A Script For Everyone

There are about 7100 living languages in the World and out of these only about 3900 have their own scripts. It means about 3200 linguistic communities don’t have any means to read and write. Many languages have vanished and many are vanishing because their sole speakers leave no written record. Another unfortunate thing is illiteracy – many people born in any linguistic community having script could not learn to read and write. Finally we have individuals living in a linguistic community having a script but they are in some way physically challenged that they and other people are not able to communicate properly. They may have their special script but others are not so well trained in special scripts meant for challenged individuals. The difficulties are not only for them but also for their families, friends and anyone coming in their contact and wishes to communicate something. What is the main problem? Why communities failed to develop their script? Why individuals fail to learn reading and writing? My conjecture is that there is some genuine difficulty in associating about 30 sounds of letters of an Alphabet with about 30 symbols or figures of those letters. We can develop some other means to associate sounds in some kind of easily understandable way. The people may be told to pay attention to our mechanism of sound production and they may agree that sounds we produce come from different parts of our palate and our tongue touches or rests at different places and we press tongue and blow out air for some sounds. In this way not very accurate but workable divisions of sounds can be made. These levels of sound production as we perceive can be utilized to develop different non-vocal communications- scripts for writing and touch scripts and sign language and others. The children may quickly learn levels and sounds and learn to make signs and touch script and intimate communications as outlined below. It must be understood that we are trying to express sounds as are spoken and not the spellings in any written language. First level of sound production: Our first level of sound production is that of our lips. We speak P, M and B through our lips. We speak P from left corner, B from right corner and M from middle. Making script for sounds of first level: We may put a single dot for sounds produced at first level. ◦) This will denote sound of P- the left sound from first level of voice production. ◦ By putting a small line we will denote sound of M – the sound that is produced from middle of lips – the first level of voice production. (◦ This will denote sound of B produced by right end of first level of voice production. Developing Touch Script for visually challenged people: We will need two sets of pins: one T shaped pin denoting 1 and other Trident a triplet of pins denoting 3. To denote sound of P we will fix T shaped pin with left slant / To denote sound of M we will fix T shaped pin without any slant __ To denote sound of B we will this pin with right slant \ Developing gesture script (Sign language) for vocally and hearing challenged people: To show sound of P we will touch left side of our head. To show sound of M we will touch middle of our head. To show sound of B we will touch right side of our head. Night Signals: The sign language may be used to communicate in night. We will use a torch with transparent plastic strips of various colors usually in sequence of starting from white then according to VIBGYOR. In each strip, there will be from left to right, a left pointing triangle then a circle in the middle and then a right pointing triangle. The top strip of white light will denote P, M and B. The left triangle will denote P, the middle circle will denote M and right triangle will denote B. Second Level of voice production: Our tongue touches the back of teeth and we produce soft t, N and soft d. Making script for second level of voice production: ◦◦) two dots left side will denote ta ◦◦ two dots underlined will denote N. (◦◦ two dots on left side will denote da. In touch script, two T shaped pin will be used. // will denote ta = will denote Na \\ will denote da For gesture script, Left Eye will be touched to denote ta Nose will be touched to denote N Right Eye will be touched to denote da. Night Signal: The second strip of our torch will reflect violet light to denote ta, N and da – left triangle for ta, middle circle for N and right pointing triangle for da. Third level of voice production: Sound emitted when tongue touches front part of palate: We may notice that sounds of Ch and J are produced when tongue touches palate front area. Making the Script, we will use numeral 3 or three dots or a small triangle to denote sounds of third level, ◦◦◦ ) or ∆ )will denote Ch (◦◦◦ or (∆ will denote J Touch Script: We will have a small pin with three heads – trident or triplex. This pin stuck with left slant will depict Ch and with right slant will depict J. For gesture script, we will touch our left ear to denote Ch and right ear to denote J. Night Signal: The third strip of our torch will flash Indigo light- left end for Ch and right edge for J. Fourth level of voice production: The tongue touches middle palate and produces powerful sounds of T and D. Making script: We will use numeral 4 or four dots or a small square. □ ) It will denote T. (□ It will denote D Touch Script: One T shaped pin and one trident will be stuck to denote 4 and the left slant will denote T and right slant will denote D. Gesture script: We will touch left cheek to denote T and we will touch right cheek to denote D. Night Signal: The fourth strip of our torch will throw blue light- the left pointing triangle will denote T and right pointing triangle will denote D. Fifth Level of voice production: We may notice that back of tongue rises and touches back part of palate when we try to speak K and G. Making Script: using five dots or any other item to mean 5 □◦) It will denote K. ) □ ◦ It will denote G. Touch Script: One trident and two T pins will denote K when stuck with left slant and will denote G when stuck with right slant. Gesture script: We will touch left corner of mouth to denote K and right corner of mouth to denote G. Night Signal: The fifth strip of torch will flash green light and left pointing triangle will denote K and right pointing triangle will denote G. Sixth level of voice production: Here the tongue remains still and we emit the sound of Ya from the throat and for the sound of La we move the tongue to touch the back of the right upper teeth. Making script: We will use numeral 6 or six dots or two triangles and ◦◦□) or ∆∆ )will denote Ya and (□◦◦ or (∆∆ will denote La. Touch Script: Two trident will be stuck with left slant to mean Ya and with right slant to mean La. Gesture script: We will touch left side of neck to mean Ya and right side of neck to mean La Night Signal: Our torch will flash yellow light from left pointing triangle meaning Ya and from right pointing triangle meaning La. Seventh Level of voice production: Sounds of Ra and Wa are produced from throat and tongue remains still and we will denote these with numeral 7 or seven dots or combination of small triangle and square or any other suitable combination. □∆) will denote Ra (□∆ will denote Wa Touch Script: Two tridents and one T pin will denote 7 and when slanted left will mean Ra and when slanted right will mean Wa. Gesture script: We will touch left shoulder for Ra and right shoulder for Wa. Night Signal: The seventh strip of our torch will throw orange light- Ra from left pointing triangle and Wa from right pointing triangle. Eighth level of voice production: The sounds of Sh, Sa and Ha are produced from throat- tongue remains in front position curved touching back of lower teeth for Sh and air escapes, for Sa it touches back of upper teeth and hissing is made and tongue becomes free when Ha is produced from depth. We will use numeral 8 or eight dots or two squares or any suitable combination. Making script: □□ ) will mean Sh □□ will mean Sa (□□ will mean Ha Touch Script: Two tridents and two T pins will denote Sh when slanted left, Ha when slanted right and Sa when unslanted. Gesture script: We will touch middle of chest to mean Sh, epigastrium ( middle of chest and abdomen ) to mean Sa and we will touch abdomen to mean Ha. Intimate Communication: We may make intimate or confidential communication or we may consider it ‘whisper’ by using our hands. If hearer is visually challenged then his hand will be touched and for others hands of either speaker or of hearer will be touched. This intimate communication will provide a means of children play and playful communication between friends. A person who understands our method and grows very old or suffers some disease or injury and suffers hearing loss his or her friends and relatives will be able to impart all important news and information through following method of intimate communication: We will denote P, M and B by touching thumb of the person from above downwards. We will denote ta, N, da by touching index finger from above downwards. We will denote Ch, J by touching middle finger from above downward. We will denote T, D by touching ring finger above downward. We will denote K, G by touching little finger above downward. We will denote Y, L by touching upper crease of palm from left to right. We will denote R, W by touching middle crease of palm from left to right. We will denote Sh, S and H by touching lower part of palm from left to right. Gesture script for vowels: Raising one finger for A Raising two fingers for E (E as in bet) Raising three fingers for I (I as in bit) Raising four fingers for O (O as in boat) Raising all the five fingers for U (U as in put) Long vowel sounds: Three fingers raised twice to express II as in beet Five fingers raised twice to express UU as in boot. Similarly other compound vowel sounds AA , AE, AI, AO, AU, EA, EE, EI, EO, EU, IA, IE, IO, IU, OA, OE, OI, OO, OU, UA, UE, UI, UO may be expressed using two gestures, one after other. We must understand we are trying to express different vowel sounds and not the spelling of any written language though it may be done if someone needs. Touch Script for vowels: One method: A special pin may be made that moves upon a vertical circle as a clock. And it may denote from 1 O’clock to 5 O’clock vowels in sequence of A, E, I, O and U. 1 O’clock or 30 degree position A 2 O’clock or 60 degree position E 3 O’clock or 90 degree position I 4 O’clock or 120 degree position O 5 O’clock or 150 degree position U Second method: We may have pins with knobs at upper end. We will insert one pin for A, two pins for E, three pins for I, four pins for O and five pins for U. Night Signals to denote vowels: Our torch may have an additional two vertical strips with five small round plastics in each: One lit means A, two lit means E , three means I, four lit means O and five lit means U. The second strip may be used to denote compound vowels like AA, AE, AI, AO, and AU and so on. Vowels denotation in written script: │ for A , ││ for E , │││ for I , ││││ for O and │││││ for U Intimate Communication for vowels: The fingers of right hand of person may be used to denote vowel. Thumb for A, Index finger for E, Middle finger for I, Ring finger for O and Little finger for U. Allaying confusion of left and right in Gesture Script (Sign Language): In Sign language described above there may be confusion of left and right when person standing before us makes signs as we described above. This may happen more so in reflections in mirror or water and when we see a person from behind or shadow or silhouette. So it will be useful to touch the body part once for left sided sounds and to touch the body part twice for right sided sounds. We will touch side of head once for P and twice for B. This maneuver will also be suitable for someone having one functional upper limb. Some modifications in Touch Script: In place of pins described above, we may have sticky small pieces of plastics in shape of small lines, small circles, small triangles and small quadrangles. First small line must be stuck obliquely left for left sided sound, horizontally for central sound or obliquely right for right sided sound. Then below it small circles, triangles or quadrangles must be stuck to display level of sound. Or if some pen is developed whose ink solidifies on contact of paper and could be felt by touch then one can make small lines, small circles, small triangles and small quadrangles to display side of sound and level of sound. Sounds special for other languages as for example in Hindi and Urdu: The sounds of P, M, J, Ta, N, Da, Ch, J, K, G, T, D, Y, L, R, W, Sh, S and H as described above may be adequate to make communications possible for all the people. There are two sound of F and Z whose level is same as of P and J but these are produced by blowing air out and so in Sign language we may make sign of P or J as described above and also make sign of blowing out from our lips to mean F and Z. Following are other sounds used in Hindi and Urdu: Similar to P: फ Ph फ़ (ف ) F Similar to B: भ Bh Similar to ta: थ th Similar to da: ध dh Similar to Ch: छ Chh Similar to J: झ Jhh ज़ (ز) Z Similar to T: ठ Thh Similar to D: ढ Dhh Similar to K: ख Kh क़ (ق) ख़ ( خ) Similar to G: घ Gh ग़ (غ) For similar sounds of Hindi where there is associated sound of H we may make the sign of H after primary sign. For similar sounds of Urdu that appear to coming from throat we may put our hand over throat as sign for those sounds. There may be lot of different sounds resembling primary sounds described above in different languages and something may be agreed upon to express those particular sounds. This is a joint effort I just showed what I could think so far to make communications possible for everyone. Towards developing a Global Language: The words and language that could be understood by all using script developed here is our cherished goal. All proper names can be expressed through our script, touch script, gesture script and through intimate communications. Names plates and visiting cards showing names in our script will be readable by all. Large number of other words are also understood and used by all and can be expressed through our script such words are computer, Wi-Fi, mobile, data , internet, cricket, hockey, toss, run, goal, police, doctor, nurse, hospital, hotel, café, cyber café, airport etc. The sign boards may be written in our script or signals may be kept blinking or some figure making gesture script can be run through computer at air ports, hotels and other places for international travelers and visitors.