Virama
Encyclopedia
Virama is a generic term for the diacritic
in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari
and East Nagari, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel
that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is Sanskrit
for "cessation, termination, end". As a Sanskrit
word, it is used in place of several language-specific terms, such as halant , hôshonto , pulli , chandrakkala , halant , halanta , a that and phinthu .
In Devanagari
and many other Indic scripts
, a virama is used to cancel—or “kill”—the inherent vowel
of a consonant letter and represent a consonant without a vowel, so-called a “dead” consonant. For example, in Devanagari,
If this k is further followed by another consonant letter, for example, , the result might look like , which represents as ka + (visible) virama + . In this case, two elements k and are simply placed one by one, side by side. Alternatively, can be also written as a ligature , which is actually the preferred form.
Generally, when a dead consonant letter C1 and another consonant letter C2 are conjoined, the result may be either:
If the result is fully or half-conjoined, the (conceptual) virama which made C1 dead becomes invisible, only logically existing in a character encoding
scheme such as ISCII or Unicode
. If the result is non-ligated, a virama is visible, attached to C1, actually written.
Basically, those differences are only glyph variants and three forms are semantically
identical. Although there may be a preferred form for a given consonant cluster in each language and some scripts do not have some kind of ligatures or half forms at all, it is generally acceptable to use a non-ligature form instead of a ligature form even when the latter is preferred, if the font does not have a glyph for the ligature. In some other cases, whether to use a ligature or not is merely a matter of taste.
The virama in the sequence C1 + virama + C2 may thus work as an invisible control character to ligate C1 and C2 in Unicode. For example,
is a fully conjoined ligature. It is also possible that the virama does not ligate C1 and C2, leaving the full forms of C1 and C2 as they are:
is an example of such a non-ligated form.
The sequences ङ्क ङ्ख ङ्ग ङ्घ [ŋka ŋkʰa ŋɡa ŋɡʱa] in correct Devanagari handwriting should be written as conjuncts (the virama and the top cross line of the second letter disappear, and what is left of the second letter is written under the ङ and joined to it), but the usual Unicode Devanagari font does not provide these conjuncts.
Diacritic
A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter, or basic glyph. The term derives from the Greek διακριτικός . Diacritic is both an adjective and a noun, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritical marks, such as the acute and grave are often called accents...
in many Brahmic scripts, including Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
and East Nagari, that is used to suppress the inherent vowel
Inherent vowel
An inherent vowel is part of an abugida script. It is the vowel sound which is used with each unmarked or basic consonant symbol....
that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter. The name is 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...
for "cessation, termination, end". As a 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...
word, it is used in place of several language-specific terms, such as halant , hôshonto , pulli , chandrakkala , halant , halanta , a that and phinthu .
In Devanagari
Devanagari
Devanagari |deva]]" and "nāgarī" ), also called Nagari , is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal...
and many other Indic scripts
Brahmic family of scripts
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...
, a virama is used to cancel—or “kill”—the inherent vowel
Inherent vowel
An inherent vowel is part of an abugida script. It is the vowel sound which is used with each unmarked or basic consonant symbol....
of a consonant letter and represent a consonant without a vowel, so-called a “dead” consonant. For example, in Devanagari,
- is a consonant letter, ka,
- ् is a virama; therefore,
- (ka + virama) represents a dead consonant k.
If this k is further followed by another consonant letter, for example, , the result might look like , which represents as ka + (visible) virama + . In this case, two elements k and are simply placed one by one, side by side. Alternatively, can be also written as a ligature , which is actually the preferred form.
Generally, when a dead consonant letter C1 and another consonant letter C2 are conjoined, the result may be either:
- A fully conjoined ligature of C1+C2;
- Half-conjoined—
- C1-conjoining: a modified form (half form) of C1 attached to the original form (full form) of C2
- C2-conjoining: a modified form of C2 attached to the full form of C1; or
- Non-ligated: full forms of C1 and C2 with a visible virama.
If the result is fully or half-conjoined, the (conceptual) virama which made C1 dead becomes invisible, only logically existing in a character encoding
Character encoding
A character encoding system consists of a code that pairs each character from a given repertoire with something else, such as a sequence of natural numbers, octets or electrical pulses, in order to facilitate the transmission of data through telecommunication networks or storage of text in...
scheme such as ISCII or 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...
. If the result is non-ligated, a virama is visible, attached to C1, actually written.
Basically, those differences are only glyph variants and three forms are semantically
Semantics
Semantics is the study of meaning. It focuses on the relation between signifiers, such as words, phrases, signs and symbols, and what they stand for, their denotata....
identical. Although there may be a preferred form for a given consonant cluster in each language and some scripts do not have some kind of ligatures or half forms at all, it is generally acceptable to use a non-ligature form instead of a ligature form even when the latter is preferred, if the font does not have a glyph for the ligature. In some other cases, whether to use a ligature or not is merely a matter of taste.
The virama in the sequence C1 + virama + C2 may thus work as an invisible control character to ligate C1 and C2 in Unicode. For example,
- ka + virama + =
is a fully conjoined ligature. It is also possible that the virama does not ligate C1 and C2, leaving the full forms of C1 and C2 as they are:
- ka + virama + =
is an example of such a non-ligated form.
The sequences ङ्क ङ्ख ङ्ग ङ्घ [ŋka ŋkʰa ŋɡa ŋɡʱa] in correct Devanagari handwriting should be written as conjuncts (the virama and the top cross line of the second letter disappear, and what is left of the second letter is written under the ङ and joined to it), but the usual Unicode Devanagari font does not provide these conjuncts.