Phonemes

[Narayan R.Joshi]

REF:My message about NAgarI script dated March 31. It was pointed out that
the message shows no awareness of what a phoneme is, or of distinctive
segmentation.One cannot write everything in the short message written
comparing Roman (R-) and NAgarI (N-)scripts. Here is more about awareness-
Phonology is the study of sound system of language:the rules that govern
pronunciation and distribution of sounds for a chosen language.Phonetics
is the analysis of actual speech sounds related to production and
articulation of sounds. Phonemics is the analysis of the relationships
among phonetic sounds.A phoneme is a family of sounds, which functions in a
language to signal a difference in meaning.The fact that 'pat' and 'bat'
differ in meaning, demonstrates that /p/ and /b/ are phonemes in English.A
phoneme, by itself, is meaningless. It cannot be described as sound either,
for a phoneme can be actualized as one of several different sounds.These
variants of the phoneme are called allophones, and the sound themselves
phones.Thus a phoneme is a family of different phones which can be
interchanged without affecting our recognition of meaning.Phonemic
classification is useful because it recognizes only the significant
differences among phones.Words are physically one continuous motion but are
psychologically a series of discrete units called segments.A single segment
is sometimes represented by a variety of spellings characteristic of the
language under discussion.A phonemic alphabet is justified because in that
system one symbol uniquely represents one segment. Segments are composed of
smaller units called distinctive features. The vowels and consonants follow
one another in speech and are called segmental phonemes. Supra-segmental
phonemes make use of stress and pitch. The English word 'sit'consists of 3
phonemes. The word 'sought' also consists of 3 phonemes. So phoneme is not
necessarily a single letter in English. The 'th'in 'thigh'is a different
phoneme from 'th' in 'thy'.
 These definitions do not contradict my understanding of N script(syllabic)
versus R script(alphabetic).It is said that N writing system is
phonemically over-precise and phonetically imprecise. The ancient Indian
grammarians were aware of this fact and hence they never confused the
alphabet with the phonology.My original question was about the reasons of
choosing the path by the ancient Indians of syllabic writing in N instead
that of alphabetic linear writing like R.Some say Brahmi was alphabetic and
some say it was syllabic, I do not know. Again N script of Sanskrit is not
syllabic in the strict sense that it represents syllables by means of
unitary syllabic signs.It is syllabic in the quite different sense that it
represents syllables by means of non-unitary signs.These non-unitary signs
are derived from graphemes representing phonemes by attaching to them
diacritical markings of different spatial orientations.The markings are
simple and consistent in nature and easier to master by associative memory
than to remember the unrelated members of the one hundred percent syllabic
system.Since the N syllabes are derived by rules of combination and
pronunciation, there is no limit on their number.Theoretically all possible
combinations of vowels and consonants are allowed. The N graphemes are not
letters in the sense of English that  either singly or in combination
represent phonemes.They singly and uniquely represent phonemes without
implying the modern phonemic theory.I am ready to give credit of
development of this unique N script to the elephant riders
(labeled "Dravidians")from the east of Khyber pass rather than the horse
riders(labeled "Aryans")from the west of Khyber pass until somebody
produces a contrary evidence. Thanks.