#asamiya

LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY CHALLENGE 2/6 অসমীয়া [Ôxômiya]  

INTRODUCTION Assamese is a language native to the Indian state of Assam, which is locate in the northeast region of India and neighbors West Bengal, where it is spoken as a prominent minority language. Approximately 15,328,790 people worldwide speak Assamese as their first language.

HISTORY Assamese is a member of the eastern part of the Indo-Aryan family and is descended from Ardhamagadhi Prakrit, making it a relative to Bengali and Odia. Assamese was born around the 7th century, but didn’t start making a distinctive mark in written literature until around the 13th and 14th centuries. Assamese has a vibrant oral tradition in the form of folk tales, children’s stories and songs in addition to its written art forms.

SCRIPT The modern Assamese script used today traces its origin to the Kamarupi script and strongly resembles the Bengali script, although it contains a couple different characters like ৰ and ৱ which help you distinguish Assamese from Bangla. It classifies as an abugida, like many other Indo-Aryan scripts. While other South Asian scripts developed round features so as to not tear the palm leaves they were written on (Odia, Telugu, etc.), Assamese had its own form of writing developed for texts written in tree bark. While Assamese spelling has been mostly aligned with Sanskritic standards with the introduction of the Hemkosh (a Sanskrit-based Assamese dictionary), it does contain some non-phonetic spellings from its earlier days.

FEATURES -SOV (subject-object-verb) word order -No grammatical gender -Has lexical gender for the third person -Adverbs can be created with verbs as their roots -Most verbs can be converted to nouns -Has a large number of classifiers for nouns (thanks to Sino-Tibetan influence) -Highly inflected

LEGACY AND CONTRIBUTIONS Assamese produced some of the finest 14th century works, with Saptakanda Ramayana being one of the crowning achievements. Written by Kaviraja Madhava Kandali, a beloved Assamese poet, the work is a rendering of the Ramayana, a famous Indian epic poem depicting the life of Rama. In the 16th and 17th centuries Assamese further contributed to Hindu literature. A wide array of technical literature covering topics like astronomy, medicine and mathematics has been penned in Assamese during these periods.

SAMPLE Below is a line from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: সকলো মানুহে স্বাধীনভাৱে সমান ঠাকুৰালি আৰু অধিকাৰে জন্ম লয় । সকলোৰে বিবেক আৰু জ্ঞান-বুদ্ধি আছে আৰু সকলোৱে এজনে আনজনক ভাই-ভাই হিচাপে ব্যৱহাৰ দিব লাগে ।

VIDEOS Here’s a music video for "Kong Seng” by Kussum Kailash and Neel Akash

Here’s a video of words and phrases in Assamese.

I haven’t seen anyone discuss this in English yet, so now that my copy of the first print volume has arrived I shall attempt to break the ice!  Shounen Kaitou Le Bread is an ongoing online spin-off based on Asamiya Kia’s 1990′s manga series, Kaiketsu Jouki Tanteidan (aka: Steam Detectives). Although the basic scenario takes its lead from Asamiya’s original work, Shounen Kaitou Le Bread is written and illustrated by Pixiv artist, Kanamura Ren.

What is Kaiketsu Jouki Tanteidan?

Set in Steam City, where technology is steam-powered and the city streets are constantly shrouded in mist, boy detective Narutaki, his nurse assistant Ling Ling, and the megamaton Goriki do battle with all manner of nefarious villains who wish to rob or maim the city’s residents.

The original manga ran for 13 volumes (over two series) and had a 26-episode anime adaptation in 1998-99. The anime also has an objectively great opening theme that I will fight you about.

Who is Le Bread?

Also written as Le Bled, this youthful masked thief is Narutaki’s nemesis and with his own nurse assistant, Lang Lang, seeks to make off with valuables and challenge Narutaki’s detective skills at every turn.

Le Bread lives a lavish lifestyle and is worldly beyond his years. When it comes to crime he’s arrogant and determined, always seeking to be one step ahead of Narutaki.

What is Shounen Kaitou Le Bread?

This spin-off series focuses on the phantom thief’s escapades rather than those of Narutaki. In this series, Le Bread (also known as Alain) works with Lang Lang and his pal Theo to just generally steal shit and make life difficult for Chief Inspector Yagami and Detective Onigawara. The bulk of the story in the first volume focuses on a forged painting and the introduction of some new complications for Le Bread & the regular cops in the form of NSS agents, Steve and Patrick.

Do I Need to Read Steam Detectives to Understand Shounen Kaitou Le Bread?

Nope, it’s all very straightforward -- you’ll obviously enjoy a few of the easter eggs in the spin-off more if you’re familiar with the original series, but it’s otherwise non-essential reading.

Should I Be Reading It?

If you like a fun little phantom thief romp or you’re bored between Detective Conan volumes, Shounen Kaitou Le Bread might just be what you’re looking for (the mangaka is also a fan of Conan which may be more than a little obvious when you check out this book). It’s all fairly light reading (the original series was a monthly Jump title, so y’know) and Kanamura’s art is a breath of fresh air for the universe (Asamiya’s art could never capture Le Bread’s sickly, beautiful face). One of the major downsides is that thus far there’s little in the way of mecha or steam action -- I’m not sure if Kanamura can draw the quirky megamatons or even some of the scenery/action on the same level Asamiya could (though her character art is undeniably leagues better).

On the plus side, there’s a lot of great character interaction between the main trio, not to mention Patrick & Steve’s motorbike scenes are fucking amazing (seriously, Patrick launching from the bike and putting his high-heel through a windscreen = lkdfgkjdlgkdg). 

Given this is an online comic, with relatively easy to access chapters it’s a bit sad that nobody outside of Japan seems to be talking about it! If a scanlation group was so inclined I’m sure a lot of English readers would love to get in on these fun adventures (particularly given the cast of handsome guys).