Ṣa (Indic)

Comparison of Ṣa in different scripts

Aramaic - Kharoṣṭhī 𐨮 Ashoka Brahmi Kushana Brahmi Tocharian  /  Gupta Brahmi Pallava - Kadamba - Bhaiksuki 𑰬 Siddhaṃ Grantha 𑌷 Cham ꨦ Sinhala ෂ Pyu / Old Mon - Tibetan ཥ Newa 𑐲 Ahom - Malayalam ഷ Telugu ష Burmese ၑ Lepcha - Ranjana - Saurashtra ꢰ Dives Akuru 𑤫 Kannada ಷ Kayah Li - Limbu ᤚ Soyombo 𑪀 Khmer ឞ Tamil ஷ Chakma - Tai Tham ᩇ Meitei Mayek ꫪ Gaudi - Thai ษ Lao - Tai Le - Marchen - Tirhuta 𑒭 New Tai Lue - Tai Viet - Aksara Kawi - 'Phags-pa - Odia ଷ Sharada 𑆰 Rejang - Batak - Buginese - Zanabazar Square 𑨯 Bengali-Assamese Takri - Javanese ꦰ Balinese ᬱ Makasar - Hangul - Northern Nagari - Dogri 𑠨 Laṇḍā - Sundanese - Baybayin - Modi 𑘬 Gujarati ષ Khojki - Khudabadi - Mahajani - Tagbanwa - Devanagari Nandinagari 𑧌 Kaithi 𑂭 Gurmukhi - Multani - Buhid - Canadian Syllabics - Soyombo 𑪀 Sylheti Nagari - Gunjala Gondi - Masaram Gondi 𑴪 Hanuno'o - Notes

Ṣa or Ssa is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ssa is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Further information: Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of ष are:

• ष [ʂə] = 80 (८०)
• षि [ʂɪ] = 8,000 (८ ०००)
• षु [ʂʊ] = 800,000 (८ ०० ०००)
• षृ [ʂri] = 80,000,000 (८ ०० ०० ०००)
• षॢ [ʂlə] = 8×10⁹ (८×१०^९)
• षे [ʂe] = 8×10¹¹ (८×१०^११)
• षै [ʂɛː] = 8×10¹³ (८×१०^१३)
• षो [ʂoː] = 8×10¹⁵ (८×१०^१५)
• षौ [ʂɔː] = 8×10¹⁷ (८×१०^१७)

Historic Ṣa

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ssa as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ssa had an alterante Fremdzeichen form, . The third form of ssa, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Ṣa

The Brahmi letter , Ssa, is probably derived from the Aramaic Samekh , and is thus related to the modern Greek Xi. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ssa can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Ssa historic forms

Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)
	No sample

Tocharian Ṣa

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Ssä.

Tocharian Ssa with vowel marks

Ssa	Ssā	Ssi	Ssī	Ssu	Ssū	Ssr	Ssr̄	Sse	Ssai	Sso	Ssau	Ssä	Fremdzeichen

Kharoṣṭhī Ṣa

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Heth , and is thus related to H and Eta.

Devanagari Ṣa

Main article: Devanagari ssa

Ṣa (ष) is a consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ષ, and the Modi letter 𑘬.

Devanagari-using Languages

In all languages, ष is pronounced as [ʂə] or [ʂ] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Devanagari ष with vowel marks

Ṣa	Ṣā	Ṣi	Ṣī	Ṣu	Ṣū	Ṣr	Ṣr̄	Ṣl	Ṣl̄	Ṣe	Ṣai	Ṣo	Ṣau	Ṣ
ष	षा	षि	षी	षु	षू	षृ	षॄ	षॢ	षॣ	षे	षै	षो	षौ	ष्

Conjuncts with ष

Half form of Ssa.

Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular preferring the use of half forms where texts in other languages would show ligatures and vertical stacks.

Ligature conjuncts of ष

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.

• Repha र্ (r) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature rṣa: ^note

• Eyelash र্ (r) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature rṣa:

• ष্ (ṣ) + rakar र (ra) gives us the ligature ṣra:

• ष্ (ṣ) + क্ (k) + rakar र (ra) gives us the ligature ṣkra:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ढ (ḍʱa) gives us the ligature ṣḍʱa:

• ष্ (ṣ) + न (na) gives us the ligature ṣna:

• ष্ (ṣ) + त (ta) gives us the ligature ṣta:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ट (ṭa) gives us the ligature ṣṭa:

• Repha र্ (r) + ष্ (ṣ) + ट্ (ṭ) + rakar र (ra) gives us the ligature rṣṭra:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ठ (ṭʰa) gives us the ligature ṣṭʰa:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ठ্ (ṭʰ) + य (ya) gives us the ligature ṣṭʰya:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ट্ (ṭ) + व (va) gives us the ligature ṣṭva:

Devanagari Kṣa

Kṣa half form

One of the most common true ligatures in Devanagari is the conjunct kṣa क्ष. This ligature is a required form for most Devanagari languages, and the conjunct even has its own half form that freely joins other letters in horizontal conjuncts.

• क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature kṣa:

• Repha र্ (r) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature rkṣa:

• Eyelash र্ (r) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature rkṣa:

• छ্ (cʰ) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature cʰkṣa:

• ढ্ (ḍʱ) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ḍʱkṣa:

• ड্ (ḍ) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ḍkṣa:

• द্ (d) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature dkṣa:

• ङ্ (ŋ) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ŋkṣa:

• ङ্ (ŋ) + क্ (k) + ष্ (ṣ) + य (ya) gives us the ligature ŋkṣya:

• ट্ (ṭ) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ṭkṣa:

• ठ্ (ṭʰ) + क্ (k) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ṭʰkṣa:

Stacked conjuncts of ष

Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.

• छ্ (cʰ) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature cʰṣa:

• ढ্ (ḍʱ) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ḍʱṣa:

• ड্ (ḍ) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ḍṣa:

• द্ (d) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature dṣa:

• ङ্ (ŋ) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ŋṣa:

• ष্ (ṣ) + च (ca) gives us the ligature ṣca:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ड (ḍa) gives us the ligature ṣḍa:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ज (ja) gives us the ligature ṣja:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ज্ (j) + ञ (ña) gives us the ligature ṣjña:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ल (la) gives us the ligature ṣla:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ङ (ŋa) gives us the ligature ṣŋa:

• ष্ (ṣ) + ञ (ña) gives us the ligature ṣña:

• ठ্ (ṭʰ) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ṭʰṣa:

• ट্ (ṭ) + ष (ṣa) gives us the ligature ṭṣa:

Bengali Ṣa

The Bengali script ষ is derived from the Siddhaṃ , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, ष. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter ষ will sometimes be transliterated as "ṣo" instead of "ṣa". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /ʂo/.

Like all Indic consonants, ষ can be modified by marks to indicate another (or no) vowel than its inherent "a".

Bengali ষ with vowel marks

ṣa	ṣā	ṣi	ṣī	ṣu	ṣū	ṣr	ṣr̄	ṣe	ṣai	ṣo	ṣau	ṣ
ষ	ষা	ষি	ষী	ষু	ষূ	ষৃ	ষৄ	ষে	ষৈ	ষো	ষৌ	ষ্

ষ in Bengali-using languages

ষ is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.

Conjuncts with ষ

Bengali ষ exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, with both stacked and linear (horizontal) ligatures being common.

• র্ (r) + ষ (ṣa) gives us the ligature rṣa, with the repha prefix:

• র্ (r) + ষ্ (ṣ) + য (ya) gives us the ligature rṣya, with repha and the ya phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ক (ka) gives us the ligature ṣka:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ক্ (k) + র (ra) gives us the ligature ṣkra, with the ra phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature ṣma:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ঞ (ña) gives us the ligature ṣña:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + প (pa) gives us the ligature ṣpa:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ফ (pʰa) gives us the ligature ṣpʰa:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + প্ (p) + র (ra) gives us the ligature ṣpra, with the ra phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ট (ṭa) gives us the ligature ṣṭa:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ঠ (ṭʰa) gives us the ligature ṣṭʰa:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ঠ্ (ṭʰ) + য (ya) gives us the ligature ṣṭʰya, with the ya phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ট্ (ṭ) + র (ra) gives us the ligature ṣṭra, with the ra phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ট্ (ṭ) + য (ya) gives us the ligature ṣṭya, with the ya phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + ব (va) gives us the ligature ṣva, with the va phala suffix:

• ষ্ (ṣ) + য (ya) gives us the ligature ṣya, with the ya phala suffix:

Gujarati Ṣa

Gujarati Ṣa.

Ṣa (ષ) is the thirty-first consonant of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ṣa with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed, and ultimately the Brahmi letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ષ is pronounced as [ʂə] or [ʂ] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Ṣa	Ṣā	Ṣi	Ṣī	Ṣu	Ṣū	Ṣr	Ṣl	Ṣr̄	Ṣl̄	Ṣĕ	Ṣe	Ṣai	Ṣŏ	Ṣo	Ṣau	Ṣ
Gujarati Ṣa syllables, with vowel marks in red.

Conjuncts with ષ

Half form of Ṣa.

Gujarati ષ exhibits conjunct ligatures, much like its parent Devanagari Script. Most Gujarati conjuncts can only be formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". A few conjunct clusters can be represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters, and vertically stacked conjuncts can also be found in Gujarati, although much less commonly than in Devanagari.

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Gujarati are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra.

• ર્ (r) + ષ (ʂa) gives us the ligature RṢa:

• ષ્ (ʂ) + ર (ra) gives us the ligature ṢRa:

• ક્ (k) + ષ (ʂa) gives us the ligature KṢa:

• ર્ (r) + ક (ka) ષ (ʂa) gives us the ligature RKṢa:

• ક્ (k) + ષ (ʂa) ર (ra) gives us the ligature KṢRa:

• ઙ્ (ŋ) + ક (ka) ષ (ʂa) gives us the ligature ṄKṢa:

• ષ્ (ʂ) + ત (ta) gives us the ligature ṢTa:

• ષ્ (ʂ) + ઠ (ʈʰa) gives us the ligature ṢṬha:

Javanese Ṣa

Main article: Ssa (Javanese)

Telugu Ṣa

Telugu independent and subjoined Ṣa.

Ṣa (ష) is a consonant of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಷ. Most Telugu consonants contain a v-shaped headstroke that is related to the horizontal headline found in other Indic scripts, although headstrokes do not connect adjacent letters in Telugu. The headstroke is normally lost when adding vowel matras.

Telugu independent and subjoined KṢa.

Telugu conjuncts are created by reducing trailing letters to a subjoined form that appears below the initial consonant of the conjunct. Many subjoined forms are created by dropping their headline, with many extending the end of the stroke of the main letter body to form an extended tail reaching up to the right of the preceding consonant. This subjoining of trailing letters to create conjuncts is in contrast to the leading half forms of Devanagari and Bengali letters. Ligature conjuncts are not a feature in Telugu, with the only non-standard construction being an alternate subjoined form of Ṣa (borrowed from Kannada) in the KṢa conjunct.

Malayalam Ṣa

Malayalam letter Ṣa

Ṣa (ഷ) is a consonant of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter Ssa. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Malayalam Ssa matras: Ssa, Ssā, Ssi, Ssī, Ssu, Ssū, Ssr̥, Ssr̥̄, Ssl̥, Ssl̥̄, Sse, Ssē, Ssai, Sso, Ssō, Ssau, and Ss.

Conjuncts of ഷ

As is common in Indic scripts, Malayalam joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. There are several ways in which conjuncts are formed in Malayalam texts: using a post-base form of a trailing consonant placed under the initial consonant of a conjunct, a combined ligature of two or more consonants joined together, a conjoining form that appears as a combining mark on the rest of the conjunct, the use of an explicit candrakkala mark to suppress the inherent "a" vowel, or a special consonant form called a "chillu" letter, representing a bare consonant without the inherent "a" vowel. Texts written with the modern reformed Malayalam orthography, put̪iya lipi, may favor more regular conjunct forms than older texts in paḻaya lipi, due to changes undertaken in the 1970s by the Government of Kerala.

• ഷ് (ṣ) + ട (ṭa) gives us the ligature ṣṭa:

• ഷ് (ṣ) + ഠ (ṭʰa) gives us the ligature ṣṭʰa:

• ഷ് (ṣ) + ണ (ṇa) gives us the ligature ṣṇa:

• ഷ് (ṣ) + പ (pa) gives us the ligature ṣpa:

• ഷ് (ṣ) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature ṣma:

• ക് (k) + ഷ (ṣa) gives us the ligature kṣa:

• ക് (k) + ഷ് (ṣ) + ണ (ṇa) gives us the ligature kṣṇa:

• ക് (k) + ഷ് (ṣ) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature kṣma:

• ക് (k) + ഷ് (ṣ) + ല (la) gives us the ligature kṣla:

Odia Ṣa

Odia independent and subjoined letter Ṣa.

Ṣa (ଷ) is a consonant of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Ssa. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Odia Ssa with vowel matras

Ssa	Ssā	Ssi	Ssī	Ssu	Ssū	Ssr̥	Ssr̥̄	Ssl̥	Ssl̥̄	Sse	Ssai	Sso	Ssau	Ss
ଷ	ଷା	ଷି	ଷୀ	ଷୁ	ଷୂ	ଷୃ	ଷୄ	ଷୢ	ଷୣ	ଷେ	ଷୈ	ଷୋ	ଷୌ	ଷ୍

Conjuncts of ଷ

As is common in Indic scripts, Odia joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a small subjoined form of trailing consonants. Most consonants' subjoined forms are identical to the full form, just reduced in size, although a few drop the curved headline or have a subjoined form not directly related to the full form of the consonant. The second type of conjunct formation is through pure ligatures, where the constituent consonants are written together in a single graphic form. Except for କ୍ଷ (Kssa), ଷ generates conjuncts only by subjoining and does not form ligatures.

Odia Kssa କ୍ଷ

Odia independent and subjoined KSsa.

Although ostensiby a conjunct of Ka and Ssa, Odia କ୍ଷ (KSsa) is largely treated as an independent letter pronounced /kʰɔ/ or /kʰjɔ/. Unlike other Odia conjuncts, କ୍ଷ can be found as an independent letter subjoined to another letter or conjunct.

• ତ୍ (t) + କ୍ (ka) + ଷ (ṣa) gives us the ligature tkṣa:

References

^note Conjuncts are identified by IAST transliteration, except aspirated consonants are indicated with a superscript "h" to distinguish from an unaspirated cononant + Ha, and the use of the IPA "ŋ" and "ʃ" instead of the less dinstinctive "ṅ" and "ś".