Home Welcome About Us Contact Us

 

MEMANI LANGUAGE  

·  Memon Community and Preservation of its Identity

·  Memon Biradri Jee Shanakht Jo Mustakbil

·  Rules for writing Memani

 

RULES FOR WRITING MEMANI

In our day to day conversation in Memani, we often use some proverbs. Most of these proverbs are of Gujrati origin. In Pakistan, many proverbs of Urdu origin are also used.

An attempt has been made in these pages to write some popular Memoni proverbs in Roman script mainly for the benefit of our brothers and sisters living abroad. The following methodology has been adopted.

  • Memani Proverb is written in Roman Script preceded by the alphabet ORG meaning original.  

  • English translation of important words used in the proverb follows the Memani proverb. This does not only give word by word English equivalent of Memani word but also shows that the construction of a sentence in English language is different from that of a sentence composed in Memani. It is preceded by alphabets WDS denoting a substitute for “word”.  

  • It is followed by a translation of the proverb in English denoted by Alphabets TRN meaning translation attempt has been made to make a literal translation.  

  • It is followed by an explanation which has been denoted by the words EXP. At some places ‘Equivalent English’ proverb has been added.

It is now for the readers – especially those living overseas to tell us, if this attempt has been successful or not and will it help them in improving their understanding of Memni? We all know that  the alphabets of the English language phonetic sounds when used in different words. The following are the examples of different phonetic sounds of some of the alphabets:

   

A  Fat
 Advice
 Father
 Fear		 I  Bid
  Private
  Import
  Bird		 U  Mute
  Run
 Put
  Appear
E  Me
 Bed
 Elect		 O  Open
 Money
 Mouse		 C  Cat
 Center
G  Game
 Ginning		 N  Nine
 King		 S  Ship
 Station

  

To cover these different phonetic sound, we have to adopt specific sound for these alphabets to write Memni in Roman script. We have developed some simple roles for this purpose.

 While reading Memni proverb in Roman script, you have to remember the following rules for writing Memni in Roman script.  

A

Will be used for its sound in FATHER or for Its sound in Appear,   fear etc but we will use ‘E’ for its sound in FAT, MAP etc. For its sound in ARMY, we will use ‘AA’  

E 

 Will be used for its sound in ‘BED’ and not for its sound in‘ME. For sound in “ME” we  will use double E i.e. MEE.

U 

Will be used for its sound in “BUT” and not  “PUT” for its sound in PUT, we will use “OO”.

C

Will be used for its sound in “Circle” or “City” and not “Cat”. For sound of C in CAT we will  use ‘K’.  

G

Will be used for its sound in “Game” and not for sound in “Ginning”. For sound of ‘G’ in GINNING we will use ‘J’.  
I

Will be for its sound in INK, TIMBER etc but not for its sound in KITE, TIME etc. For this sound, we will use ‘Y’.  
N

Will be used for its sound in NAME, MANAGER etc. For NASAL sound of ‘N’ within a word (NOON GUNNA IN URDU), we will use capital ‘N’ e.g. INK, huNger froNT etc.  
S Will be used for its sound in “Ship” and not for its sound in “Station”.  
Y

Will be used for its sound in TYRE and TYCOON etc as well as for its sound in YOUNG, YES etc when used in the beginning of a word. For its sound in MYSTRY, SYMPATHY etc, we will use ‘I’.

  Back to Sub Menu