Karshon is Transliteration - A Primer
The use of the script originally used for one language to write another language is not new nor is it unique to Syriac and Malayalam. For the purposes of clarity this post will be exclusively about the use of a modified (or enhanced) version of the East Syriac (Maḏnḥāyā) script to write the Malayalam language (and its variants) over the centuries. The terms alphabet and script are often used interchangeably below but they do not always mean the same thing. What would you call Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese/Japanese/etc Kanji ? Also note that in some written languages the vowels are separate characters by themselves always and in some take different forms when they are added to consonants like in many Indian languages.
An example of a script with a consistent spelling, grammar and logic being used by many different spoken languages (instead of dialects) is Chinese. For the same Kanji (Chinese Characters) written you can speak it in Mandarin, Taiwanese, Cantonese, Hokkien, etc.
An example of a spoken language using different scripts is Konkani that uses the Latin alphabets, Devanagri or Modern Malayalam to write the same sounds. This happened probably because Konkani speakers never felt the need to develop an alphabet for the language they spoke.
The term transliteration is often used when a script/alphabet not created/designed for a particular spoken language is used by someone familiar with writing in another language's popularly used script. This is the case in online chat in many non-European languages using the Latin alphabet. Native languages were usage in Indonesian and Malaysian. Below is an example from the liturgy book of the Jacobite Church.
An example of the script being used in many different languages are
Devanagri - Used in Rajasthani dialects, Hindi Dialects , Marathi , Sanskrit
Here is an example of the Latin script being used for Hindi (Hinglish) on Google Pay. GPay is also doing good research on their Indian prospects.
This page will be used to compile all information I find online. Since the history of Suriani is covered in other blogs, I'll focus on the Malayalam part more. To learn Karshoni one must have some knowledge of the history of both scripts and be very fluent in Malayalam with some knowledge of the historical evolution of the language.
കർശോൻ: നസ്രാണികളുടെ തനത് സുറിയാനി-മലയാള എഴുത്ത് ശൈലി : നേവി ജോർജ് | Rooha Media Webinar 9
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