Eastern Nagari script
Encyclopedia
The Eastern Nagari script is an Abugida
system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family
of scripts which use is associated with the two main languages Assamese
and Bengali
and other related variants such as, Bishnupriya Manipuri
, Maithili
, Mising
, Meitei Manipuri, Sylheti
, and Chittagonian language
s. Many other languages like Khasi
, Bodo
, Karbi
etc were also written in this script in the past.
, Eastern Nagari (and its child scripts Oriya
and Mithilakshar
) are less blocky and present a more sinuous shaping. Eastern Nagari, Devanagari, Oriya, and Mithilakshar are all derived from the precursor script Nagari
. The modern Eastern Nagari script was formalized in 1778 when it was first typeset by Charles Wilkins
. In addition to differences in how the letters are pronounced in the different languages, there are some minor typographical differences between the version of the script used for Assamese
and Bishnupriya Manipuri, and that used for Bengali
and other languages.
Currently, controversy is ongoing as to the validity of this term in the press media of Assam.
The Eastern Nagari script was originally not associated with any particular regional language, but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions of Medieval India
. The script was originally used to write Sanskrit
, which for centuries was the only written language of the Indian subcontinent
. Epics of Hindu
scripture, including the Mahabharata
or Ramayana
, were written in older versions of the Eastern Nagari script in this region. After the medieval period, the use of Sanskrit as the sole written language gave way to Pali
, and eventually the vernacular
dialects that eventually evolved into Bengali, Assamese, and other related languages. Srimanta Sankardeva
used the script in the 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese
and Brajavali
the language of the Bhakti
poets; and before him, Madhava Kandali
used it to write the Assamese Ramayana
in the 14th century. It was also used by the later Ahom
kings to write the Buranji
s, the Ahom chronicles, in the Assamese language. There is a rich legacy of East sub-continental literature written in this script, which is still occasionally used to write Sanskrit today.
Clusters of consonants are represented by different and sometimes quite irregular characters; thus, learning to read the script is complicated by the sheer size of the full set of characters and character combinations, numbering about 500. While efforts at standardizing the script for the Bengali language continue in such notable centers as the Bangla Academies (unaffiliated) at Dhaka
(Bangladesh
) and Kolkata
(West Bengal
, India
), it is still not quite uniform as yet, as many people continue to use various archaic forms of letters, resulting in concurrent forms for the same sounds. Among the various regional variations within this script, only the Assamese and Bengali variations exist today in the formalized system.
It seems likely that the standardization
of the script will be greatly influenced by the need to typeset it on computers. Work has been underway since around 2001 to develop Unicode
fonts, and it seems likely that it will split into two variants, traditional and modern.
The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the seven vowel sounds of Bengali and eight vowel sounds of Assamese, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these vowel letters are used in both Assamese and Bengali. Some of the vowel letters have different sounds depending on the word, and a number of vowel distinctions preserved in the writing system are not pronounced as such in modern spoken Bengali or Assamese. For example, the script has two symbols for the vowel sound [i] and two symbols for the vowel sound [u]. This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short [i] and a long [iː], and a short [u] and a long [uː]. These letters are preserved in the script with their traditional names of "short i" (Bengali: rhôshsho i, Assamese: hôrswo i) and "long i" (Bengali: dirgho i, Assamese: dirghô i), etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech.
Two additional letters, অ' and অ্যা, are not considered letters of the Eastern Nagari script, but are often used in Assamese and Bengali (respectively) to represent certain vowels when the intended pronunciation would otherwise be ambiguous.
Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by ক, kô). When no vowel is written, the vowel 'অ' (ô or o) is often assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a hôshonto (্) may be written underneath the consonant.
The names of the consonant letters in Eastern Nagari are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel ô. Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written, most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter ঘ is itself ঘ ghô). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese and Bengali are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called nô; instead, they are called "dental n" (Bengali: donto nô, Assamese: dôntyô nô), "cerebral n" (Bengali: murdhonno nô, Assamese: murdhônyô nô), and niô/ingô. Similarly, the phoneme /ʃ/ in Bengali and /x/ in Assamese can be written as "palatal sh/x" শ (Bengali: talobbo shô, Assamese: talôibbô xô), "cerebral sh/x" ষ (Bengali: murdhonno shô, Assamese: murdhônyô xô), or "dental sh/x" স (Bengali: donto shô, Assamese: dôntyô xô), depending on the word.
Often, consonant conjuncts are not actually pronounced as would be implied by the pronunciation of the individual components. For example, adding ল lô underneath শ shô in Bengali creates the conjunct শ্ল, which is not pronounced shlô but slô in Bengali. Similarly, adding ত tô under স xô in Assamese creates the conjunct স্ত, which is not pronounced xtô but stô in Assamese. Many conjuncts represent Sanskrit sounds that were lost thousands of years before the modern languages were spoken, as in জ্ঞ, which is a combination of জ jô and ঞ niô, but is not pronounced jnô in any Eastern Indic language. Instead, it is pronounced ggyô in Assamese and ggõ in Bengali. Thus, as conjuncts often represent (combinations of) sounds that cannot be easily understood from the components, the following descriptions are concerned only with the construction of the conjunct, and not the resulting pronunciation. Thus, a variant of the IAST
romanization scheme is used instead of the phonemic romanization used in other articles:
Conjuncts of three consonants also exist, and follow the same rules as above. Examples include স sô + ত tô +র rô = স্ত্র strô, ম mô + প pô + র rô = ম্প্র mprô, ঙ ŋô + ক kô + ষ = ঙ্ক্ষ , জ jô + জ jô + ৱ wô = জ্জ্ব jjwô, ক kô + ষ + ম mô = ক্ষ্ম . Theoretically, four-consonant conjuncts can also be created, as in র rô + স sô + ট + র rô = র্স্ট্র , but these are not found in real words.
range for Eastern Nagari is U+0980–U+09FF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.
Abugida
An abugida , also called an alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is obligatory but secondary...
system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family
Brahmic family
The Brahmic or Indic scripts are a family of abugida 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...
of scripts which use is associated with the two main languages Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
and Bengali
Bengali language
Bengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
and other related variants such as, Bishnupriya Manipuri
Bishnupriya Manipuri language
The Bishnupriya or Bishnupriya Manipuri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Manipur and others, as well as in Bangladesh, Burma, and other countries.-History and development:...
, Maithili
Maithili language
Maithili language is spoken in the eastern region of India and South-eastern region of Nepal. The native speakers of Maithili reside in Bihar, Jharkhand,parts of West Bengal and South-east Nepal...
, Mising
Mishing language
Mishing is a Tibetan–Burman language spoken by the Mishing people. There are over 500,000 speakers of the language. It is also known as Plains Miri or Takam....
, Meitei Manipuri, Sylheti
Sylheti language
Sylheti is the language of Sylhet, which is also known as the Surma Valley and is located in the north-eastern region of Bangladesh, and also spoken in parts of the Northeast Indian states of Assam and Tripura...
, and Chittagonian language
Chittagonian language
Chittagonian is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the people of Chittagong in Bangladesh and in much of the southeast of the country. It is closely related to Bangla, but is normally considered by linguists to be a separate language rather than a dialect of Bangla. It is estimated to have 14...
s. Many other languages like Khasi
Khasi language
Khasi is an Austro-Asiatic language spoken primarily in Meghalaya state in India by the Khasi people. Khasi is part of the Austroasiatic family of languages, and is fairly closely related to the Munda branch of that family, which is spoken in east&endash;central India.Although most of the 865,000...
, Bodo
Bodo language
Bodo is a language that belongs to the branch of Barish section under Baric division of the Tibeto-Burman languages and spoken by the Bodo people of north-eastern India and Nepal...
, Karbi
Karbi language
The Karbí language, also known as Mikir or Arleng, is spoken by the Karbi people of Assam. It belongs to the Tibeto-Burman language family, but its position is unclear...
etc were also written in this script in the past.
Description
While very similar to DevanagariDevanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
, Eastern Nagari (and its child scripts Oriya
Oriya script
The Oriya script or Utkala Lipi or Utkalakshara is used to write the Oriya language, and can be used for several other Indian languages, for example, Sanskrit.- History :...
and Mithilakshar
Mithilakshar
Tirhuta or Mithilakshar is the script traditionally used for the Maithili language, an Indo-European language spoken in the Indian state of Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of West Bengal and eastern Nepal...
) are less blocky and present a more sinuous shaping. Eastern Nagari, Devanagari, Oriya, and Mithilakshar are all derived from the precursor script Nagari
Nagari script
The Nāgarī script is the ancestor of Devanagari, Assamese, Bengali and other variants, and was first used to write Prakrit and Sanskrit. It was in vogue from before the 10th century...
. The modern Eastern Nagari script was formalized in 1778 when it was first typeset by Charles Wilkins
Charles Wilkins
Sir Charles Wilkins, KH, FRS , was an English typographer and Orientalist, notable as the first translator of Bhagavad Gita into English, and as the creator of the first Devanagari typeface....
. In addition to differences in how the letters are pronounced in the different languages, there are some minor typographical differences between the version of the script used for Assamese
Assamese script
The Assamese script is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali and Bishnupriya Manipuri. The Eastern Nagari script belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts and has a continuous history of development from Nagari script, a precursor of Devanagari...
and Bishnupriya Manipuri, and that used for Bengali
Bengali script
The Bengali alphabet is the writing system for the Bengali language. The script with variations is used for Assamese and is basis for Meitei, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Kokborok, Garo and Mundari alphabets. All these languages are spoken in the eastern region of South Asia. Historically, the script has...
and other languages.
Currently, controversy is ongoing as to the validity of this term in the press media of Assam.
The Eastern Nagari script was originally not associated with any particular regional language, but was prevalent as the main script in the eastern regions of Medieval India
Middle kingdoms of India
Middle kingdoms of India refers to the political entities in India from the 3rd century BC after the decline of the Maurya Empire, and the corresponding rise of the Satavahana dynasty, beginning with Simuka, from 230 BC...
. The script was originally used to write Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
, which for centuries was the only written language of the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent, also Indian Subcontinent, Indo-Pak Subcontinent or South Asian Subcontinent is a region of the Asian continent on the Indian tectonic plate from the Hindu Kush or Hindu Koh, Himalayas and including the Kuen Lun and Karakoram ranges, forming a land mass which extends...
. Epics of Hindu
Hindu
Hindu refers to an identity associated with the philosophical, religious and cultural systems that are indigenous to the Indian subcontinent. As used in the Constitution of India, the word "Hindu" is also attributed to all persons professing any Indian religion...
scripture, including the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
or Ramayana
Ramayana
The Ramayana is an ancient Sanskrit epic. It is ascribed to the Hindu sage Valmiki and forms an important part of the Hindu canon , considered to be itihāsa. The Ramayana is one of the two great epics of India and Nepal, the other being the Mahabharata...
, were written in older versions of the Eastern Nagari script in this region. After the medieval period, the use of Sanskrit as the sole written language gave way to Pali
Pali language
Pāli is a Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is best known as the language of many of the earliest extant Buddhist scriptures, as collected in the Pāi Canon or Tipitaka, and as the liturgical language of Theravada Buddhism.-Etymology of the name:The word Pali itself...
, and eventually the vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
dialects that eventually evolved into Bengali, Assamese, and other related languages. Srimanta Sankardeva
Srimanta Sankardeva
Mahapurusha Srimanta Shankardeva , was the greatest Assamese saint-scholar, playwright, social-religious reformer and a colossal figure in the cultural and religious history of Assam, India...
used the script in the 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese
Assamese language
Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. It is used mainly in the state of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam. It is also spoken in parts of Arunachal Pradesh and other northeast Indian states. Nagamese, an Assamese-based Creole language is widely used in...
and Brajavali
Brajavali
Brajavali is the language used by Srimanta Sankardeva, Madhabdev and other composers who belonged to the religious sect started by Srimanta Sankardeva in the 15th-16th century in Assam. In general, the language carries the flavor of Brajbhasa, the language of choice of the Bhakti poets, but it was...
the language of the Bhakti
Bhakti
In Hinduism Bhakti is religious devotion in the form of active involvement of a devotee in worship of the divine.Within monotheistic Hinduism, it is the love felt by the worshipper towards the personal God, a concept expressed in Hindu theology as Svayam Bhagavan.Bhakti can be used of either...
poets; and before him, Madhava Kandali
Madhava Kandali
Kaviraja Madhava Kandali was an Assamese poet of India, notable for the earliest rendering of the Valmiki Ramayana into Assamese verse . His another work is a narrative poem, Devajit on superiority of Krishna over the other avatars of Vishnu...
used it to write the Assamese Ramayana
Kotha Ramayana
Kotha Ramayana is a poem written by the powerful Assamese poet Madhava Kandali during the 14th century and is one of many versions of Ramayana in a regional Indian language other than Valmiki's Ramayana in Sanskrit...
in the 14th century. It was also used by the later Ahom
Ahom kingdom
The Ahom Kingdom was a medieval kingdom in the Brahmaputra valley in Assam that maintained its sovereignty for nearly 600 years and successfully resisted Mughal expansion in North-East India...
kings to write the Buranji
Buranji
Buranjis are a class of historical chronicles written in the Ahom and Assamese languages. The first such Buranji was written on the instructions of the first Ahom king Sukaphaa who established the Ahom kingdom in 1228...
s, the Ahom chronicles, in the Assamese language. There is a rich legacy of East sub-continental literature written in this script, which is still occasionally used to write Sanskrit today.
Clusters of consonants are represented by different and sometimes quite irregular characters; thus, learning to read the script is complicated by the sheer size of the full set of characters and character combinations, numbering about 500. While efforts at standardizing the script for the Bengali language continue in such notable centers as the Bangla Academies (unaffiliated) at Dhaka
Dhaka
Dhaka is the capital of Bangladesh and the principal city of Dhaka Division. Dhaka is a megacity and one of the major cities of South Asia. Located on the banks of the Buriganga River, Dhaka, along with its metropolitan area, had a population of over 15 million in 2010, making it the largest city...
(Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
) and Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
(West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
), it is still not quite uniform as yet, as many people continue to use various archaic forms of letters, resulting in concurrent forms for the same sounds. Among the various regional variations within this script, only the Assamese and Bengali variations exist today in the formalized system.
It seems likely that the standardization
Standardization
Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
of the script will be greatly influenced by the need to typeset it on computers. Work has been underway since around 2001 to develop Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
fonts, and it seems likely that it will split into two variants, traditional and modern.
Symbols
In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Assamese and Bengali languages, a Romanization scheme used by linguists specializing in Assamese and Bengali phonology is included along with IPA transcription.Vowels
- Assamese Vowels
- Bengali Vowels
The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the seven vowel sounds of Bengali and eight vowel sounds of Assamese, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these vowel letters are used in both Assamese and Bengali. Some of the vowel letters have different sounds depending on the word, and a number of vowel distinctions preserved in the writing system are not pronounced as such in modern spoken Bengali or Assamese. For example, the script has two symbols for the vowel sound [i] and two symbols for the vowel sound [u]. This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short [i] and a long [iː], and a short [u] and a long [uː]. These letters are preserved in the script with their traditional names of "short i" (Bengali: rhôshsho i, Assamese: hôrswo i) and "long i" (Bengali: dirgho i, Assamese: dirghô i), etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech.
Two additional letters, অ' and অ্যা, are not considered letters of the Eastern Nagari script, but are often used in Assamese and Bengali (respectively) to represent certain vowels when the intended pronunciation would otherwise be ambiguous.
| Symbol | Assamese | Bengali | Bishnupriya Manipuri http://manipuri.freeservers.com/bpm.html#sounds |
Meithei Manipuri http://books.google.com/books?vid=0LyhX7XB1B-lhWXJTo1wRP&id=0L3M1OmJhesC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=manipuri%2Bgrammar&as_brr=1, http://www.mit.gov.in/tdil/ManipuriLanguageDetailsJul02.pdf, http://www.e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=manipur.meetei_mayek_keys.html.. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| অ | ô/o | ô/o | a | a |
| আ | a | a | ā | â |
| ই | i | i | i | i |
| ঈ | i | i | ī | î |
| উ | u | u | u | u |
| ঊ | u | u | ū | û |
| ঋ | ri | ri | ri/ŗ | ? |
| ৠ | - | - | - | - |
| ঌ | - | li (no usage) | - | - |
| ৡ | - | - | - | - |
| এ | e/ê | e/ê | e | e |
| ঐ | ôi | oi | ai | ei/ai |
| ও | o/å | o | o | o/ô |
| ঔ | ôu | ou | au | ou/au |
Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by ক, kô). When no vowel is written, the vowel 'অ' (ô or o) is often assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, a hôshonto (্) may be written underneath the consonant.
| Symbol | Assamese | Bengali | Bishnupriya Manipuri http://manipuri.freeservers.com/bpm.html#sounds |
Meithei Manipuri http://books.google.com/books?vid=0LyhX7XB1B-lhWXJTo1wRP&id=0L3M1OmJhesC&pg=PA1&lpg=PA1&dq=manipuri%2Bgrammar&as_brr=1, http://www.mit.gov.in/tdil/ManipuriLanguageDetailsJul02.pdf, http://www.e-pao.net/epPageExtractor.asp?src=manipur.meetei_mayek_keys.html.. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ক | kô/ko | kô/ko | ka | ka |
| ক' | ko | - | - | - |
| কা | ka | ka | kā | kâ |
| কি | ki | ki | ki | ki |
| কী | ki | ki | kī | kî |
| কু | ku | ku | ku | ku |
| কূ | ku | ku | kū | kû |
| কৃ | kri | kri | kri/kŗ | - |
| কৄ | - | - | - | - |
| কৢ | - | - | - | - |
| কৣ | - | - | - | - |
| কে | ke/kê | ke/kê | ke | ke |
| কৈ | kôi | koi | kai | kei/kai |
| কো | kû | ko | ko | ko/kô |
| কৌ | kôu | kou | kau | kou/kau |
Consonants
- Assamese Consonants
- Bengali Consonants
- Bishnupriya Manipuri (a related variant of BengaliBengali languageBengali or Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script...
)
- Bishnupriya Manipuri (a related variant of Bengali
The names of the consonant letters in Eastern Nagari are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel ô. Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written, most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter ঘ is itself ঘ ghô). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese and Bengali are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called nô; instead, they are called "dental n" (Bengali: donto nô, Assamese: dôntyô nô), "cerebral n" (Bengali: murdhonno nô, Assamese: murdhônyô nô), and niô/ingô. Similarly, the phoneme /ʃ/ in Bengali and /x/ in Assamese can be written as "palatal sh/x" শ (Bengali: talobbo shô, Assamese: talôibbô xô), "cerebral sh/x" ষ (Bengali: murdhonno shô, Assamese: murdhônyô xô), or "dental sh/x" স (Bengali: donto shô, Assamese: dôntyô xô), depending on the word.
| Symbol | Assamese | Bengali | Bishnupriya Manipuri http://manipuri.freeservers.com/bpm.html#sounds |
|---|---|---|---|
| ক |
k | k | k |
| খ | kh | kh | kh |
| গ | g | g | g |
| ঘ | gh | gh | gh |
| ঙ |
ng | ng | η/ng |
| চ | s | ch | c∫/ch |
| ছ | s | chh | chh |
| জ | z | j | j |
| ঝ |
jh | jh | jh |
| ঞ |
y | n | ñ |
| ট | t | ţ | ţ |
| ঠ | th | ţh | ţh |
| ড |
d | đ | đ |
| ড় |
ŗ | ŗ | ŗ/r |
| ঢ | dh | đh | đh |
| ঢ় | ŗh | ŗh | ŗh |
| ণ | n | n | n/ņ |
| ত |
t | t | t |
| থ | th | th | th |
| দ | d | d | d |
| ধ | dh | dh | dh |
| ন |
n | n | n |
| প | p | p | p |
| ফ |
ph | ph | ph/f |
| ব | b | b | b |
| ভ |
bh | bh | b'/bh |
| ম | m | m | m |
| য | z | j | j |
| য় | y | e/Ø | y |
| র | - | r | r |
| ৰ | r | - | r |
| ল | l | l | l |
| ৱ | w | - | w/v |
| শ | x/s | sh/s | ŝ |
| ষ | x/s | sh | ş |
| স | x/s | sh/s | s |
| হ | h | h | h |
Consonant conjuncts
Up to four consecutive consonants not separated by vowels can be orthographically represented as a "consonant conjunct" (Assamese: যুক্তাক্ষৰ juktakkhor). Typically, the first consonant in the conjunct is shown above and/or to the left of the following consonants. Many consonants appear in an abbreviated or compressed form when serving as part of a conjunct. Others simply take exceptional forms in conjuncts, bearing little or no resemblance to the base character.Often, consonant conjuncts are not actually pronounced as would be implied by the pronunciation of the individual components. For example, adding ল lô underneath শ shô in Bengali creates the conjunct শ্ল, which is not pronounced shlô but slô in Bengali. Similarly, adding ত tô under স xô in Assamese creates the conjunct স্ত, which is not pronounced xtô but stô in Assamese. Many conjuncts represent Sanskrit sounds that were lost thousands of years before the modern languages were spoken, as in জ্ঞ, which is a combination of জ jô and ঞ niô, but is not pronounced jnô in any Eastern Indic language. Instead, it is pronounced ggyô in Assamese and ggõ in Bengali. Thus, as conjuncts often represent (combinations of) sounds that cannot be easily understood from the components, the following descriptions are concerned only with the construction of the conjunct, and not the resulting pronunciation. Thus, a variant of the IAST
IAST
The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration is a transliteration scheme that allows a lossless romanization of Indic scripts as employed by the Sanskrit language.-Popularity:...
romanization scheme is used instead of the phonemic romanization used in other articles:
Fused forms
Some consonants fuse in such a way that one stroke of the first consonant serves as the a stroke of the next.- The consonants can be placed on top of one another, sharing their vertical line: ক্ক kkô গ্ন gnô গ্ল glô ন্ন nnô প্ন pnô প্প ppô ল্ল llô etc.
- As the last member of a conjunct, ৱ wô and ব bô can hang on the vertical line under the preceding consonants, taking the shape of ব bô (here referred to as বফলা bôfôla): গ্ব gwô ণ্ব দ্ব dwô/dbô ল্ব lwô শ্ব śwô.
- The consonants can also be placed side-by-side, sharing their vertical line: দ্দ ddô ন্দ ndô ব্দ bdô ব্জ bjô প্ট শ্চ ścô শ্ছ śchô etc.
Approximated forms
Some consonants are simply written closer to one another to indicate that they are in a conjunct together.- As the last member of a conjunct, গ gô can appear unaltered, with the preceding consonant simply written closer to it: দ্গ dgô.
- As the last member of a conjunct, ৱ wô and ব bô can appear immediately to the right of the preceding consonant, taking the shape of ব bô (here referred to as বফলা bôfôla): ধ্ব dhwô ব্ব bbô হ্ব hwô.
Compressed forms
Some consonants are compressed (and often simplified) when appearing as the first member of a conjunct.- As the first member of a conjunct, the consonants ঙ ŋô চ cô ড ব bô are often compressed and placed at the top-left of the following consonant, with little or no change to the basic shape: ঙ্ক্ষ ঙ্খ ŋkhô ঙ্ঘ ŋghô ঙ্ম ŋmô চ্চ ccô চ্ছ cchô চ্ঞ cñô ড্ড ব্ব bbô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, ত tô is compressed and placed above the following consonant, with little or no change to the basic shape: ত্ন tnô ত্ম tmô ত্ব twô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, ম mô is compressed and simplified to a curved shape. It is placed above or to the top-left of the following consonant: ম্ন mnô ম্প mpô ম্ফ mfô ম্ব mbô ম্ভ mbhô ম্ম mmô ম্ল mlô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, ষ is compressed and simplified to an oval shape with a diagonal stroke through it. It is placed to the top-left of the following consonants: ষ্ক ষ্ট ষ্ঠ ষ্প ষ্ফ ষ্ম .
- As the first member of a conjunct, স sô is compressed and simplified to a ribbon shape. It is placed above or to the top-left of the following consonant: স্ক skô স্খ skhô স্ট স্ত stô স্থ sthô স্ন snô স্প spô স্ফ sfô স্ব swô স্ম smô স্ল slô.
Abbreviated forms
Some consonants are abbreviated when appearing in conjuncts, losing part of their basic shape.- As the first member of a conjunct, জ jô can lose its final downstroke: জ্জ jjô জ্ঞ jñô জ্ব jwô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, ঞ ñô can lose its bottom half: ঞ্চ ñcô ঞ্ছ ñchô ঞ্জ ñjô ঞ্ঝ ñjhô.
- As the last member of a conjunct, ঞ ñô can lose its left half (the এ part): জ্ঞ jñô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, ণ and প pô can lose their downstroke: ণ্ঠ ণ্ড প্ত ptô প্স psô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, ত tô and ভ bhô can lose their final upward tail: ত্ত ttô ত্থ tthô ত্র trô ভ্র bhrô.
- As the last member of a conjunct, থ thô can lose its final upstroke, taking the form of হ hô instead: ন্থ nthô ম্থ mthô স্থ sthô.
- As the last member of a conjunct, ম mô can lose its initial downstroke: ক্ম kmô গ্ম gmô ঙ্ম ŋmô ট্ম ণ্ম ত্ম tmô দ্ম dmô ন্ম nmô ম্ম mmô শ্ম śmô ষ্ম স্ম smô.
- As the last member of a conjunct, স sô can lose its top half: ক্স ksô ন্স nsô.
Variant forms
Some consonants have forms that are used regularly, but only within conjuncts.- As the first member of a conjunct, ঙ ŋô can appear as a loop and curl: ঙ্ক ŋkô ঙ্গ ŋgô.
- As the last member of a conjunct, the curled top of ধ dhô is replaced by a straight downstroke to the right: গ্ধ gdhô দ্ধ ddhô ন্ধ ndhô ব্ধ bdhô.
- As the first member of a conjunct, র rô appears as a diagonal stroke (called রেফ ref) above the following member: র্ক rkô র্খ rkhô র্গ rgô র্ঘ rghô etc.
- As the last member of a conjunct, র rô appears as a wavy horizontal line (called রফলা rôfôla) under the previous member: খ্র khrô গ্র grô ঘ্র ghrô ব্র brô etc.
- In some fonts, certain conjuncts with রফলা rôfôla appear using the compressed (and often simplified) form of the previous consonant: জ্র jrô ট্র ঠ্র ড্র ম্র mrô স্র srô.
- In some fonts, certain conjuncts with রফলা rôfôla appear using the abbreviated form of the previous consonant: ক্র krô ত্র trô ভ্র bhrô
- As the last member of a conjunct, য yô appears as a wavy vertical line (called যফলা jôfôla) to the right of the previous member: ক্য kyô খ্য khyô গ্য gyô ঘ্য ghyô etc.
- In some fonts, certain conjuncts with যফলা jôfôla appear using special fused forms: দ্য dyô ন্য nyô শ্য śyô ষ্য স্য syô হ্য hyô.
Exceptions
- When followed by র rô, ক kô takes on the abbreviated form of ত tô with the addition of a curl to the right: ক্র krô.
- When preceded by the abbreviated form of ঞ ñô, চ cô takes the shape of ব bô: ঞ্চ ñcô
- When preceded by another ট , ট is reduced to a leftward curl: ট্ট .
- When preceded by ষ , ণ appears as two loops to the right: ষ্ণ .
- As the first member of a conjunct, or when word-final and followed by no vowel, ত tô can appear as ৎ (called খণ্ড-ত or "broken tô"): ৎস tsô ৎপ tpô ৎক tkô etc.
- When preceded by হ hô, ন nô appears as a curl to the right: হ্ন hnô.
- Certain combinations simply must be memorized: ক্ষ (considered an independent letter in Assamese) হ্ম hmô.
Exceptional consonant-vowel combinations
When serving as a vowel sign, উ u, ঊ ū, and ঋ take on many exceptional forms.- উ u
- When following গ gô or শ śô, it takes on a variant form resembling the final tail of ও: গু gu শু śu.
- When following a ত tô that is already part of a conjunct with ন nô or স sô, it is fused with the ত tô to resemble ও o: ন্তু ntu স্তু stu.
- When following র rô, and in many fonts also following the variant রফলা rôfôla, it appears as an upward curl to the right of the preceding consonant as opposed to a downward loop below: রু ru গ্রু gru ত্রু tru থ্রু thru দ্রু dru ধ্রু dhru ব্রু bru ভ্রু bhru শ্রু śru.
- When following হ hô, it appears as an extra curl: হু hu.
- ঊ ū
- When following র rô, and in many fonts also following the variant রফলা rôfôla, it appears as a downstroke to the right of the preceding consonant as opposed to a downward hook below: রূ rū গ্রূ grū থ্রূ thrū দ্রূ drū ধ্রূ dhrū ভ্রূ bhrū শ্রূ śrū.
- ঋ
- When following হ hô, it takes the variant shape of ঊ ū: হৃ .
Conjuncts of three consonants also exist, and follow the same rules as above. Examples include স sô + ত tô +র rô = স্ত্র strô, ম mô + প pô + র rô = ম্প্র mprô, ঙ ŋô + ক kô + ষ = ঙ্ক্ষ , জ jô + জ jô + ৱ wô = জ্জ্ব jjwô, ক kô + ষ + ম mô = ক্ষ্ম . Theoretically, four-consonant conjuncts can also be created, as in র rô + স sô + ট + র rô = র্স্ট্র , but these are not found in real words.
Digits
| Western Arabic numerals | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Nagari numerals | ০ | ১ | ২ | ৩ | ৪ | ৫ | ৬ | ৭ | ৮ | ৯ |
| Assamese names | xuinnô | ek | dui | tini | sari | pas | sôy | xat | ath | nô |
| শূন্য | এক | দুই | তিনি | চাৰি | পাচ | ছয় | সাত | আঠ | ন | |
| Bengali names | shunno | êk | dui | tin | char | pãch | chhôe | shat | aţ | nôe |
| শূন্য | এক | দুই | তিন | চার | পাঁচ | ছয় | সাত | আট | নয় |
Eastern Nagari in Unicode
The UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
range for Eastern Nagari is U+0980–U+09FF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points.