In writing the Khasi language, Thomas Jones chose the Roman scripts for three important reasons:
(a) The difficulty of learning a hundred or more difficult sounds and signs when compared to the 22 letters A B C D E G NG H I J K L M N O P R S T U W Y.
(b) The Bengali scripts used by the Serampore Mission in their translation of the New Testament, and by Alexander Lish for his readers, had not proved successful. He stated "after years of labour and much expense, not only among the Khasis is able to read a page of the books he used, or to understand a paragraph of some of the more simple sayings in the English language".
(c) The Khasis generally "had a superstitious terror of Bengali letters, firmly believing that if they tried to form a letter that they would be struck by blindness...or suffer a fatal illness. The above reasons quelled all the doubts and misgivings of his critics in India and in Wales. (Cf. KAS Souvenir 150: p. 12).
Ka jingthoh jong u William Pryse, u mishoneri jong ka Welsh mission ha Sylhet, i kumba ka pashat jingmut sha kawei pat ka daw, balei sha u Thomas Jones u mon ïa ki dak Roman. Ong u Pryse:
The Roman characters have been adopted in preference to the Bengali characters, not from a conviction of the superior utility of the former, but simply because they were found already in use amongst the natives.
Kum ban shu pynbud ïa ki jingkren bad ki jingpuson shaphang ka ktien Khasi bad ki alphabet Khasi, kane ka dei ka sla ba la sot na ka kot U Thomas Jones bad Ka Pyrthei Saitsohpen ba la thoh da i Babu S. S. Majaw. Ka long kaba sngew myntoi ban ïoh ki jingtip kum kine. Khublei Shibun @carey_lynz ba phi la phah ïa kane ka dur! 🙏🙏😃
As a follow up to our conversations and thoughts about the Khasi language and the Khasi alphabet, here is a page from the book U Thomas Jones bad Ka Pyrthei Saitsohpen by S. S. Majaw. It is interesting and beneficial to know about all this.
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