A copy of an exchange from soc.culture.indian
On Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 1:32:15 AM UTC+5:30, Vyomm wrote:
<https://www.thehindu.com/books/the-death-of-a-script/article27021831.ece>
<https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.278.6821&rep=rep1&type=pdf>

I say:
I'm reminded of Forgotten Scripts by Cyrus Gordon
https://g.co/kgs/9ghYQK

Outside India, is there a compulsion for one country to maintain a
plurality of scripts with each major language having a separate
script its speakers call their own script? AFAIK, Yugoslavia was
an outlier in having two scripts for essentially the same language.

I quote Nikhil Bellarykar who attached a pic of the oldest Marathi
inscription in his Quora posting:
There was a script similar to Devanagari continuously in use side by
side with the Modi script. The oldest Marathi inscription is in a script
similar to that one.

I comment:
Constitutionally each language on an Indian banknote is entitled to its
own script. But it's awkward to determine whether the Marathas have
been deprived of their "own" Modi script because their language was
also written in that other script. Devanagari might well be regarded as
an update to that script other than Modi. The Constitution doesn't say
that each language is entitled to two scripts which leaves the State free
to phase out one of them and the one phased out was the Modi script.

I note, however, that:
Panjabi is written in 3 scripts - Gurmukhi, Devanagari and Shahmukhi.
The last is used in Pakistan, so Indian Panjabis have 2 scripts. If it
was possible to have 2 scripts for Panjabi, it was also possible for
Marathi. But the demand for reviving Modi (मोडी) is too poor for it to
become reality.

On Monday, August 23, 2021 at 10:46:27 PM UTC-4, Dingbat wrote:
> A copy of an exchange from soc.culture.indian
> On Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 1:32:15 AM UTC+5:30, Vyomm wrote:
> <https://www.thehindu.com/books/the-death-of-a-script/article27021831.ece>
> <https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.278.6821&rep=rep1&type=pdf>
>
> I say:
> I'm reminded of Forgotten Scripts by Cyrus Gordon
> https://g.co/kgs/9ghYQK
>
> Outside India, is there a compulsion for one country to maintain a
> plurality of scripts with each major language having a separate
> script its speakers call their own script? AFAIK, Yugoslavia was
> an outlier in having two scripts for essentially the same language.
>
> I quote Nikhil Bellarykar who attached a pic of the oldest Marathi
> inscription in his Quora posting:
> There was a script similar to Devanagari continuously in use side by
> side with the Modi script. The oldest Marathi inscription is in a script
> similar to that one.
>
> I comment:
> Constitutionally each language on an Indian banknote is entitled to its
> own script. But it's awkward to determine whether the Marathas have
> been deprived of their "own" Modi script because their language was
> also written in that other script. Devanagari might well be regarded as
> an update to that script other than Modi. The Constitution doesn't say
> that each language is entitled to two scripts which leaves the State free
> to phase out one of them and the one phased out was the Modi script.
>
> I note, however, that:
> Panjabi is written in 3 scripts - Gurmukhi, Devanagari and Shahmukhi.
> The last is used in Pakistan, so Indian Panjabis have 2 scripts. If it
> was possible to have 2 scripts for Panjabi, it was also possible for
> Marathi. But the demand for reviving Modi (मोडी) is too poor for it to
> become reality.

In the case of the multi-scriptal languages, notably Punjabi, each
_religion_ has its own script -- the pattern was followed by "Hindustani,"
perhaps thanks to the British, as well.

Standardization came with printing in the 18th century.