Brahmic scripts

Not to be confused with the Brahmi script.

Brahmic scripts
The Brahmic script and its descendants
Northern Brahmic Gupta script Bhaiksuki alphabet Tocharian alphabet Khotanese Śāradā script Laṇḍā scripts Gurmukhī alphabet Khojki Khudabadi script Multani alphabet Mahajani Devāśeṣa Takri alphabet Dogra Siddhaṃ script Tibetan alphabet 'Phags-pa script Pungs-chen Pungs-chung Marchen Marchung Zanabazar square script Soyombo alphabet Lepcha alphabet Limbu alphabet Nāgarī script Devanagari Modi alphabet Nandinagari Gujarati alphabet Kaithi Sylheti Nagari Kalinga alphabet Odia alphabet Gaudi Assamese-Bengali Tirhuta Bhujinmol Newar Ranjana alphabet Meithei script
Southern Brahmic Tamil-Brahmi Vatteluttu alphabet Kolezhuthu Tamil script Grantha alphabet Malayalam script Tigalari alphabet Sinhala alphabet Dhives Akuru Saurashtra alphabet Khmer alphabet Lao alphabet Thai alphabet Cham alphabet Ahom alphabet Kawi script Balinese alphabet Javanese script Baybayin Batak alphabet Buhid alphabet Hanunó'o alphabet Tagbanwa alphabet Sundanese alphabet Lontara alphabet Makasar Rejang alphabet Mon alphabet Burmese alphabet Chakma alphabet Tai Tham alphabet Bhattiprolu alphabet Kadamba alphabet Kannada alphabet Telugu script Tai Le alphabet New Tai Lue alphabet

History of the alphabet Egyptian hieroglyphs 32 c. BCE Hieratic 32 c. BCE Demotic 7 c. BCE Meroitic 3 c. BCE Proto-Sinaitic 19 c. BCE Ugaritic 15 c. BCE Epigraphic South Arabian 9 c. BCE Ge’ez 5–6 c. BCE Phoenician 12 c. BCE Paleo-Hebrew 10 c. BCE Samaritan 6 c. BCE Libyco-Berber 3 c. BCE Tifinagh Paleohispanic (semi-syllabic) 7 c. BCE Aramaic 8 c. BCE Kharoṣṭhī 4 c. BCE Brāhmī 4 c. BCE Brahmic family (see) E.g. Tibetan 7 c. CE Hangul (core letters only) 1443 Devanagari 13 c. CE Hebrew 3 c. BCE Pahlavi 3 c. BCE Avestan 4 c. CE Palmyrene 2 c. BCE Syriac 2 c. BCE Sogdian 2 c. BCE Orkhon (old Turkic) 6 c. CE Old Hungarian c. 650 Old Uyghur Mongolian 1204 Nabataean 2 c. BCE Arabic 4 c. CE N'Ko 20 c. CE Mandaic 2 c. CE Greek 8 c. BCE Etruscan 8 c. BCE Latin 7 c. BCE Cherokee (syllabary; letter forms only) c. 1820 Runic 2 c. CE Ogham (origin uncertain) 4 c. CE Coptic 3 c. CE Gothic 3 c. CE Armenian (origin uncertain) 405 Georgian (origin uncertain) c. 430 Glagolitic (origin uncertain) 862 Cyrillic c. 940 Old Permic 1372 Thaana 18 c. (derived from Brahmi numerals)

The Brahmic 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 ancient India. They are used by languages of several language families: Indo-European, Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman, Mongolic, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Turkic, Tai. They were also the source of the dictionary order of Japanese kana.

History

Spread of Brahmic family of scripts from India.

Brahmic scripts are descended from the Brahmi script. Brahmi is clearly attested from the 3rd century BC during the reign of Ashoka, who used the script for imperial edicts, but there are some claims of earlier epigraphy found on pottery in South India and Sri Lanka. The most reliable of these were short Brahmi inscriptions dated to the 4th century BC and published by Coningham et al., but scattered press reports have claimed both dates as early as the 6th century BC and that the characters are identifiably Tamil Brahmi, though these latter claims do not appear to have been published academically. Northern Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script during the Gupta period, which in turn diversified into a number of cursives during the Middle Ages, including Siddham, Sharada and Nagari.

The Siddham script was especially important in Buddhism, as many sutras were written in it. The art of Siddham calligraphy survives today in Japan. The syllabic nature and dictionary order of the modern kana system of Japanese writing is believed to be descended from the Indic scripts, most likely through the spread of Buddhism.

Southern Brahmi evolved into Old-Kannada, Pallava and Vatteluttu scripts, which in turn diversified into other scripts of South India and Southeast Asia.

Bhattiprolu was a great centre of Buddhism during 3rd century BCE and from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. The present Telugu script is derived from Bhattiprolu Script or 'Kannada-Telugu script' or Kadamba script, also known as 'old Telugu script', owing to its similarity to the same.

Initially, minor changes were made which is now called Tamil Brahmi which has far fewer letters than some of the other Indic scripts as it has no separate aspirated or voiced consonants.

Characteristics

Calligraphy
Arabic Chinese Georgian Indian Japanese Korean Mongolian Persian Tibetan Western

Some characteristics, which are present in most but not all the scripts, are:

• Each consonant has an inherent vowel which is usually short 'a' (in Bengali, and Assamese, it is short 'ô' due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A mark, known in Sanskrit as a virama/halant can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel.
• Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not part of a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
• Consonants (up to 4 in Devanagari) can be combined in ligatures. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
• Nasalization and aspiration of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
• The alphabetical order is: vowels, velar consonants, palatal consonants, retroflex consonants, dental consonants, bilabial consonants, approximants, sibilants, and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four consonants (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a nasalised consonant.

Comparison

Below are comparison charts of several of the major Indic scripts, organised on the principle that glyphs in the same column all derive from the same Brahmi glyph. Accordingly:

• The charts are not comprehensive. Glyphs may be unrepresented if they don't derive from any Brahmi character, but are later inventions.
• The pronunciations of glyphs in the same column may not be identical. The pronunciation row is only representative; the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) pronunciation is given for Sanskrit where possible, or another language if necessary.

The transliteration is indicated in ISO 15919.

Consonants

ISO	k	kh	g	gh	ṅ	c	ch	j	jh	ñ	ṭ	ṭh	ḍ	ḍh	ṇ	t	th	d	dh	n	ṉ	p	ph	b	bh	m	y	r	ṟ	l	ḷ	ḻ	v	ś	ṣ	s	h
Bengali	ক	খ	গ	ঘ	ঙ	চ	ছ	জ	ঝ	ঞ	ট	ঠ	ড	ঢ	ণ	ত	থ	দ	ধ	ন		প	ফ	ব	ভ	ম	য	র		ল			ৱ	শ	ষ	স	হ
Devanagari	क	ख	ग	घ	ङ	च	छ	ज	झ	ञ	ट	ठ	ड	ढ	ण	त	थ	द	ध	न	ऩ	प	फ	ब	भ	म	य	र	ऱ	ल	ळ	ऴ	व	श	ष	स	ह
Gujarati	ક	ખ	ગ	ઘ	ઙ	ચ	છ	જ	ઝ	ઞ	ટ	ઠ	ડ	ઢ	ણ	ત	થ	દ	ધ	ન		પ	ફ	બ	ભ	મ	ય	ર		લ	ળ		વ	શ	ષ	સ	હ
Odia	କ	ଖ	ଗ	ଘ	ଙ	ଚ	ଛ	ଜ	ଝ	ଞ	ଟ	ଠ	ଡ	ଢ	ଣ	ତ	ଥ	ଦ	ଧ	ନ	ନ଼	ପ	ଫ	ବ	ଭ	ମ	ୟ	ର	ର଼	ଲ	ଳ	ଳ଼	ୱ	ଶ	ଷ	ସ	ହ
Gurmukhi	ਕ	ਖ	ਗ	ਘ	ਙ	ਚ	ਛ	ਜ	ਝ	ਞ	ਟ	ਠ	ਡ	ਢ	ਣ	ਤ	ਥ	ਦ	ਧ	ਨ		ਪ	ਫ	ਬ	ਭ	ਮ	ਯ	ਰ		ਲ	ਲ਼		ਵ	ਸ਼		ਸ	ਹ
Tibetan	ཀ	ཁ	ག		ང	ཅ	ཆ	ཇ		ཉ	ཊ	ཋ	ཌ		ཎ	ཏ	ཐ	ད		ན		པ	ཕ	བ		མ	ཡ	ར		ལ			ཝ	ཤ	ཥ	ས	ཧ
Brahmi
Telugu	క	ఖ	గ	ఘ	ఙ	చ	ఛ	జ	ఝ	ఞ	ట	ఠ	డ	ఢ	ణ	త	థ	ద	ధ	న		ప	ఫ	బ	భ	మ	య	ర	ఱ	ల	ళ		వ	శ	ష	స	హ
Kannada	ಕ	ಖ	ಗ	ಘ	ಙ	ಚ	ಛ	ಜ	ಝ	ಞ	ಟ	ಠ	ಡ	ಢ	ಣ	ತ	ಥ	ದ	ಧ	ನ		ಪ	ಫ	ಬ	ಭ	ಮ	ಯ	ರ	ಱ	ಲ	ಳ	ೞ	ವ	ಶ	ಷ	ಸ	ಹ
Sinhala	ක	ඛ	ග	ඝ	ඞ	ච	ඡ	ජ	ඣ	ඤ	ට	ඨ	ඩ	ඪ	ණ	ත	ථ	ද	ධ	න		ප	ඵ	බ	භ	ම	ය	ර		ල	ළ		ව	ශ	ෂ	ස	හ
Malayalam	ക	ഖ	ഗ	ഘ	ങ	ച	ഛ	ജ	ഝ	ഞ	ട	ഠ	ഡ	ഢ	ണ	ത	ഥ	ദ	ധ	ന	ഩ*	പ	ഫ	ബ	ഭ	മ	യ	ര	റ	ല	ള	ഴ	വ	ശ	ഷ	സ	ഹ
Tamil	க				ங	ச		ஜ		ஞ	ட				ண	த				ந	ன	ப				ம	ய	ர	ற	ல	ள	ழ	வ	ஶ	ஷ	ஸ	ஹ
Burmese	က	ခ	ဂ	ဃ	င	စ	ဆ	ဇ	ဈ	ဉ/ည	ဋ	ဌ	ဍ	ဎ	ဏ	တ	ထ	ဒ	ဓ	န		ပ	ဖ	ဗ	ဘ	မ	ယ	ရ		လ	ဠ	ၔ	ဝ	ၐ	ၑ	သ	ဟ
Khmer	ក	ខ	គ	ឃ	ង	ច	ឆ	ជ	ឈ	ញ	ដ	ឋ	ឌ	ឍ	ណ	ត	ថ	ទ	ធ	ន		ប	ផ	ព	ភ	ម	យ	រ		ល	ឡ		វ	ឝ	ឞ	ស	ហ
Thai	ก	ข	ค	ฆ	ง	จ	ฉ	ช	ฌ	ญ	ฏ	ฐ	ฑ	ฒ	ณ	ต	ถ	ท	ธ	น		ป	ผ	พ	ภ	ม	ย	ร		ล	ฬ		ว	ศ	ษ	ส	ห
Lao	ກ	ຂ	ຄ		ງ	ຈ		ຊ		ຍ						ຕ	ຖ	ທ		ນ		ປ	ຜ	ຟ	ພ	ມ	ຢ	ຣ		ລ			ວ			ສ	ຫ
Balinese	ᬓ	ᬔ	ᬕ	ᬖ	ᬗ	ᬘ	ᬙ	ᬚ	ᬛ	ᬜ	ᬝ	ᬞ	ᬟ	ᬠ	ᬡ	ᬢ	ᬣ	ᬤ	ᬥ	ᬦ		ᬧ	ᬨ	ᬩ	ᬪ	ᬫ	ᬬ	ᬭ		ᬮ			ᬯ	ᬰ	ᬱ	ᬲ	ᬳ
Javanese	ꦏ	ꦑ*	ꦒ	ꦓ*	ꦔ	ꦕ	ꦖ*	ꦗ	ꦙ*	ꦚ	ꦛ	ꦜ*	ꦝ	ꦞ*	ꦟ*	ꦠ	ꦡ*	ꦢ	ꦣ*	ꦤ	ꦘ	ꦥ	ꦦ*	ꦧ	ꦨ*	ꦩ	ꦪ	ꦫ		ꦭ			ꦮ	ꦯ*	ꦰ*	ꦱ	ꦲ
Sundanese	ᮊ		ᮌ		ᮍ	ᮎ		ᮏ		ᮑ						ᮒ		ᮓ		ᮔ		ᮕ		ᮘ		ᮙ	ᮚ	ᮛ		ᮜ			ᮝ			ᮞ	ᮠ
Lontara	ᨀ		ᨁ		ᨂ	ᨌ		ᨍ		ᨎ						ᨈ		ᨉ		ᨊ		ᨄ		ᨅ		ᨆ	ᨐ	ᨑ		ᨒ			ᨓ			ᨔ	ᨕ
Baybayin	ᜃ		ᜄ		ᜅ											ᜆ		ᜇ		ᜈ		ᜉ		ᜊ		ᜋ	ᜌ	ᜇ		ᜎ						ᜐ	ᜑ

• Malayalam. Malayalam nna implemented in Unicode 6.0. May not be rendered correctly.
• Javanese. Letters used in Old Javanese. They are now obsolete, but are used for honorifics in contemporary Javanese

List of Brahmic scripts

Scripts derived from Brahmi.

Historical

A fragment of Ashoka's 6th pillar edict.

Indo-Aryan languages (incl Dogri) using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except dark blue colored- Sindhi, Lahnda, Western Panjabi, Shina, Kashmiri, Urdu- not marked here, which use Arabic derived scripts).

Dravidian languages using their respective Brahmic family scripts (except Brahui which uses Arabic derived script).

The Brahmi script was already divided into regional variants at the time of the earliest surviving epigraphy around the 3rd century BC. Cursives of the Brahmi script began to diversify further from around the 5th century AD and continued to give rise to new scripts throughout the Middle Ages. The main division in antiquity was between northern and southern Brahmi. In the northern group, the Gupta script was very influential, and in the southern group the Vatteluttu and Old-Kannada/Pallava scripts with the spread of Hinduism sent Brahmic scripts throughout Southeast Asia.

• Northern Brahmic
  • Gupta script, 5th century
    • Sharada, 8th century
    • Siddham, 7th century
      • Eastern Nagari script
        • Assamese script, 13th century
        • Bengali alphabet, 11th century
      • Tibetan script, 7th century
        • Phagspa, 13th century
    • Nagari, 8th century
      • Odia, 10th century
      • Devanagari, 13th century
      • Kaithi, Sylheti Nagari, 16th century
      • Modi, 17th century
  • Nepal
    • Bhujimol, 6th century
    • Ranjana, 12th century
      • Soyombo, 17th century
    • Prachalit
  • Anga Lipi, 720
  • Mithilakshar, 15th century
• Southern Brahmic (Tamil Brahmi, perhaps 5th or older but certainly 3rd, century BC, Kalinga, Bhattiprolu)
  • Proto Kannada
    • Kadamba or Old Kannada, 5th century
    • Pallava, 6th century
      • Kawi script, 8th century
        • Javanese script
      • Mon script
        • Burmese script
      • Ahom, 13th century
      • Tai Tham (Lanna), 14th century
      • Batak, 14th century
  • Vatteluttu
    • Tamil script
  • Grantha, 6th century
    • Dhives Akuru and others
• Tocharian script ("Slanting Brahmi"), 7th century
• Meeitei Mayek

Contemporary

script	derivation	period of derivation	usage notes	ISO 15924	Unicode range	sample
Balinese	Old Kawi	11th century	Balinese language	Bali	U+1B00–U+1B7F	ᬅᬓ᭄ᬲᬭ ᬩᬮᬶ
Baybayin	Old Kawi	14th century	Tagalog, other Philippine languages	Tglg	U+1700–U+171F	ᜊᜌ᜔ᜊᜌᜒᜈ᜔
Buhid	Old Kawi	14th century	Buhid language	Buhd	U+1740–U+175F	ᝊᝓᝑᝒᝇ
Burmese	Pallava grantha	11th century	Burmese language, numerous modifications for other languages including Chakma, Eastern and Western Pwo Karen, Geba Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rumai Palaung, S'gaw Karen, Shan	Mymr	U+1000–U+109F	မြန်မာအက္ခရာ
Cham	Pallava grantha	8th century	Cham language	Cham	U+AA00–U+AA5F	ꨌꨠ
Devanagari	Nagari	13th century	Numerous Indo-Aryan languages, including Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Nepali, Bhili, Konkani, Bhojpuri, Nepal Bhasa and sometimes Sindhi and Kashmiri. Formerly used to write Gujarati. Sometimes used to write or transliterate Sherpa	Deva	U+0900–U+097F	देवनागरी
Eastern Nagari script	Siddham	11th century	Assamese language (Assamese script variant), Bengali language (Bengali script variant), Bishnupriya Manipuri, Maithili, Angika	Beng	U+0980–U+09FF	অসমীয়া লিপি বাংলা লিপি
Gujarati	Nagari	17th century	Gujarati language, Kutchi language	Gujr	U+0A80–U+0AFF	ગુજરાતી લિપિ
Gurmukhi	Sharada	16th century	Punjabi language	Guru	U+0A00–U+0A7F	ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ
Hanunó'o	Old Kawi	14th century	Hanuno'o language	Hano	U+1720–U+173F	ᜱᜨᜳᜨᜳᜢ
Javanese	Old Kawi	16th century	Javanese language, Sundanese language, Madurese language	Java	U+A980–U+A9DF	ꦄꦏ꧀ꦱꦫ ꦗꦮ
Kannada	Kadamba/Old Kannada	9th century	Kannada language, Konkani language Tulu, Badaga, Kodava, Beary others	Knda	U+0C80–U+0CFF	ಕನ್ನಡ ಅಕ್ಷರಮಾಲೆ
Khmer	Pallava grantha	11th century	Khmer language	Khmr	U+1780–U+17FF, U+19E0–U+19FF	អក្សរខ្មែរ
Lao	Khmer	14th century	Lao language, others	Laoo	U+0E80–U+0EFF	ອັກສອນລາວ
Lepcha	Tibetan	18th century	Lepcha language	Lepc	U+1C00–U+1C4F
Limbu	Lepcha	18th century	Limbu language	Limb	U+1900–U+194F	ᤛᤡᤖᤡᤈᤨᤅ
Lontara	Old Kawi	17th century	Buginese language, others; mostly extinct, restricted to ceremonial use	Bugi	U+1A00–U+1A1F	ᨒᨚᨈᨑ
Malayalam	Grantha	12th century	Malayalam language	Mlym	U+0D00–U+0D7F	മലയാളലിപി
Odia	Kalinga	10th century	Odia language	Orya	U+0B00–U+0B7F	ଉତ୍କଳାକ୍ଷର
Rejang script	Old Kawi	18th century	Rejang language, mostly obsolete	Rjng	U+A930–U+A95F	ꥆꤰ꥓ꤼꤽ ꤽꥍꤺꥏ
Saurashtra	Grantha	20th century	Saurashtra language, mostly obsolete	Saur	U+A880–U+A8DF	ꢱꣃꢬꢵꢰ꣄ꢜ꣄ꢬꢵ
Sinhala	Grantha	12th century	Sinhala language	Sinh	U+0D80–U+0DFF	ශුද්ධ සිංහල
Sundanese script	Old Kawi	14th century	Sundanese language	Sund	U+1B80–U+1BBF	ᮃᮊ᮪ᮞᮛ ᮞᮥᮔ᮪ᮓ
Tai Le	Pallava grantha?		Tai Nüa language	Tale	U+1950–U+197F	ᥖᥭᥰᥖᥬᥳᥑᥨᥒᥰ
New Tai Lue	Tai Tham	1950s	Tai Lü language	Talu	U+1980-U+19DF	ᦟᦲᧅᦎᦷᦑᦺ
Tai Tham	Mon Script	13th Century	Northern Thai language, Tai Lü language, Khün language	Lana	U+1A20–U+1AAF	ᨲᩫ᩠ᩅᨾᩮᩬᩥᨦ
Tagbanwa	Old Kawi	14th century	various languages of Palawan, nearly extinct	Tagb	U+1760–U+177F	ᝦᝪᝨᝯ
Tamil	Chola-Pallava alphabet	8th century	Tamil language	Taml	U+0B80–U+0BFF	தமிழ் அரிச்சுவடி
Telugu	Bhattiprolu script/Old Kannada	11th Century Nannayya	Telugu language	Telu	U+0C01–U+0C6F	తెలుగు లిపి
Thai	Khmer	13th century	Thai language	Thai	U+0E00–U+0E7F	อักษรไทย
Tibetan	Siddham	8th century	Tibetan language, Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language	Tibt	U+0F00–U+0FFF	དབུ་ཅན་
Tai Viet	Thai?		Tai Dam language	Tavt	U+AA80–U+AADF	ꪼꪕꪒꪾ

See also

• Devanagari transliteration
  • International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration
  • National Library at Kolkata romanization
• Bharati Braille, the unified braille assignments of Indian languages
• Indus script – the earliest writing system on the Indian subcontinent
• ISCII – the coding scheme specifically designed to represent Indic scripts

External links

• Online Tool which supports Conversion between various Brahmic Scripts
• Windows Indic Script Support
• An Introduction to Indic Scripts
• South Asian Writing Systems
• Indian Transliterator A means to transliterate from romanised to Unicode Indian scripts.
• Imperial Brahmi Font and Text-Editor
• Brahmi Script
• IndiX: Indian Language support for the Linux Operating System
• Xlit: Tool for Transliteration between English and Indian Languages
• Padma: Transformer for Indic Scripts – a Firefox add-on