Scharf Peter M., Hyman Malcolm Donald. Linguistic Issues in Encoding Sanskrit

Motilal Banarsidass Publishers, 2012. — 269 p. — ISBN: 8120835395, 9788120835399.Questions surrounding the encoding of speech have been considered since scholars began to consider the history of different writing systems and of writing itself. In modern times, attention has been paid to such issues as standardizing systems for portraying in Roman script, the scripts used for recording other languages, and this has given rise to discussions about distinctions such as that between transliteration and transcription. In recent times, moreover, the advent and general use of digital technology has allowed us not only to replicate with relative ease details of various scripts and to produce machine searchable texts but also to reproduce images of manuscripts that can be viewed and manipulated. At the source of such endeavours lie the facts of language: phonological and phonetic matters that scripts portray with various degrees of fidelity. The main text is complemented by a series of appendixes, four of which directly concern encoding. The first of these contains thirteen tables, in which are treated not only Sanskrit phonetic and phonological features but also, interestingly, reconstructions of Proto-Indo-European phonology according to different scholars. The second, third and fourth appendixes concern encoding schemes developed within the context of the Sanskrit Library established as a website by Scharf: the Sanskrit Library Phonetic basic encoding scheme, the Sanskrit Library segmental encoding scheme, and the Sanskrit Library phonetic featural encoding scheme.About the Author
Peter Scharf is an expert in Indian Linguistic traditions. After earning his doctorate in Sanskrit at the University of Pennsylvania and studying vyakarana in Varanasi, he taught Sanskrit at Brown University.Malcom Hyman was an expert in classics and digital humanities. After earning his doctorate in classical philology at Brown University, he served as research fellow in digital projects in the history of science at Harvard Univ. and the Max Planck Inst. for the History of Science.Foreword by George CardonaIllustrations
AbbreviationsTechnologies for representing spoken language
The Sanskrit language
The Devanagari script
Roman transliteration
The All-India AlphabetExistIng encoding systems for Sanskrit
A brief history of Indian printing
Legacy systems: before standards
UPACCII
ISCII
Unicode: Indic scripts
CS (Classical Sanskrit) and CSX (Classical Sanskrit Extended)
rrus Indological 8-bit Encoding
Umcode: Indic transliteration
7-bit meta-transliterations
Veithuis transliteration and ITRANS.
wx
Kyoto-Harvard
VarnamalACritique of encoding systems seen so far
Ambiguity and redundancy
Ambiguity in the encoding of accentuationThe basis for encoding: a reanalysis
Axis I: Spoken communication is prior to written.
Axis II: General remarks on the units of spoken and written language
SegmentsFeaturesAxis III: What is relevant for encoding
Encoding Sanskrit language vs. Devanagari script.Sanskrit phonology
Description of Sanskrit sounds
Phonetic and phonological differences
Phonetic differences
Sounds of problematic characterization
Differences in phonological classification of segments
Differences in the system of feature classification
Indian treatises on phonological features
Modern feature analysisSound-based encoding
Criteria for se1eting distinctive elements to encode
Phoneme
Generative grammar
Historical linguistics
Paralinguistic semantics
Contrastive segments
Phoneme in the broader sense
Contrastive phonologies
Higher-order protocols
The phonetic encoding schemesScript-based encoding
Featural analysis
Analysis of Devanagar script
Component analyses of Devanãgari scriptConclusions
Dynamic transcoding
Text-to-Speech and speech-recognition
Higher-level encodingAppendices
Tables
Phonetic features
Sounds categorized by Apiali
Sounds categorized by Saunaka
Sounds categorized after Halle et al
Sanskrit phonetics
Sanskrit phonetics according to Apia1i
Sanskrit phonetics according to Saunaka
Sanskrit phonemics
Sanskrit sounds derived from PIE by Burrow
PIE phonemics according to Burrow
PIE phonemics according to SzemeréflYi
Feature tree after Halle
Graphic features of Devanägari according to Ivanov and Toporov
Sanskrlt Library Phonetic Basic
Basic Segments
Punctuation
Modifiers
Stricture
Length
Accent
Nasalization
Modifier combinations and usage notes.
Stricture
Length
Surface accent
Syllabified visarga and anusvAra accent
Nasals
Sanskrit Library Phonetic Segmental
Sanskrit Library Phonetic Featural
Malcolm D. Hyman
A Memoir by Phoebe Pettingell
Curriculum Vitae