ABSTRACT
Unlike the case of English, the problem in the case of Assamese, the script and alphabet of which are more or less identical to Devanagari, is one of abundance. Two of these unique features of the language, marking it off from other sister languages of the family, are spelling and pronunciation. The language as it is spoken has rather fewer sounds than is the case when it is written. What is ignored in such a hectic search for the most accurate way of transcribing the name, Assam, in the English alphabet is the simple fact that the unique sounds of the language, indeed even the way the single word, Assam, is pronounced and written in Assamese, cannot be transcribed accurately in the English alphabet. If the government has agreed that the word Asam is to be transcribed as Asom, where is the need to make an exception with the initial vowel?.
