We are just studying the facts. There is no need of
being a passionate or impassionate reader. We have to
analyse to everything its pros and cons, its
reasonability, its applicability and so on. We should
not blindly follow others style or culture, without
knowing what prompts them to follow that particular
style? We must also study the possible impacts we may
have. And if any what would be its magnitude,
negligible or considerable? First of all, before we
adopting the nomalculture Name Surname, we must study
what are its strong points, its weak points? its
impact on our language construct and its
applicability.
"Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Asok Singhal, Pravin
Togadia etc, follow this" should not be the basis for
adopting something. Before adoptating it, study of the
reason why they adopted it is of utmost important.
Ranjan Yumnam didn't made any study of it and its
impact on our language construct.
"We have our own unique more advanced nomenclature,
Why should we change for an inferior one?"
Ranjan desparately tried to defend himself that by
writing his name as Ranjan Yumnam, he is not
mayangnising his full name. His defensive point is
that western countries also follow the same
nomenclature. But how strong and effective his point
is to defend him? Where is he staying? He is in Delhi.
What is the nomenclature of delhi people? Name
followed by Surname. Ranjan is staying in Delhi and
following the same nomenclature as those of Delhi
people. He is claiming that his style is not that of
delhi one but of american one. Who will believe this?
Induction occurs most stongly between two nearest
objects. Distant objects has less inductive power than
nearer objects. Your claim that writing meitei names
as Name Surname format is not a mayangnised one is not
supportable in any ground. Because we don't have that
much close contact with western people as we do with
mayangs.
The Sun and the stars have light. How powerfull or big
a star may be, but we get light from the sun because
of its proximity to us, not from distant stars.
So no sane man will say that writing Name Surname
style is induced to us by western influence. All will
say that it is the induced to us from mayang influence
as we are closer to them. That is the reason why I
wrote Ranjan Yumnam is a mangnaised style. If you are
nearer to western countries, I could have said that is
a westernised style.
In 2, Ranjan have mentioned that "Sacrificing cultural
identity for gender identification is not only foolish
but also very unpatriotic".
It is a meaningless prank. Gender identifier is not a
measure of one's patrioitism. Our cultural identity
has nothing to do with the gender identification. The
love of one's culture or bithplace is inherent quality
of everybody. It has nothing to do with the name or
gender identifier. If one thinks so, that is a mere
imagination.
In 3, Ranjan mentioned, "But forcing Singhs, Devis,
Kumars, etc., to our names is an insult to ourselves
and reeks of cultural imperialistic dominance by
mayangs."
This I suppose, is really irrelevant. There is no law
in Manipur or in India to force people put singhs,
devis or kumars etc. I don't know in which part of
Manipur people are enfored to put singhs or devis in
their names.
I don't understand what is meant by the cultural
imperalistic dominance by Mayangs? In no point of
time, culturally we were never dominated by anybody ,
except in this modern eras when our boys use to wear
trousers and our girls to salwars, etc. Rasa Lila is
an example of our cultural prominance over the
mayangs.
With regard to 4th point, I won't be able to answer
who said that. Because those were not said during our
times. Also I don't know whether historically there is
any record reconing the time, date and event of saying
all those. But that is the general notion, some old
folk used to say, varifiacation of it may need some
efforts.
"Do we need to prove a point to the mayangs that we
are as able as them? Doesn’t this point to a feeling
of inner inferiority complex in us?".
If the situation arises,we should prove that we are
not only as able as them but superior to them. This is
not to create inferiority complex but to create the
superiority complex.
"Have you met any mayang adding Meitei in their names
to tell us he is as capable as us, the Manipuris? "
Mayang names do not use a gender-identifier. If they
had one's, who knows they might have used some meiteis
fancy words in their names.
( Pointless Joke).
The point number 5, will meet some criticism.
Curiosity of people's name comes only for
famous/prominent peosonalities. Nobody cares for
Henry Clinton, but Bill Clinton because the later was
the president of a country. Nobody cares for Rammohon
Gandhi, but Sonia Gandhi beacuse the later is the
opposition leader in indian parliament. What I want to
say is that curiosity of one's name is realted with
his personality. If you are not a prominent figure,
even if you shout to the top of your voice you are
from Manipur, nobody would pay attention to you or to
your origins.
For example,People would like to know more of Dinko
Singh than Ranjan Yumnam, because the former was an
asian well known boxer. If they wan't to know more
about Dinko Singh, ultimately they will search the
origin of Dingko Singh and know Manipur. This clearly
shows that adding Singh or Devi does not put any
hindrance to the introduction of Manipur to the
outside world. In other words, what matter most to the
introduction of Manipur to the outside world is not
our name but our personality.
As regards point number 6, I would rather say, we
don't write or say our surnames in abbreviated form in
meiteilon. We don't write Yum Ranjan (Yum for
Yumnam). But we do write something like as Wai Ranjan.
But Wai is not a word of meitlon. When we write or say
in meiteilon, we always proounce the full sagei.
Let us consider the following. Ranjan is talking to
Rajseh. Suddenly somebody from inside a house, asked.
Rajesh, "Nganglido kanano?"
If Rajesh is not a family member of Ranjan, nor the
the asker is not closely known to Ranjan, the answer
may be any one of this.
Yumnam gi Ta Ranjan nida. (If Rajesh is junior to
Ranjan)
Yumnam (gi) Ranjan nida ( If Rajesh and Ranjan are of
same age)
Yumnam gi Mama Ranjan nida (If Ranjan is the uncle of
Rajesh)
and so on, we cannot ignore or abbreviate yumnam here.
We can't give the reply like this
Y. gi Ranjan nida (Y for Yumnam) or Wai gi Ranjan nida
Or We hardly say, Ta Ranjan Yumnam nida.
This is where the importance of surnames come in our
names and language. Your common sense fails to think
of this. Ok no problem, at least your brain comes out
something good or bad, that is a good sign.
"How long shall we live under the shadows of mayang’s
cultural imperialism?". Culturally we are much ahead
of Mayangs and independent, No meitei is being forced
by mayangs to follow any of their culture.so term like
cultural imperialism sounds funny.
For me, if one is born as a meitei, he/she is always a
meitei, regardless of which gender-identifier one
uses. So far as our basic structure is preserved, it
is not of much concern whether one uses singh or
yaingang as gender identifier. I think it is not right
to make such statements as " No Singhs, Devis please,
we are Manipuris " , sounds to be more fanatic. Let
them use who want to use, let them drop who don't want
to use. We should respect the personal freedom of
choice and mutual non-interfarence. Rather we should
concrened more about how to become a responsible
citizen of Manipur.
Any way, let's see some computational advantages of
our nomenclature as well.
Suppose one wants to develope a Meiteilon-English
translator. Using gender-idnetifiers would make the
machine translator program more easier to write.
Let's us consider the case of translation from
meiteilon to english.
"Avatar Kaur ngarang laklammi. Mahak yamna wang
chaoyi."
mahida "mahak" haibasi machinena handokpa matamda he
haigdra natraga she haigadra? As there is no gender
idenfier in the name, we can't say whether the name
avatar is a male name or a female name. To know that,
we have to maintain at least two lists, one consisting
of possible male names and other consisting of female
names. Then, we will search whether the name avatar is
in the male database or female list. If the name is
found in male's list we will replace the 'mahak' with
'he'. if the name is in the female lists, we will
replace the 'mahak' with 'she'. Avatar is basically
the name of a male. Also suppose the male list also
has the name Avatar. Then we will have to replace the
above 'mahak' with 'he'. Actually the name Avatar
Kaur is the name of a female, mother of indian cricket
player Harbhajan Singh. So inspite maintining lists
for possible names of male and female, there still is
the possiblity of wrong gender translation, if there
are no gender identifier. If we had used the the
gender-identifiers in the names, we can directly
translate mahak to he or she by from the gender
identifier of the name. This is just a simple example
there may be many more.
For example, sorting data based on gender difference.
I think I have written too far. Readers may feel
boring reading all these tasteless sentences. Thanks,
Ranjan Yumnam for bringing up such an intersting topic
and his good way of expression.
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