By Lee  

From its inception the Roman alphabet version of the PAITE script has scaled a tremendous height in terms of usage and influence. Within a short span of a Century from its birth in the early 20^th Century it is widely accepted and universally adopted among the Paite speaking race as their standard form of writing . Though different style of writings like Tual Lai, Pauchinhau Lai etc. peculiar to that of the Roman Script Version had already been practiced and started prior to the creation of the Roman style of Writings, these had little impact on the common masses, they are not widely adopted and have little influence to the mainstream population. But this Roman Version though it may be the late entrant in the scene came out to be the Winner  in the game of language Coding in Paite. Nevertheless it rule the Roost in the Kingdom as far as Paite Literature is concerned. Might be due to its simplicity, ease of memorizing, convenience of reproduction and publication, ease of blending with the prevailing English style of writing and learning .  No special tools or writing machines needs to be developed or devised for publishing or reproducing, rather everything can be work out with the readily available English Typewriter and Printing Press etc. without even making a single modification. The Alphabet of Paite in this form has 24 letters inall, some are in the combined form of two English Alphabets(letters) . It is a tailored made script  to cater to the needs of Local art or style of speech or speaking.

Controversies over scripting of this language had been arisen at different occasions and had been always an issue till to date. Even various schools of thoughts had been emerged on the issues of writing in this script. For instance on the use of J and Z, Ch and C etc. The Paite Literature Society has been considered the Official and the empowered and Authorised Body on the subject with discretion of issuing Regulations and Decision making on the growth and development of this this Language on the literary front. They have their base in Manipur. This body issued various guidelines and principles on writing this disputed language and script. The dispute is not on the language itself but rather on the code of scripting the language. Students ofVarious schools in Manipur were taught to write as per the guidelines laid down by The Paite Literature Society . Vast portion of the masses are also slowly and gradually adopting this method of wirting, this is a move to standardised the writings and literature of Paite and a step towards standardisation of Paite writings. We highly appreciate this.

On the other hand , wirting in our language has many short comings and limitations. We ought to resolved these shortcomings one way or the other, preferably on the long term strategies rather than on short terms. For this we all should be broad minded, accepting sensible ideas, appreciate creativity and dynamism. As had been mentioned , our writings have limitations, yeah its tue, because we are too much fundamentalistics or orthodox or should I say inflexible or intolerable we have an instinct to carry on with the writing styles of bygone era. We need to broadened our point of views, and prepared to accept and integrate with evolved form of writing and update and enrich our literature in accordance with the change of time without straying away from the basic 24 alphabets or keeping in mind the Basic Principles. For this I should mentioned the excessive use of Z and ignored of J . J should not be restricted only to nouns, cause this could solve atleast some of the basic problems and limitations of using double vowels frequently. E.g.

Zouzaam or Zoujam	Zawng or Jong	Zaalmang or Jalmang
Zikzek- thin/ very quiet	Jikjek- abundantly available	Or should Ziikzeek ?

 

Restriction on using D should also be reconsidered cause it might solve many problems on the issue of ‘double vowels’  e.g.

On using B :-

On using ‘G’. In Paite it is called ‘ek’ or ‘ekh’ rather than ‘jee’or ‘Zee’ or ‘Gee’. So many issues could be resolved by replacing ‘K’ by ‘G’ in the appropriate places. E.g.

 

Considering the above examples we arrived that some common words are easily substitutable by a different words to mean different. The above are quote only as instances and are only indicative , vast area have to be explored further to widened and enrich our script and style of coding. It is only the tip of and ice berg , vast lane are there to be discovered in this field. But only if we are accepting ideas, flexible and tolerable with live ideas. We should accept that by evolution and revision only our literature can only grow but not by restriction and narrowism, because ours is only at the initial stage, improvement, adoption and integration, merging will enrich them, we should not be too rigid until and unless if it is not beyond the 24 symbols of coding alphabets created at the beginning. The evolution of English literature also takes the form of integration and diversification over the ages. Then why should we restrict and limited ourselves to a congested form of scripting our literature we ought to ENRICH..