Eastern Nagari script
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This article contains Indic text. Without rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes or other symbols instead of Indic characters; or irregular vowel positioning and a lack of conjuncts. |
| Eastern Nagari abugida | ||
|---|---|---|
| Type: | Abugida | |
| Languages: | Bengali, Assamese, Meitei, Bishnupriya Manipuri | |
| Time period: | ~1200 CE to the present | |
| Parent writing systems: | Proto-Sinaitic Phoenician Aramaic Brāhmī Gupta script Siddham Eastern Nagari abugida |
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| ISO 15924 code: | Beng | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
The Eastern Nagari script or Eastern Neo-Brahmic script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts whose use is associated with the Bengali, Assamese, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Meitei Manipuri, Sylheti, and Chittagonian languages. While it is very similar to Devanagari, it is less blocky and presents a more sinuous shaping, and is derived from a precursor of that script called Nagari. The modern 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.
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. It was also used by the later Ahom kings to write the Buranjis, the Ahom chronicles, in the Assamese language. There is a rich legacy of Indian 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. The large alphabet can be represented, with a great deal of ingenuity, within the ASCII character set, omitting certain irregular conjuncts. 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.
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[edit] Eastern Nagari symbols
In this and other articles on Wikipedia dealing with the Bengali and Assamese languages, a Romanization scheme used by linguists specializing in Bengali and Assamese phonology is included along with IPA transcription.
[edit] 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 Bengali and Assamese. 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.
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.
[edit] Consonants
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 Bengali and Assamese 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.
[edit] 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 |
| Bengali names | shunno | êk | dui | tin | char | pañch | chhôe | shat | aţ | nôe |
| শুন্য | এক | দুই | তিন | চার | পাঁচ | ছয় | সাত | আট | নয় | |
| Assamese names | xuinno | ek | dui | tini | sari | pas | sôy | xat | ath | nô |
| শুন্য | এক | দুই | তিনি | চাৰি | পাচ | ছয় | সাত | আঠ | ন |
[edit] Eastern Nagari in Unicode
The Unicode range for Eastern Nagari is U+0980 ... U+09FF.
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | ||
| 980 | ঀ | ঁ | ং | ঃ | | অ | আ | ই | ঈ | উ | ঊ | ঋ | ঌ | | | এ | |
| 990 | ঐ | | | ও | ঔ | ক | খ | গ | ঘ | ঙ | চ | ছ | জ | ঝ | ঞ | ট | |
| 9A0 | ঠ | ড | ঢ | ণ | ত | থ | দ | ধ | ন | | প | ফ | ব | ভ | ম | য | |
| 9B0 | র | | ল | | | | শ | ষ | স | হ | | | ় | ঽ | া | ি | |
| 9C0 | ী | ু | ূ | ৃ | ৄ | | | ে | ৈ | | | ো | ৌ | ্ | ৎ | | |
| 9D0 | | | | | | | | ৗ | | | | | ড় | ঢ় | | য় | |
| 9E0 | ৠ | ৡ | ৢ | ৣ | | | ০ | ১ | ২ | ৩ | ৪ | ৫ | ৬ | ৭ | ৮ | ৯ | |
| 9F0 | ৰ | ৱ | ৲ | ৳ | ৴ | ৵ | ৶ | ৷ | ৸ | ৹ | ৺ | ৻ | ৼ | ৽ | ৾ | |
[edit] See also
| Topics related to the Bengali language |
| Grammar • Phonology • Vocabulary • Dialects • Consonant clusters • Script • Romanization • Literature • Language Movement • International Mother Language Day |
