JTC1/SC2/WG2 N2561
To Dr.Deborah Anderson,
Department of Linguistics,
C/o. Deborah Anderson,
University of California
Berkely, Department of Linguistics,
1203,Dwinelle Hall,# 2650,Berkley,
CA 94720 2650 USA.

L2/02-443

Sub: The need and practicalities to encode the ‘Roman Script Santali’
In the universal character set – a protest against efforts
to encode the ‘Ol Chiki’ in the universal character set.
CONTENTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

6.

General Objection.
Brief History of Roman Script Santali and its influence.
Roman Script used for Santali.
evidences showing the incompetence of ‘Ol Chiki’to become national orinternational Santali Script.
(i)Appendix –I showing examples of Santali phoneme.
(ii)Appendix – II showing ‘Roman Script Santali’ charcter set used for writingin Sandal with respective Unicode number.
(iii)Appendix –IV(A) showing numerals with Unicode numbers.
(iv)Appendix –IV(B) showing punctuations with unicode numbers.
Bibliography.

Dear Dr. Deborah
GENERAL PROTESTThere has been a secret effort to get the ‘Ol Chiki’ or the ‘Ol Cemet’ script for the Santal
language encoded in BMP (Basic Multilingual Plan) of universal multiple-octet codedcharacter set –ISO/IEC 10646 (i.e. Unicode standard) by some fundamentalist Santals.
We are vehemently opposed to this irrational extravagant proposal on the following
grounds:(i)

(ii)
(iii)
(iv)

That the ‘Ol Chiki’ has been anew script for the Santali language for only
about thirty years. This script has been propagated by some urbanizedaffluent fundamentalist Santals in opposition to the more ancient Santali
Script which the ‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman Script’ which has beenin use for writing the Santali language for more than a century (130 years)
now.
That only negligible number of the total santal populations have any
knowledge of the ‘Ol Chiki’ script.
That the handful devotees of the ‘Ol Chiki’ have not been able to develop
any worthwhile basic materials in the ‘Ol Chiki’ script acceptablemajority of the Santals.
Heaven forbid but if the aforesaid negligible number of the total
population who are basically militant person or members of some militantorganizations are succeeded in thrusting ‘Ol Chiki’ on the majority of thetotal santal population for writing Santali, the nemesis will automaticallyfall upon the entire Santal community, as the Santals of the southern partof the Santali speaking area of India, the Santal language of whom has
deflected {deviated} from the path of rectitude to a very great extent, havebeen teaching and preaching the Script along with the deviated language.
As, such, the Santals are bound to be divided into two separate Santal
communities as northern & southern Santals being influenced by theeducational institution of respective direction.
The deflection or deviation is an outcome of the inferiority
complex which the then educated class of the Santal society suffered from.
They considered their mother language “Hor-Parsi” i.e. Santal language as‘ under develop’ local language blindly,without caring for the rules ofSantal grammar already framed by their ancestors and codified by thepioneers in the books of grammar. The inferiority complex deadened theirintellect, chilled their senses, de-based their souls and enervated them tosuch an extent that they could not help following the other local language.
As a result, the language sometimes throws the addressee or the listener(s)into total confusion about the intention of the speaker as to what he means
as at the time of reporting on (speaking about) somebody in particular forthe purpose of showing respect to him to a great degree, he is referred toas double (person), particularly in southern part of the Santal language
speaking area.
It become very difficult on the part of the listener(s) understand as
to whether the reporting is in respect of a single respected person being
reported as two or two persons in reality. Because there is a peculiarpractice in Santal language to each other address each other treating eachone as “dual number” as detailed below within bracket:{Alin’=hum do / Aben=Aap(Tum)log do ; Alian’ak’=Hum dononka /Abenak={Tum}donon ka;as the case may be}at the time of
conversation between two persons of certain relationships namely,
between a father/ Mother of a Man/Woman and the Father-in-law/Motherin-law of the same man]woman i.e. between ‘sambandhies’ in whose case
all the members of their families included in their conversation even in
their absence, such as{Ale= hum log(of the speaker’s side)/Ape=Aap
log(of addressee’s side);Aleak=Hum logon ka(of the speakers
side;Apeak’=Aap logon ka(of addressee’s side); as the case may be or
Aboak=Humlogon ka(of both the side);Abo=Hum log(of both sides)} but
not at the time of reporting on an “in-law’, while they talk to each other
only for their spouses are also included even in their absence.
In contravention of this rule, the correct treatment of one person as
double(as two){Alin=Hum do, Aben=Aap log(Tum log)do ;Alinak=Hum
dono ka (Tum dono ka)} as the case may be, at the time of conversation
between two “in-laws” has been generalize in the southern parts of the
Santal language speaking area in pursuance of the other languages for the
purpose of showing respect to a great degree to himself and also to theaddressee. Moreover, at the time of reporting on one person (speaking
about one person) this treatment is wrongly extended. For example,“Pandit Raghunath Murmu takin kin hijuk’ kana”= “Pandit Raghunath
Murmu is coming alone”. As such, the confusion (occurs). For you cannot
understand by the above sentence whether Pandit Raghu Murmu is comingalone or (he is coming) accompanied by someone.
Apart from above the following mistakes are committed:(a) The southerner(s) while talking to sister’s son/maternal
uncle addresses(address) each other treating such one as dual
number(alin/aben) by following the rule which is in vogue between andlimited to “in-laws” only.
(b) They do not discriminate (They fail to discriminate)while talking about animate and inanimate objects such as, “ Kun re adi
thora(katic culun)dak will not sink”. In place of Ban(bnag)they use Bae
which is appropriate for a living being, well the man will not sink”. There
are numerous instances, where in inanimate object are being unnecessarily
personified.
(c) (i)The suitability of words in a sentence is being overlooked, such as Hewa=Habituated, Parkao=habituated due to temptation,“Unihor doe taram ‘hewa’ gea=That man is habituated in walking”, “Nuekora do kuri recoe ‘parkao’ akana, onate mit’ tala noa ato tei hijuk’a”=“This man is habituated in having nice time with the some girl, that is why
he visits this village frequently”, the southerners use ‘parkao’ in both theplaces without caring for the inner meaning (suitability) of the word.
(ii) They do translate Hindi/Bengali words and the words of theother languages into Santal language and use the same even in place ofexisting words of a\santal language, without caring caring for the actual
meaning of these words, such as, “us baat ko lekar gaowale apose me
jhogor pore”{Hindi} =oikotha ta niye gram basira nije der themselves onthat matter. “{English}=”ona katha ‘idikate’ ato hor ako mudre {akotalare} kaphariau{jhora/rete- pete}ko ehope ket’a.
idikate=talking something from one place to another. Here in placeof ‘idikate’ the existing word ‘Babot’(or ‘Barkhra’) is appropriate.
Of course, we have to change ourselves according to the need oftime (as the situation demands) but at the same time , it must be borne inmind that if a basic structure of a language is changed, its backbone will
also be dislocated. In that case, the separate entity itself of the Santals will
be endangered.
A language is so flexible that it is subject to oscillation even in anormal natural current of air i.e. language easily swerved being influence
by
the
other
languages.
As
such,
we
find
slightdifference/deviation/diversion/deflection of the same language in different
regions. The Santal language is also not an exception. Therefore, grammar
is required to arrest the language from being deviated. The deviatedlanguage of the southerners falsifies the existing Santali grammar writtenby P.O. Bodding.
The Santal language, that is “Hor-Parsi” is unique with its
spatiality, peculiarity, beauty and sweetness which are being perverted
rapidly in southern part of Santal language speaking area of India. The
perversion is so alarming that it cannot be set right easily. The people ofthe southern part of the Santli speaking area are so much accustom to thedeviated language that they cannot understand what is right and what iswrong. The Santal language of the southern part should better be treated as“Santal dialect”.
The language can be saved only by strict pursuance of the rules ofgrammar, which is possible through educational institutions, if of course,
uniformity is brought about and maintained by adopting the Santal
language of a particular area as standard for imparting education which isconsidered up to the mark, namely of Godda district and its adjacent areaof Santal Parganas or alternately the Santal language which is being taught
in all educational institutions of Santal Parganas.
Different scripts such as Romans, Deonagri, Bengali etc. withdiacritical marks are use for writing Santal language, of course, Late
Pandit Raghunath Murmu of Orissa plagiarized a new script known as “Ol
Chiki” (Ol Chiki is stated to have been invented by Late Mangal Murmu,
village-Laujoda, P.O.-Hatbandra, P.S.-Rairangpur, Dist-Mayurbhanj) for
Santal language. His followers have been trying to spread the script among
the illiterates ones fomenting thus sentiments of common people statingthat it is there own script, the language cannot be promoted without “Ol
Chiki” though the said appeared to be on imitation of Roman script.
However, they have succeeded in getting it recognized by the governmentof West Bengal for teaching and writing Santal language through “Ol
Chiki” by putting pressure on the government, say more than thirty years
ago but without fruitful result. In Bihar Deonagri script was recognized
before hand for writing Santal language a weekly journal known as “HorSambad” has been published formarly from Deoghar and now from
Dumka (S.P.) by government of Bihar (now the government of
Jharkhand, after the state came into being) through the Department ofInformation and Public Relations. Roman script has not been recognized

by any state for writing Santal language still it is widely used for writing
Santal language in Santal parganas(Jharkhand), North Bengal,
Assam(India) and in Bangladesh. As such, it is obvious that because ofdifferent opinions regarding common script for Santal language,
consensus could not be arrived at so far. In absence common script
harmonious development of a language is not possible and as an inevitableconsequence the North remains as North and the South as South due tonon compromising attitude of the Southerners with the fact (truth) as they
are habituated in deviated language and accepted the same as universal
truth. However, their open argument is this that language cannot bepromoted or flourished without its own distinct and distinctive script.
There argument is not correct, as English languages flourished to such an
extent that it is recognized as an international language though it has no
script of its own.
The script which is used for writing English language is Roman
script. Hindi (Language) has also got no script of its own. The script
which is used for writing Hindi is Deonagri script. Even then, Hindi has
become the National Language of India. Moreover, the sophisticatedfamilies are not interested in sending their children for learning “Ol
Chiki”, in other words, they are not interested in promoting “Ol Chiki”.
Existing general education is more important for common people and theyshould better strive for the same than wasting their time and energy inlearning the new script. So far the common script is concerned, it may beobserved that the fittest will survive.
Some so called broadminded people being influenced by Bharat
Seva - Shram Sangh, Sangh Pariwar and other Hindu Organizations (thatwant to divide the Santals nay all the Adivasis on the ground of differenceof religion, language and culture and annihilate them in the long run)harbor such thought in their minds that Santal Christian are no longer
Santals as they have left their primitive religion and culture. Of course,
they have left their primitive religion, superstition etc. but not theirsurname, language and culture, which are indispensable condition forbeing Santal. The religion cannot be an essential ingredient of ‘Santalism’
in a secular country like India. Santal language and culture have beenfurthered to the present extent in northern region of Santal language
speaking areas is mainly due to Christian Santals for Christian
missionaries have been talking great interest in promoting Santal
language, literature and culture since the time immemorial, they started
their activities in India.
Introduction of “Ol Chiki” as common script for writing Santali
will expedite division of Santals into two separate communities and thecredit for dividing them will go to the protagonist of “Ol Chiki” whocannot think independently without the aid and advice of Bharat Seva
Shram Sangh and other Hindu organizations.
N.B. :-Santali = English
In’ = I
Am = You (alone)

Alin’ = We(two)aben = You(two)Ale = We (more than two)Ape = You (more than two)Abo = We (you and we all).
Nui = This (animate object) Uni/Hani = (animate)
Noa = This (inanimate object) Hana = That(inanimate)In’ak= My;Alin’ak= Our(of we two); Aleak’=Our(of we, more than
two);
Amak’ = Your(s)(of you alone); Abneak’ = Your(s)(of you two);
Apeak’ = Your(s)(of you, more than two); Aboak’ = Our(of you and weall)
On the following pages we shall substantiate with evidences theabove mentioned disqualifications of the “Ol Chiki” script for encoding it
for the BMP Unicode Standard.
Brief History of Roman Script Santali and its influence
The Santals in India ,Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh have been using the‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman script’ since 1867 for writing Santali.
However, in the post independent area, Indian Santals of each state(union), having being convinced by their urbanized affluent
fundamentalist Santals, that the Roman script is a foreign script and that touse it for Santali would be an abomination to the trible Santals, began towrite Santali in the script of the respective state language (that is, theregional language script) where they resided.
India does not have a common script or a common language for all
its state (unions). Here English is being used for interstate and state-center
communications. Each state has its own language with its own script. In
the post independent era, Santals residing in different states of India havestarted using the state’s language script of their respective state to write inSantali as rival/s to the ‘Roman Script Santali’. Consequently, the West
Bengal Santals have the Bengali Script Santali, Orissa have Oriya Script
Santali, Bihar and Jharkhand, Devnagri Script Santali. All these scripts arestate sponsored scripts, except in West Bengal where the Government has
been patronizing Bengali Script Santali, at the same time it has published a
Roman Script Text book for the Higher Secondary Education, namely,
HIGHER SECONDARY SANTALI SELECTIONS (PROSE AND
POETRY), Calcutta, West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary
Education, 1976, only from recent years the West Bengal Government has
started sponsoring the “Ol Chiki” script as well. Nevertheless, these rival
scripts sponsored by different State Governments have not been able todislodge and eliminate the ‘Roman Script Santali’ since all the basic
materials for learning the Santali language are found exclusively in the‘Roman Script Santali’. (See Appendix-V showing Bibliography of thevarious books and magazines written in Santali using the Roman script).
In the present situation of rival Santal scripts one state’s Santali litraratureis unfamiliar to the Santals residing in other states within India and thoseliving in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal.
This is not so with the ‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman
Script Santali’. The ‘Roman Script Santali’ is received and read by alleducated Santals residing in the different states of India and abroad in
Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. In our country, English (which is written
in the Roman Script) is the recognized language between the center andthe states and for interstates communications, resides, all the states teachEnglish as a compulsory subject in schools, colleges and in Universities
from the primary level. Hence the ‘Roman Script Santali’ is not an extra
burden on students, when one is familiar with the English alphabets. Whatthey need is to know the language and the Santali phonetic value which is
given to the Roman Script, which in most cases are close to that given to
English(See
Appendix-I)
exceptthefollowingwhose phonetic value can betaught to a Santali speaking literate Santal familiar with English alphabet
within half an hour. One should keep in mind that no one pursuing formal
education in India can avoid learning English.
That the Roman script is an anathema rendering Santals
underdeveloped , as propagated by some fundamentalist nationalisticsocial workers with a goal to assimilate the Santals into the mainstream ofIndian Society is a myth and a fraud. All the wealthy and the influential ofthe main stream of Indian Society send their children to English medium
school for education and to Europe, America and Australia for higher
studies. The tribals of North East India in Misoram, Nagaland andMeghalya use the Roman script for their respective tribals languages. This
tribals are the most advanced tribals and formally united compare to thetribal Santal. The credit for their overall development and unity is becauseof a common script for literature for their respective languages.

Our concern is the preservation, development and unity of thetribal Santals who speak Santali but are scattered all over India,
Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan through a common literature. To achieve
this noble goal, we consider the ‘Extended Script’ or the ‘Roman Script’
to be the most competent easiest tool to employ.
As has been said above that the Santals have been using the‘Extended Latin’ or the ‘Roman Script for Santali’ since the time they
were introduced to literacy. They have used this script for literacy
activities for 130 years. T o this extended Latin or the Roman Scripts,
phonetic values have been given in such a way that they produce all thesounds a Santal produces in speech form. The sounds which the normal
Roman letters do not produce have been modified by using diacriticalmarks as common with most linguistic groups using the Extended Latin or
Roman scripts. Here we would like to stress that the letters or scripts do
not produce any sounds themselves; they are sounds symbols or
representatives of that sound which a community assigns to them.
Roman scripts used for Santali
The major sound symbol or scripts for Santali are:a, b, c, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, and y with its
respective capital forms.
There are ten(10) aspirants found in Santali speech sound and they
are symbolized by juxtaposing ‘h’ to the consonant associated with theaspirants e.g. bh, ch, dh, dh, gh, jh, kh, ph , th and th (see Appendix-I
dealing with the Santali phoneme for the Roman Script Santali.
There are some diacritical marks in the
Roman Script Santali, which are used either above, or below or on the top
right hand side of a letter to symbolize sound values not represented by thenormal roman Script(see Appendix-II ). They are as follows :The sign ‘_’hyphen is used under e and o of capitalletters to indicate the open vowel sound associated with the respective
vowels and without the hyphen sound below they indicate a closed soundin Santali e.g. :E , e = Indicates open vowel sounds, e.g. Er, er as ‘hare’ inEnglish.
E , e = Indicates closed vowel sounds e.g.Ekal, ekal as ‘hen’ inEnglish.
O, o = Indicates open vowel sounds, e.g. Ol, ol as ‘all’ in English.
O, o = Indicates closed vowel sounds, e.g. Onko, onko as ‘pole’ inEnglish.
(see Appendix-II )The slanted hyphen ‘_’ which is called prime , is used
above N, n to symbolize a sounds not found in English , but in many
Indian languages. It’s sound is close to English eng as in ‘engine’ , Santali‘Bin’ meaning ‘Serpent’ in English.
The sign dot is used under d, r and t indicate thehardened sound of the respective vowels, e.g.
D , d e.g. Data here the D, d , has the sound value of English D,das in ‘Dog’.
R , r e.g. Ror, Kora. English does not have any sound close tothis but is heard
in pronouncing Chandigarh, in the last syllable ‘rh’.
T , t e.g. Taka, taka here T, t have the sound vale of English T, t
as ‘Torn’ in English.
The sign ‘.’ A dot above n i.e. n is used to indicate it’shardened sound coming through the nose. The sound has no independent
English equivalent and may come close to English ‘n’ as in ‘Long’ ,‘song’ , e.g. gon, hongor in Santali.
(See Appendix-II )The apostrophe ‘’’ sign is used in the top right handclose to the letter c, k, p and t to both in capital and small letters tosymbolize the jerk or checked sound associated with these consonants
found in the Santali language, e.g. c’, k’, p’and t’ a sound which is notheard in other languages other than the Mundari group of language , e.g.
lac’, mak’, ap’, ret’.
(See Appendix-II )To indicate a nasal sound which are innumerable in
Santali the Roman Script Santali uses the tilde sign above letters withwhich the nasal sound is associated . The letters arewith their respective capital forms. English does not have equivalentsounds for these e.g.

etc.
(See Appendix-II )As such the ‘Extended Latin’ or ‘Roman Script Santali’needs the following script code for Information Interchange ISCII (IS) : a,b, c, d, e, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, and y with it’s capitalforms , and the following diacritical marks ;(See appendix-II & III )This is a total of 28 sound symbols , 22 basic letters oralphabets and 6 (six) diacritical marks .
Combining these sounds symbols along with the usualpunctuation symbols as used in English (See Appendix –I & II ), namely,
All Santali words with their sounds are thus
conveniently represented.
Our Computer Engineers tell us that all these sounds
symbols necessary for writing Santali in ‘Extended Latin’ or ‘Roman
Script’ have already been encoded in the BMP Unicode Standard. They
only need is to put them together for the Santali language.
(See Appendix-II & III presented with Unicode number )The Roman script Santali uses the Arabic numerals – 0,
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 [See Appendix –IV(A)presented with Unicode
Number]. The roman script Santali letters and diacritical marks andnumerals in most cases , correspond with the English keyboard letters andnumerals.
[See Appendix-IV(B)]The ‘Extended Latin’ script or the ‘Roman Script
Santali’ in India , Bangladesh and Nepal has all the basic materials fordeveloping the Santali language and literature uniformly for all Santals.
The script has no territorial boundary, whereas the State language script inwhich Santali is also written has its influence only within the territory of aparticular state. Every state government in India teaches English fromclass-I standard. From this point of view also the ‘Roman script Santali’
has greater advantage in terms of a common Santali literature. All literate
Santals in every state can easily read and write the ‘Roman Script’ or the‘Extended Latin’ script Santali by virtue of their familiarity with English.
The Santals of Bangladesh and Nepal will also share extra effort forlearning a new script.
Therefore, we humbly request you to help us in entering the ‘Extended Latin Script’ or the ‘Roman Script Santali’ into BMP UnicodeStandard.
II Evidences showing the Incompetence of ‘ Ol Chiki’ to become
National or International Santali Script
The ‘Ol chiki’ or the ‘Ol Cemet’ being a recently
invented script with a motive to counter the ‘Extended Latin’ i.e. the‘Roman Script Santali’has only minimal influence among literate Santals.
A few Santals demand to the West Bengal Government to implement the‘Ol Chiki’ in the education curriculum of West Bengal is based only on
emotion and not on reality. The group’s claim that the ‘Ol Chiki’ is rich inSantali literature is false and malicious. Below we give the comments ofeminent scholars and prominent figures on the feasibility of Santali in the‘Ol Chiki’ script in schools, colleges, and at the University level.
The committee on Santali language to examine andreview the feasibility of introducing teaching of Santali Language in the‘Ol Chiki’ script in Secondary and Higher Secondary appointed by theWest Bengal Government (vide Resolution No. 57-CMS dated March 5,2001) has expressed the fear that if the ‘Ol Chiki Script’ is imposed on the
Santals of West Bengal many educated Santals literate in other scripts will
suddenly become illiterate in Santali.
( The Report of the committee on Santali Language,
Governmentof West Bengal, dated May 13, 2002, p. 51,
Recommendation-I )Dr. R.K. Bhattacharya, Director of the Anthropological
Survey of India , in a letter No. RKB/2002, dated May 13, 2002 says thefollowing:
I am apprehensive about the presence of adequate infra
structure (e.g. trained teachers in Ol Chiki script to shoulder the
responsibility of a large primary student population, which is spread inmany districts of West Bengal, besides , non-availability of standard text
books )….
I have my doubts about hoe beneficial will be the introduction of
Ol Chiki script in studying Santali language in the context ofcontemporary time…
[Quoted from Report of the Committee on Santali
Language(Government of West Bengal), Dated May 31,
2002, p.136].
Mr. Animeshkanti Pal(Ex-Professor, Midnapur College and Rabindra Bharti
University) makes the following comments :In my opinion introduction of Santali (in Ol Chiki Script ) is not presently
feasible as adequate study materials are not available Ol Chiki Script. Suchmaterials may not be available in near future either.
[para 2(a)]…Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and also Assam besides West Bengal should together
take a decision about Ol Chiki Script. West Bengal can not take a unilateraldecision in this matter. Bangladesh is also involved with nearly 8 lakhs of Santali
speaker in its Northern area.
[para 2( c)]…At present Santali litrature is found in Roman, Bengali, Devnagri and Oriya
scripts…
[para 3(b)](Quoted from op.cit.,pp.137-138)
Peter B. Anderson, University of Copenhagen, Department of History of Religions
Artillarivej has the following comments on ‘Ol Chiki’:…According to my on observation, the only script in which there is a wide spread
literary among adult Santals in West Bengal is the Bengali script. My on
experiences are limited to the southern and western parts of West Bengal,
however, I have heard that in other parts of West Bengal the Roman script has asimilar position among the Santals, but I have no personal experience from thoseareas and my only suggestion is that any script commonly non among the grown
up Santals is the one to be recommended.
At present the Ol Chiki is not to be recommended as a medium for school
education as there has not yet been created any wide spread adult literacy in Ol
Chiki among the Santals.
(quoted from op. cit.,p.130)

Dr. Arun K. Ghosh, Reader, Department of Bengali, University of Burdwan pointing out
anomalies present in the ‘Ol Chiki’ Script makes the following comments :…
…when the question of script in case of unwritten languages arises it should be
dealt with logic and sense of practicability, our survey reveals that out of twenty
lakhs odd Santals in West Bengals almost 75% do not vote for Ol Chiki… As forthe script, most of them either do not have any knowledge about the script or do
not accept it as a possible medium of instruction, particularly at the Madhyamik
Level and beyond. Even in the southern region, the cradle of Ol Chiki , a good
percentage of people have heard about it but do not feel attracted by the script. So
from the standpoint of acceptability it does not reach even 50% of Santal
population in West Bengal…
…We should also be cautious that whether the introduction of the script for
appeasing a minority section of the people will push the whole people to a century
backward for whom the script is being introduced.
(Quoted from op. cit.,pp.142-43)
T. Hembrom, an Eminent Santal Educationist and Author has mace the following
comments on this new Santali script ‘Ol Chiki’.
…in West Bengal the issue of Santali script was further complicated by theGovernment when in 1979 it recognized ‘Ol Chiki’ Script for publication ofSantali literature. The Government of West Bengal might have received some
additional votes in lieu of this grace at the time of election, but the ‘Ol Chiki’
script has remained as an abnormally born baby still in an incabator all throughthese last twenty years.
(Quoted from op. cit., p. 209)
Dr.D.P. Pattanayak,formal Director, CIIL and Eminent Sociolinguist and Educationisrise
the following on the fate of ‘Ol Chiki’ :The Academy of Tribal Dialects and Culture in 2001 did an impact study of the
30 schools where Ol Chiki was introduced on an experimental basis in 1992. The report
is not available yet. But the overwhelming impression of the parents, teachers, students isthat the experiment has failed. No strategy has been worked out to provide transition for
Ol Chiki. To Oriya and from Oriya to Ol Chiki. A lack of trained teachers, lack ofteaching learning materials, lack of incentive, lack of parental interest have contributed tothis failure.
(Quoted from, op. cit., p.134)

Report of The Committee On Santali Language(Government of West Bengal)
Kolkata, May 31, 2002 :The report on pages 45-46 has made the following comments on the aspect of print
technology of ‘Ol Chiki’ showing its incompetence in printing activities. Its question is
we quote :(i)

Are there all kinds of options of ‘fonts’ and sizes available for the printing
script? That is, are there bold types, italics, other such variety of fonts, and ascope of ‘artistic’ variations ? Roman has a profusion of such options, andIndian scripts have quite a few.
The committee was not able to elicit a clear idea from what it has studied. It
thinks that the promoters of Ol Chiki should pay some attention to this.
(p.45)(ii)

Are there many options of sizes also? Can the types be very big and verysmall(say 8 or 10 pts.) and several sizes in-between?
What the Committee examined from printed samples did not convince it thatOl Chiki could be printed in very small size, which is needed for footnoting
and other such purposes.
(p.46)On the “Aspect of Social Acceptance” the Committee comments:
The Committee was led to conclude that Ol Chiki is yet to attain a total acceptance bySantals living in West Bengal. In spite of the very vigorous efforts by its promoters, usersof Ol Chiki in real life are not more than 20% of literate Santals. Even this may be aliberal estimate. The Committee has been provided with a list of books an generals andother materials published in Ol Chiki by ASECS for which it thanks the organization, but
compare to what has been and are being published in Bengali, Devnagri or Roman, thelist is rather small.
(p.46)The Committee also does not have the courage to hope that by recognizing Ol Chiki inWest Bengal, it can inspire all Santals living every where to accept the script as the only
script for there language. Neither can any Government do that. It there for rests on the
Santal leaders and intellectuals to arrive at a consensus on the use of Ol Chiki for every
Santal living in the country and abroad. However the fate of the Pakur Conference held in1973(which recommended the Roman alphabet) raises a cloud oh cloud on suchprognostications. (Ibid).
(Quoted from op. cit.,pp.45-46)

Resolutions adopted at the Inter-State Seminar, Pakur held on 19th,
20th and 21st January, 1973 for the protection, Preservation andDevelopment of Santali Language, Literature and Culture says thefollowing :It has been observed that in writing Santali four different scripts- Hindi, Bengali,
Oriya and Roman- are in use, in this time. Hindi is used mostly in Bihar andsimilarly the use of Bengali and Oriya scripts is limited to West Bengal andOrissa. The delegates do not know for certain whether Assamese script(which isalmost similar to Bengali script) is used in Assam or not. With great concern the
Santals are watching how involved are the different major language groups inthere own controversy. We Santals ourselves do not want to involve in any way
with such controversy. We are a peaceful people.
The Santals lived not only Assam, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, and Tripura statesof India but they also reside in large numbers in the neighboring countries of
Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkim and Bangladesh. The Santali language is, therefore, by
virtue of its very existence over so many countries and on its own right can claim
to be an international language. As such a script which could meet the demand ofsuch a language should be more suitable and the only answer to such a situation is
the use of Roman script.
SANTALI is being written in Roman script for more than 100 years.
Whatever development has so far been made in Santali language andliterature has been done through Roman script. Santali Dictionary,
Grammar and books have been written in large numbers in Romans script.
The International Phonetic Association has recognized Roman script as the
only script which is perfect on these lines. In order to express the peculiar
pronunciation and phonetics of Santali language, the Roman script has been
re-oriented for this purpose by means of diacritical marks…
It is therefore, resolved, that the Roman script which has been already been adopted andis in the use in the different examinations of the Board of Secondary Education at the
Universities be given its due reorganization and Santali language and literature be given
its full scope for its proper development and perfection.
(Quoted from op.cit.,p.186)
In the light of the above mentioned blemishes, defects and literate Santals’ reservation
about accepting the ‘Ol Chiki’ for the Santali language as has been pointed out by theeminent persons, educationists and the government official involved in the field of the
field of education, we request you in this age of globalization to kindly ignore thefundamentalist minority group of Santals requesting you to encode ‘Ol Chiki’ or the ‘Ol
Cemet’ in B.M.P.(Basic Multilingual Plane) of Universal Multiple-Octet Coded
Character Set-ISO/IEC 10646 and nullify all initiatives taken in favor of the ‘Ol Chiki’ if
any by you. And instead we humbly urge you to standardized the usage of the ‘Extended
Latin’ or ‘Roman Script Santali’ utilizing existing Unicode Characters Set as we haveshown in Appendices I to IV and kindly to publish a notification for the standardizationof the ‘Roman Script Santali’ in the Unicode Standard. In closing we reiterate that the‘Roman Script Santali’ has a universal application in our age of globalization to save thesantali language for the Santals and all others interested in Santali residing in India,
Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan rest of the world.
Thanking you
Yours faithfully,(MR. DIVYENDU TUDU RASKA)
President, T.O.R.C.H.(TRIBAL AND OTHER RURAL CULTURAL HOUSE), KALAPATHAR
P.O.-Kalapathar,VIA-Chakulia, DIST-East Singhbhum(Jharkhand), India.
Founder Member and General Secretary of SANTALSANSKRITIC SOCIETY,RANCHI(Jharkhand)

MR. ARCHER ANTHONY MARANDI
General Secretary, T.O.R.C.H., Kalapathar
P.O.-Kalapathar, VIA-Chakulia, DIST-East Singhbhum (Jharkhand),India
Dated 30 November, 2002

Encls : 1
2
3

Copy Report of the Committee on Santali Language (Government of west of
Bengal), May, 31, 2002.
bibliography of the various books and magazines written in Santali using theRoman script.
Recent issue of Santali magazines written in Roman script e.g. ‘Jug Sirijol’,‘Marsal Tabon’, ‘Hirla’, ‘Pera Hor’ etc.

Appendix-I
Example of Santali Phoneme

A

a

=

‘Am’ means ‘you’ in English and pronounced as ‘a’ in English ‘Army’.

E

e

=

‘Eskar’ means ‘alone’ in English and pronounced as ‘e’ in English ‘Net’.

I

I

=

‘Itil’ means ‘Fat’ in English, and pronounced as ‘i’ in English ‘India’.

O

o

=

‘Oda’ means ‘moist’ in English, and pronounced as ‘o’ in English‘Ozone’.

U

u

=

B

b

=

‘Botor’ means ‘Fear’ in English, and pronounced as ‘b’ in English ‘ball’.

C

c

=

‘Coilo’ means ‘pointed’ in English, and pronounced as first ‘ch’ of‘Church’ in English.

D

d

=

‘Dokan’ means ‘Shop’ in English, and pronounced as ‘th’ in English‘there’.

G

g=‘Gol’ menas ‘to whistle’ in English, and pronounced as ‘G’ in English‘God’.

Hh=‘Hoho’ means ‘to call’ in English, and pronounced as ‘h’ in English‘hall’.

Jj=‘jo’ means ‘fruit’ in English, and pronounced as ‘j’ in English ‘job’.

K

k

=

‘kolom’ means ‘pen’ in English, and pronounced as ‘c’ in English‘column’.

Ll=‘Lolo’ means ‘hot in English, and pronounced as ‘L’ in English‘London’.

Mm=‘Merom’ means ‘goat’ in English, and pronounced as ‘m’ in English‘memorandum’.

N

n

=

‘Nehor’ means ‘request’ in English, and pronounced as ‘n’ in English‘Nomad’.

P

p=‘Parkom’ means ‘cot’ in English, and pronounced as ‘p’ in English‘population’.

R

r

=

‘Ran’ means ‘medicine’ in English, and pronounced as ‘r’ in English‘rural’.

Ss=‘Sojhe’ means ‘straight’ in English, and pronounced as ‘s’ in English‘soil’.

‘Ul’ means ‘Mango’ in English and pronounced as ‘oo’ in English‘school’.
______________________________________________________________________________

T

t

=

‘Tumdak’ means ‘drum’ in English, and pronounced as ‘t’ in English‘Tazikistan’.

V

v

=

‘jivi’ means ‘soul’ in English, and pronounced as ‘w’ in English ‘wind’.

W

w

=

‘Nawa’ means ‘new’ in English, and pronounced as ‘w’ in English‘water’.

Yy=‘Toyo’ means ‘jackal’ in English, and pronounced as ‘y’ in English‘yoyo’.

ASPIRANTS

SantaliAspirants
bh
ch
dh
dh
gh
jh
kh
Ph
th
th

Word in Meaning in
Pronunciation in English
SantaliEnglishbhagwa Loin cloth Pronounced as ‘v’ in English ‘vagabond’chatkaCourt yard Pronounced as ‘tch’ in English ‘hotchpotch’dhabreBroad foot No equivalent sound in English. It sounds as ‘dh’in Gandhi.
dholDrum It sounds as ‘dh’ in Dhaka, the capital of
Bangladesh.
ghat
Sin Pronounced as ‘gh’ in English ‘ghost’.
jhali
Net Pronounced as ‘jh’ in Hindi ‘jha jha’,‘Jharkhand’.the sound not found in English.
khalakLarge leaf Pronounced as ‘kh’ in English ‘khomeini’.
cup
phenParable Pronounced as ‘f’ in English ‘fan’.
thamakur
Tobacco Pronounced as ‘th’ in English ‘Thailand’.
thengastick English has no equivalent sound.
DIACRITICAL MARKS

Santali
Diacritic
al
marks
A a
D d
N n

Word Meaning
In
In
Santali English

Pronunciation in English

Kami
Kada
JondraPronounced as ‘u’ in Mummy
Pronounced as ‘d’ in Canada
Pronounced as ‘n’ in SundryWork
Buffalo
Maize

R r
T t
N n

Gar
Taka
Ron

Fort
Pronounced as ‘r’ in Chandigarh
Rupee, money Pronounced as ‘t’ in Toyota
Color
Pronounced as ‘n’ in song

N n

Kirin

To buyE

Etome

Pronounced as ‘n’ in French

O o

Ol

Right
hand Pronounced as ‘a’ in Jam
side
Writing
Pronounced as ‘O’ in London

A a

Kara

Blind

No equivalent sound in English

P p
Kk
T t
Cc

Cahap
Ak
at
lac

Open mouth
Bow
lost
stomachNo equivalent sound in English
No equivalent sound in English
No equivalent sound in English
No equivalent sound in English

Appendix-II‘Roman script Santali’ Character Set
used for writing in Santali
with respective Unicode Number--------------------------------------------------A
0041
G
0047
L
004C
R
0052
W
0057

B
0042
H
0048
M
004D
S
0053
Y
0079

C
0043
I
0049
N
004E
T
0055

D
0044
J
004A
O
004F
U
0056

E
0045
K
004B
P
0050
V
0045

a
0061
g
0067
l
006C

b
0062
h
0068
m
006D

c
0063
i
0069
n
006E

d
0064
j
006A
o
006F

e
0065
k
006B
p
0070

r
0072
w
0077

s
0073
Y
0079

t
0074

u
0075

v
0076

Appendix-III
COMBINING DIATRICAL MARKS WITH UNICODE NUMBERS

Õ
0301

0303

0307

031B

0320

0323

0331

0341

Example :
Ã
ã

>
>

00C3
00E3

where

A
Õ

>
>

0041
0303

a

>

0061

N

>

1E46

where

N

>

004E

n

>

006E

n

>

1E44

O

>

0323

>

1E44

where

O

>

0307

>

1E45

>
>

1E5A
1E5B

where

R
r

>
>

0052
0072

Appendix-IV(A)
NUMERALS WITH UNICODE NUMBERS
0
0030

1
0031

2
0032

3
0033

4
0034

5
0035

6
0036

7
0037

8
0038

9
0039

Appendix-IV(B)PUNCTUATIONS WITH UNICODE NUMBERS
:
003A
(
0028
;
003B

=
003D
)
0029
?
0038

.
002E
‘
0027

/
002F
“
0022

,
002C
!
0021

Copy forwarded for information and necessary action to :
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

ISO
BIS
C-DAC, National Resource Center, Bio-Informatics Center, 1st Floor, Pune
University Campus.
Dr. D. Anderson, University of Copenhagen, Department of History of
Religions Artillerivej.
M. Everson, C/o. Unicode Consortium.