Brahmic scripts
Brahmic scripts |
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The Brahmi script and its descendants |
The Brahmic or Indic scripts are a family of abugida (alphabetic-syllabary) writing systems. They are used throughout South Asia, Southeast Asia, and parts of Central and East Asia, and are descended from the Brāhmī script of the ancient Indian subcontinent. They are used by languages of several language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Tai, and possibly influenced Korean (hangul). They were also the source of the dictionary order of Japanese kana.
History
Brahmic scripts are descended from the Brahmi script. Brahmi is clearly attested from the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ashoka, who used the script for imperial edicts, but there are some recent finds of earlier epigraphy in Tamil-Brahmi writing found on pottery in South India and Sri Lanka, dating back to the 6th century BCE or even earlier. Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta period, which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the Middle Ages, including Siddham, Sharada and Nagari.
The Siddham (kanji: 悉曇, modern Japanese pronunciation: shittan) script was especially important in Buddhism because many sutras were written in it, and the art of Siddham calligraphy survives today in Japan. The syllabic nature and dictionary order of the modern kana system of Japanese writing is believed to be descended from the Indic scripts, most likely through the spread of Buddhism.[1]
Southern Brahmi evolved into Grantha and Old-Kannada Scripts among others, which in turn diversified into numerous scripts of Southeast Asia.
Bhattiprolu was a great centre of Buddhism during 3rd century BCE and from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. The present Telugu script is derived from Bhattiprolu Script or 'Kannada-Telugu script', also known as 'old Kannada script', owing to its similarity to the same[2][3].
Initially, minor changes were made which is now called Tamil brahmi which has far fewer letters than some of the other Indic scripts as it has no separate aspirated or voiced consonants. Later under the influence of Granta vetteluthu evolved which looks similar to present day Malayalam script. Still further changes were made in 19th and 20th centuries to make use of printing and typewriting needs before we have the present script.
Gari Ledyard has hypothesized that the hangul script used to write Korean is based on the Mongol 'Phags-pa script, a descendant of the Brahmic family via Tibetan.
Characteristics
Some characteristics, which may not be present in all the scripts are:
- Each consonant has an inherent vowel which is usually short 'a' (in Bengali, Oriya, and Assamese, it is short 'ô' due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A mark, known in Sanskrit as a virama/halant can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel.
- Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not part of a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
- Consonants (up to 5 in Devanagari) can be combined in ligatures. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
- Nasalization and aspiration of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
- The traditional ordering can be summarized as follows: vowels, velar consonants, palatal consonants, retroflex consonants, dental consonants, bilabial consonants, approximants, sibilants, and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four consonants (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a nasalised consonant.
Comparison
Below are comparison charts of several of the major Indic scripts; transliteration is indicated in ISO 15919; pronunciation is indicated in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). Pronunciation is taken from Sanskrit where possible, but other languages where necessary. These lists are not comprehensive; some glyphs are unrepresented. Some pronunciations may be inaccurate or different from the ones listed, partly because the graphemically corresponding glyphs listed in the same column are not necessarily phonetically identical.
Consonants
ISO | k | kh | g | gh | ṅ | c | ch | j | jh | ñ | ṭ | ṭh | ḍ | ḍh | ṇ | t | th | d | dh | n | ṉ | p | ph | b | bh | m | y | r | ṟ | l | ḷ | ḻ | v | ś | ṣ | s | h |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
IPA | k | kʰ | ɡ | ɡʱ | ŋ | c | cʰ | ɟ | ɟʱ | ɲ | ʈ | ʈʰ | ɖ | ɖʱ | ɳ | t̪ | t̪ʰ | d̪ | d̪ʱ | n̪ | n | p | pʰ | b | bʱ | m | j | r | ɾ | l | ɭ | ɻ | ʋ | ʃ | ʂ | s | ɦ |
Oriya | କ | ଖ | ଗ | ଘ | ଙ | ଚ | ଛ | ଜ | ଝ | ଞ | ଟ | ଠ | ଡ | ଢ | ଣ | ତ | ଥ | ଦ | ଧ | ନ | ପ | ଫ | ବ | ଭ | ମ | ଯ | ର | ଲ | ଳ | ଵ | ଶ | ଷ | ସ | ହ | |||
E. Nagari | ক | খ | গ | ঘ | ঙ | চ | ছ | জ | ঝ | ঞ | ট | ঠ | ড | ঢ | ণ | ত | থ | দ | ধ | ন | প | ফ | ব | ভ | ম | য | র/ৰ | ল | ৱ | শ | ষ | স | হ | ||||
Devanagari | क | ख | ग | घ | ङ | च | छ | ज | झ | ञ | ट | ठ | ड | ढ | ण | त | थ | द | ध | न | ऩ | प | फ | ब | भ | म | य | र | ऱ | ल | ळ | ऴ | व | श | ष | स | ह |
Gujarati | ક | ખ | ગ | ઘ | ઙ | ચ | છ | જ | ઝ | ઞ | ટ | ઠ | ડ | ઢ | ણ | ત | થ | દ | ધ | ન | પ | ફ | બ | ભ | મ | ય | ર | લ | ળ | વ | શ | ષ | સ | હ | |||
Gurmukhi | ਕ | ਖ | ਗ | ਘ | ਙ | ਚ | ਛ | ਜ | ਝ | ਞ | ਟ | ਠ | ਡ | ਢ | ਣ | ਤ | ਥ | ਦ | ਧ | ਨ | ਪ | ਫ | ਬ | ਭ | ਮ | ਯ | ਰ | ਲ | ਲ਼ | ਵ | ਸ਼ | ਸ | ਹ | ||||
Tibetan | ཀ | ཁ | ག | ང | ཅ | ཆ | ཇ | ཉ | ཊ | ཋ | ཌ | ཎ | ཏ | ཐ | ད | ན | པ | ཕ | བ | མ | ཡ | ར | ལ | ཝ | ཤ | ཥ | ས | ཧ | |||||||||
Brahmi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Telugu | క | ఖ | గ | ఘ | ఙ | చ | ఛ | జ | ఝ | ఞ | ట | ఠ | డ | ఢ | ణ | త | థ | ద | ధ | న | ప | ఫ | బ | భ | మ | య | ర | ఱ | ల | ళ | వ | శ | ష | స | హ | ||
Kannada | ಕ | ಖ | ಗ | ಘ | ಙ | ಚ | ಛ | ಜ | ಝ | ಞ | ಟ | ಠ | ಡ | ಢ | ಣ | ತ | ಥ | ದ | ಧ | ನ | ಪ | ಫ | ಬ | ಭ | ಮ | ಯ | ರ | ಱ | ಲ | ಳ | ೞ | ವ | ಶ | ಷ | ಸ | ಹ | |
Sinhala | ක | ඛ | ග | ඝ | ඞ | ච | ඡ | ජ | ඣ | ඤ | ට | ඨ | ඩ | ඪ | ණ | ත | ථ | ද | ධ | න | ප | ඵ | බ | භ | ම | ය | ර | ල | ළ | ව | ශ | ෂ | ස | හ | |||
Malayalam | ക | ഖ | ഗ | ഘ | ങ | ച | ഛ | ജ | ഝ | ഞ | ട | ഠ | ഡ | ഢ | ണ | ത | ഥ | ദ | ധ | ന | പ | ഫ | ബ | ഭ | മ | യ | ര | റ | ല | ള | ഴ | വ | ശ | ഷ | സ | ഹ | |
Tamil | க | ங | ச | ஜ | ஞ | ட | ண | த | ந | ன | ப | ம | ய | ர | ற | ல | ள | ழ | வ | ஶ | ஷ | ஸ | ஹ | ||||||||||||||
Burmese | က | ခ | ဂ | ဃ | င | စ | ဆ | ဇ | ဈ | ဉ/ည | ဋ | ဌ | ဍ | ဎ | ဏ | တ | ထ | ဒ | ဓ | န | ပ | ဖ | ဗ | ဘ | မ | ယ | ရ | လ | ဠ | ၔ | ဝ | ၐ | ၑ | သ | ဟ | ||
Khmer | ក | ខ | គ | ឃ | ង | ច | ឆ | ជ | ឈ | ញ | ដ | ឋ | ឌ | ឍ | ណ | ត | ថ | ទ | ធ | ន | ប | ផ | ព | ភ | ម | យ | រ | ល | ឡ | វ | ឝ | ឞ | ស | ហ | |||
Thai | ก | ข | ค | ฆ | ง | จ | ฉ | ช | ฌ | ญ | ฏ | ฐ | ฑ | ฒ | ณ | ต | ถ | ท | ธ | น | ป | ผ | พ | ภ | ม | ย | ร | ล | ฬ | ว | ศ | ษ | ส | ห | |||
Lao | ກ | ຂ | ຄ | ງ | ຈ | ຊ | ຍ | ຕ | ຖ | ທ | ນ | ປ | ຜ | ຟ | ພ | ມ | ຢ | ຣ | ລ | ວ | ສ | ຫ | |||||||||||||||
Balinese | ᬓ | ᬔ | ᬕ | ᬖ | ᬗ | ᬘ | ᬙ | ᬚ | ᬛ | ᬜ | ᬝ | ᬞ | ᬟ | ᬠ | ᬡ | ᬢ | ᬣ | ᬤ | ᬥ | ᬦ | ᬧ | ᬨ | ᬩ | ᬪ | ᬫ | ᬬ | ᬭ | ᬮ | ᬯ | ᬰ | ᬱ | ᬲ | ᬳ | ||||
Baybayin | ᜃ | ᜄ | ᜅ | ᜆ | ᜇ | ᜈ | ᜉ | ᜊ | ᜋ | ᜌ | ᜇ | ᜎ | ᜐ | ᜑ |
Vowels
Vowels are presented in their independent form on the left of each column, and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant k on the right. A glyph for ka is an independent consonant letter itself without any vowel sign, where the vowel a is inherent.
Note: Glyphs for r̥̄, l̥, l̥̄ and a few other glyphs are obsolete or very rarely used.
Numerals
0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oriya | ୦ | ୧ | ୨ | ୩ | ୪ | ୫ | ୬ | ୭ | ୮ | ୯ |
E. Nagari | ০ | ১ | ২ | ৩ | ৪ | ৫ | ৬ | ৭ | ৮ | ৯ |
Devanagari | ० | १ | २ | ३ | ४ | ५ | ६ | ७ | ८ | ९ |
Gujarati | ૦ | ૧ | ૨ | ૩ | ૪ | ૫ | ૬ | ૭ | ૮ | ૯ |
Gurmukhi | ੦ | ੧ | ੨ | ੩ | ੪ | ੫ | ੬ | ੭ | ੮ | ੯ |
Tibetan | ༠ | ༡ | ༢ | ༣ | ༤ | ༥ | ༦ | ༧ | ༨ | ༩ |
Brahmi | ||||||||||
Telugu | ౦ | ౧ | ౨ | ౩ | ౪ | ౫ | ౬ | ౭ | ౮ | ౯ |
Kannada | ೦ | ೧ | ೨ | ೩ | ೪ | ೫ | ೬ | ೭ | ೮ | ೯ |
Malayalam | ൦ | ൧ | ൨ | ൩ | ൪ | ൫ | ൬ | ൭ | ൮ | ൯ |
Tamil | ೦ | ௧ | ௨ | ௩ | ௪ | ௫ | ௬ | ௭ | ௮ | ௯ |
Burmese | ၀ | ၁ | ၂ | ၃ | ၄ | ၅ | ၆ | ၇ | ၈ | ၉ |
Khmer | ០ | ១ | ២ | ៣ | ៤ | ៥ | ៦ | ៧ | ៨ | ៩ |
Thai | ๐ | ๑ | ๒ | ๓ | ๔ | ๕ | ๖ | ๗ | ๘ | ๙ |
Lao | ໐ | ໑ | ໒ | ໓ | ໔ | ໕ | ໖ | ໗ | ໘ | ໙ |
Balinese | ᭐ | ᭑ | ᭒ | ᭓ | ᭔ | ᭕ | ᭖ | ᭗ | ᭘ | ᭙ |
Javanese | ꧐ | ꧑ | ꧒ | ꧓ | ꧔ | ꧕ | ꧖ | ꧗ | ꧘ | ꧙ |
List of Brahmic scripts
Scripts derived from Brahmi.
Historical
The Brahmi script was already divided into regional variants at the time of the earliest surviving epigraphy around the 3rd century BCE. Cursives of the Brahmi script began to diversify further from around the 5th century CE and continued to give rise to new scripts throughout the Middle Ages. The main division in antiquity was between northern and southern Brahmi. In the northern group, the Gupta script was very influential, and in the southern group the Grantha and Old-Kannada Scripts with the spread of Hinduism spread Brahmic scripts throughout Southeast Asia.
- Northern Brahmic
- Anga Lipi, 6th century BCE
- Gupta script, 5th century
- Sharada, 8th century
- Siddham, 7th century
- Phagspa, 13th century
- Nagari, 8th century
- Eastern Nagari, 11th century
- Devanagari, 13th century
- Kaithi, Sylheti Nagari, 16th century
- Modi, 17th century
- Nepal
- Mithilakshar, 15th century
- Southern Brahmi (Tamil Brahmi, Kalinga, Bhattiprolu), 5th century BCE
- Proto Kannada, 3rd century BCE
- Kadamba or Pre-Old-Kannada, 5th century
- Vatteluttu
- Grantha, 6th century
- Dhives Akuru
- Kawi script, 8th century
- Batak, 14th century
- Proto Kannada, 3rd century BCE
- Tocharian script ("Slanting Brahmi"), 7th century
- Ahom, 13th century
- Tai Tham (Lanna), 14th century
- Meeitei Mayek
Contemporary
script | derivation | period of derivation | usage notes | ISO 15924 | Unicode range | sample |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anga Lipi | Brahmi | 6th century BCE | Angika | U+0900–U+097F | देवनागरी | |
Balinese | Old Kawi | 11th century | Balinese language | Bali | U+1B00–U+1B7F | |
Baybayin | Old Kawi | 14th century | Tagalog, other Philippine languages | Tglg | U+1700–U+171F | ᜆᜄᜎᜓᜄ᜔ |
Buhid | Old Kawi | 14th century | Buhid language | Buhd | U+1740–U+175F | ᝊᝓᝑᝒ |
Burmese | Vatteluttu | 11th century | Burmese language, numerous modifications for other languages including Chakma, Eastern and Western Pwo Karen, Geba Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rumai Palaung, S'gaw Karen, Shan | Mymr | U+1000–U+109F | မြန်မာအက္ခရာ |
Cham | Vatteluttu | 8th century | Cham language | Cham | U+AA00–U+AA5F | |
Devanagari | Nagari | 13th century | Numerous Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhili, Konkani, Angika, Bhojpuri, Magahi, Maithili, Kurukh, Nepal Bhasa and sometimes Sindhi and Kashmiri. Formerly used to write Gujarati. Sometimes used to write or transliterate Sherpa | Deva | U+0900–U+097F | देवनागरी |
Eastern Nagari | Nagari | 9th century | Bengali language (Bengali script variant), Assamese language (Assamese script variant) | Beng | U+0980–U+09FF | বাংলা িলিপ |
Gujarati | Nagari | 17th century | Gujarati language, Kutchi language | Gujr | U+0A80–U+0AFF | ગુજરાતી લિપિ |
Gurmukhi | Sharada | 16th century | Punjabi language | Guru | U+0A00–U+0A7F | ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ |
Hanunó'o | Old Kawi | 14th century | Hanuno'o language | Hano | U+1720–U+173F | |
Javanese | Old Kawi | 16th century | Javanese language | Java | U+A980–U+A9DF | |
Kannada | Kadamba | 12th century | Kannada language, others | Knda | U+0C80–U+0CFF | ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆ |
Khmer | Vatteluttu | 11th century | Khmer language | Khmr | U+1780–U+17FF, U+19E0–U+19FF | អក្សរខ្មែរ |
Lao | Khmer | 14th century | Lao language, others | Laoo | U+0E80–U+0EFF | ອັກສອນລາວ |
Lepcha | Tibetan | 18th century | Lepcha language | Lepc | U+1C00–U+1C4F | |
Limbu | Lepcha | 18th century | Limbu language | Limb | U+1900–U+194F | |
Lontara | Old Kawi | 17th century | Buginese language, others; mostly extinct, restricted to ceremonial use | Bugi | U+1A00–U+1A1F | |
Malayalam | Grantha | 12th century | Malayalam language, Konkani language | Mlym | U+0D00–U+0D7F | മലയാളലിപി |
Oriya | Kalinga | 12th century | Oriya language | Orya | U+0B00–U+0B7F | ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଲିପି |
Rejang script | Old Kawi | 18th century | Rejang language, mostly obsolete | Rjng | U+A930–U+A95F | |
Saurashtra | Grantha | 20th century | Saurashtra language, mostly obsolete | Saur | U+A880–U+A8DF | |
Sinhala | Grantha | 12th century | Sinhala language | Sinh | U+0D80–U+0DFF | ශුද්ධ සිංහල |
Sundanese script | Old Kawi | 14th century | Sundanese language | Sund | U+1B80–U+1BBF | |
Tai Le | Tai Lü language | Tale | U+1950–U+197F | |||
New Tai Lue | Tai Tham | 1950s | Tai Lü language | Talu | U+1980-U+19DF | |
Tagbanwa | Old Kawi | 14th century | various languages of Palawan, nearly extinct | Tagb | U+1760–U+177F | |
Tamil | Vatteluttu | 8th century | Tamil language | Taml | U+0B80–U+0BFF | தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி |
Telugu | Old Kannada | 13th century | Telugu language | Telu | U+0C01–U+0C6F | తెలుగు లిపి |
Thai | Khmer | 13th century | Thai language | Thai | U+0E00–U+0E7F | อักษรไทย |
Tibetan | Siddham | 8th century | Tibetan language, Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language | Tibt | U+0F00–U+0FFF | དབུ་ཅན་ |
Tai Viet | Tai Dam language | Tavt | U+AA80–U+AADF |
Graphical Timeline
Note :-
- Here Proto-Indic, Proto-Dravida,Proto-KanTel are hypothetical scripts used to bridge the gap between Indus and Brahmi scripts and is used for continuity only.
- Proto-KanTel is used as generic to mean common Kannada and Telugu oldscripts. Kannada and Telugu scripts deviated from Old-Kannada around (12.c-13.c)CE.
- The Graph shows the timeline of the respective scripts and not necessarily their decendancy.
See also
- ISCII — the coding scheme specifically designed to represent Indic scripts
- Indus script — the earliest writing system on the Indian subcontinent
- Devanagari transliteration
References
- ^ "Font: Japanese". Monotype Corporation.
{{cite web}}
: Text "accessdate-2010-02-09" ignored (help) - ^ Antiquity of Telugu and the script: http://www.hindu.com/2007/12/20/stories/2007122054820600.htm
- ^ Telugu Language and Literature, S. M. R. Adluri, Figures T1a and T1b: http://www.engr.mun.ca/~adluri/telugu/language/script/script1d.html
External links
- Online Tool which supports Conversion between various Brahmic Scripts
- Windows Indic Script Support
- An Introduction to Indic Scripts
- South Asian Writing Systems
- Indian Transliterator A means to transliterate from romanized to Unicode Indian scripts.
- Imperial Brahmi Font and Text-Editor
- Brahmi Script
- IndiX: Indian Language support for the Linux Operating System
- Xlit: Tool for Transliteration between English and Indian Languages
- Padma: Transformer for Indic Scripts – a Firefox add-on