A book on scientific modification of English alphabet for writing Kashmiri language without any of cumbersome diacritical marks was released today.
The book 'Rationalised Roman for Kashmiri', written by Dr R L Bhat, explains how to write the language on a computer using Microsoft word or type writer without the need for any special fonts.
"Over the last decades, the exiled community of Kashmir has been facing the great challenge of preserving the attachment of the younger generations of the displaced Kashmiris to their mother tongue," he said at the book release function.
"This has necessitated development of modifications suitable for writing Kashmiri in the scripts with which the younger generation is conversant. In this quest Samprati had brought out a modification of the Dev Nagri script," Dr Bhat said.
Developed in a logical manner, the author has applied the principles of Brahmi alphabet to English letters and produced an easy and adaptable scheme. The RRK scheme is not a random assignment of the letters but a rationalisation of the English alphabet.
"The beauty of the RRK scheme is that it can be used for writing Hindi, Urdu, Dogri and other languages, too. However, the work is more than a modification of the English alphabet for writing vernaculars," he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Poet Dr R L Shant spoke about the relevance of RRK in preserving the language and for those who have to quote Kashmiri Hindi or Urdu words and sentences in their papers and research works.
The book also carries a detailed survey of the script used for writing Kashmiri and a discussion on Urdu and Hindi and the scripts they are written in.
