Heritage language instruction is on the rise at universities in the US, presenting a new set of challenges for language pedagogy. Since heritage language learners have some experience of the target language from their home environment, language instruction cannot be modeled on foreign language instruction (Kondo-Brown, 2003). At the same time, there may be significant gaps in the learner’s competence; in describing heritage learners of South Asian languages, Moag (1996) notes that their acquisition of the native language has often atrophied at an early stage.

Initial Literacy in Devanagari: What Matters to Learners

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Teaching the Indic Scripts: Tradition and Innovation

A great deal of disagreement exists as to whether the writing systems of the Brahmi family ol7 scripts from Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent and the Hangul script ,..+f Korea should be classified as alphabets or syllabaries. Both have in common a mixture of syllabic and alphabetic characteristics that has spawned vigorous disagreement among scholars as to their classification. An analysis of the alphabetic and syllabic aspects of the two writing systems is presented and it is demonstrated that each exhibits significant characteristics of both types of writing systems. It is concluded that neither label entirely does either writing system justice.

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The Brahmi Family of Scripts and Hangul: Alphabets or Syllabaries?.

When it comes to language and literature, the richness of a culture can only be comprehended via reading and listening. Brahmi is believed to have been responsible for the script of all northern Indian languages except for Urdu. The result of a lengthy and tedious process. There are currently over 200 different languages and dialects spoken throughout India. Some are extensively employed, while others are only found in a single location of the country or planet. Only twenty-two of these amendments has made it into the text of our country's founding constitution. In addition to Braj Bhasha, Avadhi who is spoken in the Oudh region, Bhojpuri, Magadhi, and Maithili which is spoken in Mithila, Rajasthani who is spoken in Rajasthan, and Khadi Boli which is spoken around Delhi. A substantial number of people speak Hindi in its various forms. Another script, known as Brahmi, was also established in the region during this period and was used throughout India and the rest of South Asia at the same time. Even though historians, archaeologists, and epigraphists have been interested in Brahmi Script for centuries, the script's varied forms, structures, and typographical peculiarities as an alphabet have been mostly overlooked and never examined. Within the scope of this paper, we shall look at the origins of the Brahmi script as a type of logography. Historical appreciation for the distinct anatomical symmetry and phonetic logic of the Brahmi script exists. This has led some outsiders to think that it is an import, yet a consensus has developed over time. "Brahmi" is no longer thought to be a stolen script, but rather an Indigenous one that developed over time. Brahmi is a typographic entity that is basic yet graceful, bold yet lyric, distinct yet easy to recall, symmetrical with decent legibility even when scaled-down, and generally easy to recognise when touched on with closed eyes as a typographic entity. Brahmi is a typeface with a wide range of distinct features. This study investigates the history of the Brahmi script as a logographic element.

John Rupert Firth

Papers

Introduction to the Devanagari script : for students of Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali