑣁𑣗, 𩙻 𑣁𑣘𑣂𑣜, 𦊚 𑣇𑣘𑣃𑣓,  𩵜 𑣙𑣁(𑣌𑣉),  跿 𑣓𑣂𑣜, 蹎 𑣎𑣁𑣊𑣋𑣁, 𪀄 𑣞𑣂𑣖, 𤇪 𑣆𑣞𑣂𑣓, 𫇳 𑣎𑣃𑣖𑣃𑣜, 𡥵 𑣙𑣉𑣓, 𦙶 𑣙𑣉(𑣒𑣉𑣄), 渃 𑣔𑣁𑣄, 喂 𑣇𑣚𑣁, 𦞏 𑣞𑣉𑣈𑣁,  𣑶 𑣜𑣈𑣙𑣑, 𧋆 𑣜𑣉(𑣌𑣉), 𧤁 𑣔𑣂𑣜𑣂𑣊, 螓 𑣕𑣃𑣓𑣂𑣚, 瀸 𑣞𑣁𑣊, 𢱨 𑣇𑣍, 𩩫 𑣎𑣁𑣊, 吸 𑣙𑣁𑣗.

 Ever since I learnt that there are more affixes in Munda languages than a-, -n-, and -p-, I have been saddened by the fact that they have fallen out of common usage. Munda morphology has stagnated. Most speakers would be unaware of affixes like -r-, -t-, -m-, s-, r-, k- etc. What can be done to ensure the survival of these affixes? I am of the opinion that these affixes need to be integral part of orthography. I believe these will become more visible and productive if they have their own letters. Therefore, I have come up with some letters that can represent these affixes. The first infix is -n-, the shape of the infix is derived from bana:, a hook. Infix -p- is derived from tii sapab, to hold one another. Infix -t- is derived from mutul kuntu. Infix -m- is derived from lama: sakam. Infix -r- is derived from sakowa orong. Since Warang Chiti has two letters for the sound /s/, I think the second 's' can be used as the prefix s-. Infix -m- and -r- can also be used as prefixes.

This is certainly a strange question. There's no way tribal languages of Jharkhand can be related to Chinese script. While it is true that the Chinese language and script does not have direct links to the languages of Jharkhand, there are certain facts about the Munda languages that can be linked to Chinese characters. The Munda languages, which includes Santali, Ho and Mundari are a closely related group of languages that belong to the Austroasiatic family of languages. This language family also includes the languages like Khasi of Meghalaya, Khmer and Vietnamese among others. Since the Munda languages split from other Austroasiatic languages of Southeast Asia a very long time back, there is no historical memory among the Munda speakers about those communities. However, there are some words that are still found to be common in most Austroasiatic languages, for example, the word for child, is  កូន  /koun/ in Khmer, con / kɔn/ in Vietnamese, and होन् in Munda languages (this is beca

All major Munda languages of Jharkhand now each has its own script. It all started with Raghunath Murmu creating Ol Chiki for Santali, then came Lako Bodra's Warang Chiti for Ho, Ruidas Nag's Mundari Bani for Mundari, now Bhumij language also has a script called Ol Onol. I recently learnt that a smaller branch of Mundas who now reside in West Bengal, called the Kodas, too have developed a script called Nag Chiki. It seems to me that invention of scripts has become a hobby of the Munda people, not to mention the numerous scripts devised for Santali and Ho before they were rejected in favor of the currently used scripts. A common characteristic of these scripts is that they are alphabetic, except for Warang Chiti which functions as an alphasyllabary in some cases. Each of these scripts have some or the other deficiencies when employed to write Munda languages. As Abhishek Bilkan Aind has pointed out, alphabetic scripts like Ol Chiki and Mundari Bani are not perfect systems for w