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Devanagari

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Rigveda manuscript in Devanagari (early 19th century)

Devanāgarī (देवनागरी —, pronounced as /d̪e:vən̪ɑgəɾi/, but in English pronounced as /ˌdeɪvəˈnɑ:gəri:/) (ISCII – IS13194:1991) [1] is an abugida alphabet used to write several Indian languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Bihari, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri and Nepali from Nepal.

The transliteration used in this article follows the popular National Library at Calcutta romanization. The ITRANS [2] is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanagari into ASCII that is widely used on Usenet. In ITRANS, the word Devanagari is written as "devanaagarii".

Origins

History of the alphabet

Devanagari emerged around 1200 AD out of the Siddham script, gradually replacing the earlier, closely related Sharada script (which remained in parallel use in Kashmir). Both are immediate descendants of the Gupta script, ultimately deriving from the Brāhmī script attested from the 3rd century BC. The descendants of Brahmi form the Brahmic family, including the national alphabets of many other Indian languages.

Etymology

The name Devanagari derives from Sanskrit deva "divine, excellent", and nāgarī "urban", a female vrddhi adjective derived from nagara "city"; they form a tatpurusha compound, meaning the "divine urban" script. The Nagari script is an earlier form of Devanagari, appearing in ca. the 8th century as an eastern variant of the Gupta script, contemporary to Sharada, its western variant. The name Devanagari should therefore be understood as "excellent or perfected form of the Nagari script".

Interpreted by popular etymology to refer to a "City of the Gods", the name in certain Yogic traditions was taken to refer to the body of the individual. The philosophy behind this is that when one meditates on the specific sounds of the Devanagari alphabet, the written forms appear spontaneously in the mind.

Principles

Devanagari has 12 svara (pure sounds, or vowels) and 34 vyanjana (ornamented sounds, consonants). An akshara is formed by the combination of zero or one vyanjana and one or more svar, and represents a phonetic unit of the shabda (word). The akshara is written by applying standard diacritical modifiers to the vyanjana corresponding to the svara. An akshara is usually more basic and predictable than the syllable in English. For example, the English 'cat' (considered to have just one syllable) is written as two aksharas, the 'k-a' and the 'ta'.

The svara and vyanjana are ordered and grouped logically for studying or reciting. Thus the pure sounds, 'a', 'i', 'u' and their lengthened versions ('aa', 'ii', 'uu') are followed by the combined ('ae', 'ai', 'o', 'ou'), nasal ('.m') and aspirated ('.h') forms. The vyanjana themselves are grouped into 6 groups (rows) of 5 (columns). The first five rows progress as velar, palatal, retroflex, dental and labial, corresponding to utilizing or touching the tongue to progressively outer parts of the mouth when making the sound. Additional vyanjana are technically sonorants, sibilants or widely used conjunct forms. For each row or group, the columns logically progress to softer sounds, paired with aspirated forms, ending in the nasal form for that group.

Devanagari is written from left to right. In Sanskrit, words were written together without spaces, so that the top bar is unbroken, although there were some exceptions to this rule. The break of the top line primarily marks breath groups. In modern languages, word breaks are used. Languages written with Devanagari require no case distinction.

The Devanagari writing system can be called an abugida, as each consonant has an inherent vowel (a), that can be changed with the different vowel signs. Most consonants can be joined to one or two other consonants so that the inherent vowel is suppressed. The resulting conjunct form is called a ligature. Many ligatures appear simply as two individual consonants joined together, and so are a form of ligature. Some ligatures are more elaborately formed and not as easily recognized as containing the individual consonants.

When reading Sanskrit written in Devanagari, the pronunciation is completely unambiguous. Similarly, any word in Sanskrit is considered to be written only in one manner (discounting modern typesetting variations in depicting conjunct forms). However, for modern languages, certain conventions have been made (e.g. truncating the vowel form of the last consonant while speaking, even as it continues to be written in full form). There are also some modern conventions for writing English words in Devanagari.

Certain Sanskrit texts and mantras are typically written with additional diacritical marks above and below the akshara to denote pitch and tempo, to ensure completely accurate reproduction of the sound.

Symbols of Devanagari

This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

All the vowels in Devanagari are attached to the top or bottom of the consonant or to an AA vowel sign attached to the right of the consonant, with the exception of the I vowel sign, which is attached on the left. In the Devanagari vowel table below, the "Letter" column contains the symbol used when a vowel occurs without a consonant, the "Vowel sign with [p]" column contains the symbol used when a vowel is attached to a consonant, shown with the "p" letter as an example, the "Unicode name" column contains the name given in the Unicode specification for the vowel, and the "IPA" column contains the International Phonetic Alphabet character(s) corresponding to the Hindi pronunciation of the Devanagari character.

Devanagari vowels
Letter Vowel sign with [p] Unicode name IPA
अ प (none) a ə
आ पा aa ɑ
इ पि i ɪ
ई पी ii i
उ पु u ʊ
ऊ पू uu u
ऋ पृ vocalic r rɪ ([r ̩]) in Sanskrit)
ॠ पॄ vocalic rr rɪ ([rː̩]) in Sanskrit)
ऌ पॢ vocalic l ([l ̩]) in Sanskrit)
ॡ पॣ vocalic ll (lː̩]) in Sanskrit)
ऍ पॅ candra e
ऎ पॆ short e e
ए पे e e(ː)
ऐ पै ai ɛ ([ai]) in Sanskrit)
ऑ पॉ candra o
ऒ पॊ short o o
ओ पो o o(ː)
औ पौ au ɔ ([au]) in Sanskrit)
Other modifier symbols
Symbol with [p] Unicode name Function IPA
प् virama Called halant; suppresses the inherent vowel. [p]
पँ candrabindu Nasalizes vowel [pə̃]
पं anusvara Nasalizes vowel [pə̃]
पः visarga Adds voiceless breath after vowel [pəh] / [pəə̥]
प़ nukta Used to indicate sounds borrowed from Persian (e.g., ph + nukta = f)
पऽ avagraha Used to prolong the vowel sound. [pə:]

When no vowel is written, 'a' is assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a halant (also called virama) is used.

Devanagari consonants
Letter Unicode name Transliteration IPA
क ka k k
ख kha kh kh
ग ga g g
घ gha gh gɦ
ङ nga ṅ ŋ
च ca c tʃ
छ cha ch tʃh
ज ja j dʒ
झ jha jh dʒɦ
ञ nya ñ ɲ
ट tta ṭ ʈ
ठ ttha ṭh ʈh
ड dda ḍ ɖ / ɽ
ढ ddha ḍh ɖɦ / ɽɦ
ण nna ṇ ɳ
त ta t t̪
थ tha th t̪h
द da d d̪
ध dha dh d̪ɦ
न na n n̪
प pa p p
फ pha ph ph
ब ba b b
भ bha bh bɦ
म ma m m
य ya y j
र ra r ɾ
ल la l l
ळ lla ḷ ɭ
व va v v
श sha ś ɕ
ष ssa ṣ ʂ
स sa s s
ह ha h h

Among these, ळ is not used in Hindi. The entire set is used in Marathi.

Devanagari digits are written as follows:

Devanagari numerals
० १ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Ligatures

Consonant clusters of two or more phonemes are realized by combining the aksharas into ligatures. Typically, the preceding akshara loses its vertical stroke and is put in direct contact with the succeeding one. In cases of aksharas that do not have vertical strokes in their independent form, the following aksharas are usually placed underneath the preceding one. In some cases, the ligatures take forms not readily recognizable as composed of the individual aksharas (e.g. jñ). Consonant clusters involving r are treated as a special case: preceding r- is realized as a right-facing hook above the following akshara, and following -r appears as a slanted stroke attached to the vertical stroke of the preceding akshara.

Devanagari in Unicode

The Unicode range for Devanagari is U+0900 .. U+097F. Gray blocks indicate characters that are undefined.

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+090x   ँ ं ः ऄ अ आ इ ई उ ऊ ऋ ऌ ऍ ऎ ए
U+091x ऐ ऑ ऒ ओ औ क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ ट
U+092x ठ ड ढ ण त थ द ध न ऩ प फ ब भ म य
U+093x र ऱ ल ळ ऴ व श ष स ह     ़ ऽ ा ि
U+094x ी ु ू ृ ॄ ॅ ॆ े ै ॉ ॊ ो ौ ्    
U+095x ॐ ॑ ॒ ॓ ॔       क़ ख़ ग़ ज़ ड़ ढ़ फ़ य़
U+096x ॠ ॡ ॢ ॣ । ॥ ० १ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९
U+097x ॰                              

Devanagari Keyboard Layouts

INSCRIPT

File:Devanagari INSCRIPT.png
INSCRIPT Keyboard Layout (Windows, Solaris, Java)

Typewriter

Standard typewriter keyboard layout used in India

Software

Devanagari

Electronic resources

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