Devanagari

Writing script for many North Indian and Nepalese languages

Devanagari

देवनागरी

File:DevanagariLetters.png

Devanagari script (vowels top, consonants bottom)

Script type|

Abugida

Time period

| Early form: 1st century CE[1] Modern form: 7th century CE to present[2][3]
Region|  India 120+ languages use Devanagari script

Fiji as script for Fiji Hindi
South Africa as protected language (script)[4]

Nepal
Languages| Apabhramsha, Awadhi, Bhili, Bhojpuri, Boro, Braj, Chhattisgarhi, Dogri, Gujarati, Garhwali, Haryanvi, Hindustani (esp. Hindi), Kashmiri, Konkani, Kumaoni, Magahi, Maithili, Marathi, Marwari, Mundari, Nagpuri, Newari, Nepali, Pāḷi, Pahari, Prakrit, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santali, Saraiki, Sherpa, Sindhi, Surjapuri, and many more.
Related scripts

Parent systems

Proto-Sinaitic[a]

* Phoenician alphabet[a]
* Aramaic alphabet[a][5][6]
* Brāhmī
* Gupta
* Siddhaṃ[7][8]
* Nāgarī
* Devanagari

Sister systems

| Nandinagari
Kaithi
Gujarati
Moḍī
ISO 15924
ISO 15924| Deva (315), ​Devanagari (Nagari)
Unicode

Unicode alias

| Devanagari

Unicode range

| U+0900–U+097F Devanagari,
U+A8E0–U+A8FF Devanagari Extended,
U+11B00–11B5F Devanagari Extended-A,
U+1CD0–U+1CFF Vedic Extensions

[a] The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is debated.

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.
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Devanāgarī

Letter A in Devanagari

* Abugida
* Brahmic scripts
* Inherent vowel

Languages

* Hindi
* Marathi
* Nepali
* Konkani
* Maithili
* Sindhi
* Bodo
* Pali
* Prakrit
* Sanskrit and more

Transliteration

* IAST
* Hunterian
* NLK
* ISO 15919
* Harvard-Kyoto
* ITRANS
* Velthuis
* SLP1
* WX notation
* (ISCII)

Vowels and syllabic consonants

|  अ a|  ॲ æ|  ऄ|  आ (का) ā

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इ (कि) i| | |  ई (की) ī
उ (कु) u| | |  ऊ (कू) ū
ॶ (कॖ)| | |  ॷ (कॗ)
ऋ (कृ) r̥| | |  ॠ (कॄ) r̥̄
ऌ (कॢ) l̥| | |  ॡ (कॣ) l̥̄
ए (के) ē|  ऍ (कॅ) ê|  ऎ (कॆ) e|  ऐ (कै) ai
(कॕ)| | |  (कॎ)
ओ (को) ō|  ऑ (कॉ) ô|  ऒ (कॊ) o|  औ (कौ) au
ॳ (कऺ)| | |  ॴ (कऻ)
| | |  ॵ (कॏ)

* (Schwa deletion)

Consonants

|  क k|  क़ q| | |  ख kh|  ख़ k̲h̲| |

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ग g|  ग़ ġ|  ॻ gg| |  घ gh| |  ङ ṅ|

च c| | | |  छ ch| | |
ज j|  ज़ z|  ॼ jj|  ॹ ž|  झ jh|  झ़ zh|  ञ ñ|

ट ṭ| | | |  ठ ṭh| | |
ड ḍ|  ड़ ṛ|  ॾ ḍḍ|  ॸ ḍ|  ढ ḍh|  ढ़ ṛh|  ण ṇ|

त t| | | |  थ th| | |
द d| | | |  ध dh| |  न n|  ऩ ṉ

प p| | | |  फ ph|  फ़ f| |
ब b| |  ॿ bb| |  भ bh| |  म m|

य y|  य़ ẏ| |  ॺ|  र r|  ऱ ṟ|  ळ ḷ|  ऴ ḻ
ल l| | | |  व v| | |

श ś|  ष ṣ|  स s| |  ह h| |  ॽ|

* (Conjuncts)

Diacritics, punctuation, symbols

|  अं ṁ|  अः ḥ|  अँ m̐|  अऀ|  ऽ ’

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क़|  क्|  ३ 3|  ᳵ ẖ|  ᳶ ḫ
अ॑  `|  अ॒  _|  अ॓|  अ॔|  ॐ aum̐
।|  ॥|  ॰|  ॱ|  ₹ INR

* and more (Devanagari (Unicode block)
* Devanagari Extended
* Vedic Extensions)

Numerals

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

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Devanagari (/ˌdeɪvəˈnɑːɡəri/ DAY-və-NAH-gə-ree; देवनागरी, IAST: Devanāgarī, Sanskrit pronunciation: [deːʋɐˈnaːɡɐriː]), also called Nagari (Sanskrit: नागरी, Nāgarī),[9] is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system),[10] based on the ancient Brāhmī script,[1] used in the northern Indian subcontinent. It was developed in ancient India from the 1st to the 4th century CE[1] and was in regular use by the 7th century CE.[9][11] The Devanagari script, composed of 47 primary characters, including 14 vowels and 33 consonants, is the fourth most widely adopted writing system in the world,[12] being used for over 120 languages.[13]

The orthography of this script reflects the pronunciation of the language.[13] Unlike the Latin alphabet, the script has no concept of letter case.[14] It is written from left to right, has a strong preference for symmetrical rounded shapes within squared outlines, and is recognisable by a horizontal line, known as a shirorekhā, that runs along the top of full letters.[10] In a cursory look, the Devanagari script appears different from other Indic scripts such as Bengali-Assamese, or Gurmukhi, but a closer examination reveals they are very similar except for angles and structural emphasis.[10]

Among the languages using it – either as their only script or as one of their scripts – are Marathi, Pāḷi, Sanskrit (the ancient Nagari script for Sanskrit had two additional consonantal characters),[15] Hindi,[16] Boro, Nepali, Sherpa, Prakrit, Apabhramsha, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Braj Bhasha,[17] Chhattisgarhi, Haryanvi, Magahi, Nagpuri, Rajasthani, Bhili, Dogri, Kashmiri, Konkani, Sindhi, Nepal Bhasa, Mundari, and Santali.[13] The Devanagari script is closely related to the Nandinagari script commonly found in numerous ancient manuscripts of South India,[18][19] and it is distantly related to a number of southeast Asian scripts.[13]

## Contents

* 1 Etymology
* 2 History
* 2.1 East Asia
* 3 Letters
* 3.1 Vowels
* 3.2 Consonants
* 3.3 Vowel diacritics
* 3.4 Conjunct consonants
* 3.5 Accent marks
* 3.6 Punctuation
* 3.7 Old forms
* 3.8 Numerals
* 3.9 Fonts
* 4 Transliteration
* 4.1 Hunterian system
* 4.2 ISO 15919
* 4.3 IAST
* 4.4 Harvard-Kyoto
* 4.5 ITRANS
* 4.5.1 Velthuis
* 4.6 ALA-LC Romanisation
* 4.7 WX
* 5 Encodings
* 5.1 ISCII
* 5.2 Unicode
* 6 Devanagari keyboard layouts
* 6.1 InScript layout
* 6.2 Typewriter
* 6.3 Phonetic
* 7 See also
* 8 References
* 8.1 Citations
* 8.2 General sources
* 8.3 Census and catalogues of manuscripts in Devanagari
* 9 External links

## Etymology[edit | edit source]

Devanagari is a compound of "deva" (देव) and "nāgarī" (नागरी). Deva means "heavenly or divine" and is also one of the terms for a deity in Hinduism.[20] Nagari comes from नगरम् (nagaram) a Sanskrit word which means town. Hence, Devanagari denotes from the abode of divinity or deities.

Nāgarī is the Sanskrit feminine of Nāgara "relating or belonging to a town or city, urban". It is a phrasing with lipi ("script") as nāgarī lipi "script relating to a city", or "spoken in city".[21]

Devanagari Script known as 'Script of the divine city' came from Devanagara or the 'city of the god'. And hence interpret it as "[script of] the city of the gods".[22]

The use of the name devanāgarī emerged from the older term nāgarī.[23] According to Fischer, Nagari emerged in the northwest Indian subcontinent around 633 CE, was fully developed by the 11th-century, and was one of the major scripts used for the Sanskrit literature.[23]

## History[edit | edit source]

Devanagari is part of the Brahmic family of scripts of India, Nepal, Tibet, and Southeast Asia.[24][23] It is a descendant of the 3rd century BCE Brahmi script, which evolved into the Nagari script which in turn gave birth to Devanagari and Nandinagari. Devanagari has been widely adopted across India and Nepal to write Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi, Central Indo-Aryan languages, Konkani, Boro, and various Nepalese languages.

Some of the earliest epigraphical evidence attesting to the developing Sanskrit Nagari script in ancient India is from the 1st to 4th century CE inscriptions discovered in Gujarat.[1] Variants of script called Nāgarī, recognisably close to Devanagari, are first attested from the 1st century CE Rudradaman inscriptions in Sanskrit, while the modern standardised form of Devanagari was in use by about 1000 CE.[11][25] Medieval inscriptions suggest widespread diffusion of the Nagari-related scripts, with biscripts presenting local script along with the adoption of Nagari scripts. For example, the mid 8th-century Pattadakal pillar in Karnataka has text in both Siddha Matrika script, and an early Telugu-Kannada script; while, the Kangra Jawalamukhi inscription in Himachal Pradesh is written in both Sharada and Devanagari scripts.[26]

The Nagari script was in regular use by the 7th century CE, and it was fully developed by about the end of first millennium.[9][11] The use of Sanskrit in Nagari script in medieval India is attested by numerous pillar and cave temple inscriptions, including the 11th-century Udayagiri inscriptions in Madhya Pradesh,[27] and an inscribed brick found in Uttar Pradesh, dated to be from 1217 CE, which is now held at the British Museum.[28] The script's proto- and related versions have been discovered in ancient relics outside of India, such as in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Indonesia; while in East Asia, Siddha Matrika script considered as the closest precursor to Nagari was in use by Buddhists.[15][29] Nagari has been the primus inter pares of the Indic scripts.[15] It has long been used traditionally by religiously educated people in South Asia to record and transmit information, existing throughout the land in parallel with a wide variety of local scripts (such as Modi, Kaithi, and Mahajani) used for administration, commerce, and other daily uses.

Sharada remained in parallel use in Kashmir. An early version of Devanagari is visible in the Kutila inscription of Bareilly dated to Vikram Samvat 1049 (i.e. 992 CE), which demonstrates the emergence of the horizontal bar to group letters belonging to a word.[2] One of the oldest surviving Sanskrit texts from the early post-Maurya period consists of 1,413 Nagari pages of a commentary by Patanjali, with a composition date of about 150 BCE, the surviving copy transcribed about 14th century CE.[30]

Evolution from Brahmi to Gupta, and to Devanagari[31] | k- | kh- | g- | gh- | ṅ- | c- | ch- | j- | jh- | ñ- | ṭ- | ṭh- | ḍ- | ḍh- | ṇ- | t- | th- | d- | dh- | n- | p- | ph- | b- | bh- | m- | y- | r- | l- | v- | ś- | ṣ- | s- | h-

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Brahmi | 𑀓 | 𑀔 |  𑀕 |  𑀖 |  𑀗 |  𑀘 | 𑀙 | 𑀚 | 𑀛 | 𑀜 | 𑀝 | 𑀞 | 𑀟 | 𑀠 | 𑀡 | 𑀢 | 𑀣 | 𑀤 | 𑀥 | 𑀦 | 𑀧 | 𑀨 |  𑀩 | 𑀪 |  𑀫 | 𑀬 | 𑀭 | 𑀮 | 𑀯 | 𑀰 | 𑀱 | 𑀲 | 𑀳
Gupta | File:Gupta allahabad k.svg |  | File:Gupta allahabad g.svg |  | File:Gupta allahabad ng.svg |  |  | File:Gupta allahabad j.svg | File:Gupta ashoka jh.svg | File:Gupta allahabad ny.svg |  |  | File:Gupta allahabad dd.svg |  |  |  | File:Gupta allahabad th.svg | File:Gupta allahabad d.svg | File:Gupta allahabad dh.svg | File:Gupta allahabad n.svg |  | File:Gupta allahabad ph.svg | File:Gupta allahabad b.svg | File:Gupta allahabad bh.svg | File:Gupta allahabad m.svg | File:Gupta allahabad y.svg | File:Gupta allahabad r.svg |  | File:Gupta allahabad v.svg | File:Gupta allahabad sh.svg |  |  |
Devanagari | क |  ख | ग | घ | ङ | च | छ | ज | झ | ञ | ट |  ठ | ड | ढ |  ण |  त |  थ | द | ध |  न | प |  फ | ब | भ |  म |  य | र | ल | व | श | ष |  स |  ह

### East Asia[edit | edit source]

File:Falongsibeiye.png

Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra in Siddham on palm-leaf in 609 CE. Hōryū-ji, Japan. The last line is a complete Sanskrit syllabary in Siddhaṃ script.

In the 7th century, under the rule of Songtsen Gampo of the Tibetan Empire, Thonmi Sambhota was sent to Nepal to open marriage negotiations with a Nepali princess and to find a writing system suitable for the Tibetan language. Thus he invented the Tibetan script, based on the Nagari used in Kashmir. He added 6 new characters for sounds that did not exist in Sanskrit.[32]

Other scripts closely related to Nagari such as Siddham Matrka were in use in Indonesia, Vietnam, Japan and other parts of East Asia by the 7th to 10th centuries.[33][34]

Most of the southeast Asian scripts have roots in the Dravidian scripts, except for a few found in south-central regions of Java and isolated parts of southeast Asia that resemble Devanagari or its prototype. The Kawi script in particular is similar to the Devanagari in many respects though the morphology of the script has local changes. The earliest inscriptions in the Devanagari-like scripts are from around the 10th century, with many more between 11th and 14th centuries.[35][36] Some of the old-Devanagari inscriptions are found in Hindu temples of Java, such as the Prambanan temple.[37] The Ligor and the Kalasan inscriptions of central Java, dated to the 8th century, are also in the Nagari script of North India. According to the epigraphist and Asian Studies scholar Lawrence Briggs, these may be related to the 9th-century copper plate inscription of Devapaladeva (Bengal) which is also in early Devanagari script.[38] The term Kawi in Kawi script is a loan word from Kavya (poetry). According to anthropologists and Asian studies scholars John Norman Miksic and Goh Geok Yian, the 8th-century version of early Nagari or Devanagari script was adopted in Java, Bali (Indonesia), and Khmer (Cambodia) around 8th or 9th centuries, as evidenced by the many inscriptions of this period.[39]

## Letters[edit | edit source]

The letter order of Devanagari, like nearly all Brahmic scripts, is based on phonetic principles that consider both the manner and place of articulation of the consonants and vowels they represent. This arrangement is usually referred to as the varṇamālā "garland of letters".[40] The format of Devanagari for Sanskrit serves as the prototype for its application, with minor variations or additions, to other languages.[41]

### Vowels[edit | edit source]

The vowels and their arrangement are:[42]

|  | Independent form  | IAST | ISO | IPA | As diacritic with प (Barakhadi)
[further explanation needed] |  | Independent form  | IAST  | ISO  | IPA  | As diacritic with प (Barakhadi)

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kaṇṭhya
(Guttural)  | अ | a | [ɐ] | प | आ | ā | [ɑː] | पा
tālavya
(Palatal)  | इ | i | [i] | पि | ई | ī | [iː] | पी
oṣṭhya
(Labial)  | उ | u | [u] | पु 6 | ऊ | ū | [uː] | पू 6
mūrdhanya
(Retroflex)  | ऋ | ṛ | r̥ | [r̩] | पृ | ॠ 4 | ṝ | r̥̄ | [r̩ː] | पॄ
dantya
(Dental)  | ऌ 4 | ḷ | l̥ | [l̩] | पॢ | ॡ 4, 5 | ḹ | l̥̄ | [l̩ː] | पॣ
kaṇṭhatālavya
(Palatoguttural)  | ए | e | ē | [eː] | पे | ऐ | ai | [ɑj] | पै
kaṇṭhoṣṭhya
(Labioguttural)  | ओ | o | ō | [oː] | पो | औ | au | [ɑw] | पौ
| अं / ं 1,2 | ṃ | ṁ | [◌̃] | पं | अः / ः 1 | ḥ | [h] | पः
| ॲ / ऍ 7 |  | ê | [æ] | पॅ | ऑ 7 |  | ô | [ɒ] | पॉ

File:Isha Upanishad Verses 1 to 3, Shukla Yajurveda, Sanskrit, Devanagari.jpg

File:13th-century Shatapatha Brahmana 14th Khanda Prapathaka 3-4, page 1 front, Sanskrit, Devanagari script.jpg

File:1593 CE, Adi Shankara bhasya Aitareya Upanishad, Varanasi Jain temple bhandara, Sanskrit, Devanagari, MS Add.2092.jpg

Examples of Devanagari manuscripts created between the 13th and 19th centuries

1. Arranged with the vowels are two consonantal diacritics, the final nasal anusvāra ं ṃ and the final fricative visarga ः ḥ (called अं aṃ and अः aḥ). Masica (1991:146) notes of the anusvāra in Sanskrit that "there is some controversy as to whether it represents a homorganic nasal stop [...], a nasalised vowel, a nasalised semivowel, or all these according to context". The visarga represents post-vocalic voiceless glottal fricative [h], in Sanskrit an allophone of s, or less commonly r, usually in word-final position. Some traditions of recitation append an echo of the vowel after the breath:[43] इः [ihi]. Masica (1991:146) considers the visarga along with letters ङ ṅa and ञ ña for the "largely predictable" velar and palatal nasals to be examples of "phonetic overkill in the system".
2. Another diacritic is the candrabindu/anunāsika ँ अँ. Salomon (2003:76–77) describes it as a "more emphatic form" of the anusvāra, "sometimes [...] used to mark a true [vowel] nasalization". In a New Indo-Aryan language such as Hindi the distinction is formal: the candrabindu indicates vowel nasalisation[44] while the anusvār indicates a homorganic nasal preceding another consonant:[45] e.g., हँसी [ɦə̃si] "laughter", गंगा [ɡəŋɡɑ] "the Ganges". When an akṣara has a vowel diacritic above the top line, that leaves no room for the candra ("moon") stroke candrabindu, which is dispensed with in favour of the lone dot:[46] हूँ [ɦũ] "am", but हैं [ɦɛ̃] "are". Some writers and typesetters dispense with the "moon" stroke altogether, using only the dot in all situations.[47]
3. The avagraha ऽ अऽ (usually transliterated with an apostrophe) is a Sanskrit punctuation mark for the elision of a vowel in sandhi: एकोऽयम् eko'yam ( ← एकस् ekas \+ अयम् ayam) "this one". An original long vowel lost to coalescence is sometimes marked with a double avagraha: सदाऽऽत्मा sadā'tmā ( ← सदा sadā \+ आत्मा ātmā) "always, the self".[48] In Hindi, Snell (2000:77) states that its "main function is to show that a vowel is sustained in a cry or a shout": आईऽऽऽ! āīīī!. In Madhyadeshi Languages like Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Maithili, etc. which have "quite a number of verbal forms [that] end in that inherent vowel",[49] the avagraha is used to mark the non-elision of word-final inherent a, which otherwise is a modern orthographic convention: बइठऽ baiṭha "sit" versus बइठ baiṭh
4. The syllabic consonants ṝ (ॠ), ḷ, (ऌ) and ḹ (ॡ) are specific to Sanskrit and not included in the varṇamālā of other languages. The sound represented by ṛ has also been lost in the modern languages, and its pronunciation now ranges from [ɾɪ] (Hindi) to [ɾu] (Marathi).
5. ḹ is not an actual phoneme of Sanskrit, but rather a graphic convention included among the vowels in order to maintain the symmetry of short–long pairs of letters.[41]
6. There are non-regular formations of रु ru, रू rū, and हृ hṛ.
7. There are two more vowels in Marathi, ॲ and ऑ, that respectively represent [æ], similar to the RP English pronunciation of ⟨a⟩ in ‘act’, and [ɒ], similar to the RP pronunciation of ⟨o⟩ in ‘cot’. These vowels are sometimes used in Hindi too, as in डॉलर dôlar, "dollar".[50] IAST transliteration is not defined. In ISO 15919, the transliteration is ê and ô, respectively.

### Consonants[edit | edit source]

The table below shows the consonant letters (in combination with inherent vowel a) and their arrangement. To the right of the Devanagari letter it shows the Latin script transliteration using International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration,[51] and the phonetic value (IPA) in Hindi.[52][53]

Phonetics →  | sparśa
(Occlusive)  | anunāsika
(Nasal)  | antastha
(Approximant)  | ūṣman/saṃgharṣī
(Fricative)

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Voicing →  | aghoṣa | saghoṣa | aghoṣa | saghoṣa
Aspiration →  | alpaprāṇa | mahāprāṇa | alpaprāṇa | mahāprāṇa | alpaprāṇa | mahāprāṇa
kaṇṭhya
(Velars)  | क | ka
[k] | ख | kha
[kʰ] | ग | ga
[ɡ] | घ | gha
[ɡʱ] | ङ | ṅa
[ŋ] |  | ह | ha
[ɦ]
tālavya
(Palatal)  | च | ca
[tʃ] | छ | cha
[tʃʰ] | ज | ja
[dʒ] | झ | jha
[dʒʱ] | ञ | ña
[ɲ] | य | ya
[j] | श | śa
[ʃ] |
mūrdhanya
(Retroflex)  | ट | ṭa
[ʈ] | ठ | ṭha
[ʈʰ] | ड | ḍa
[ɖ] | ढ | ḍha
[ɖʱ] | ण | ṇa
[ɳ] | र | ra
[r] | ष | ṣa
[ʂ]
dantya
(Dental)  | त | ta
[t̪] | थ | tha
[t̪ʰ] | द | da
[d̪] | ध | dha
[d̪ʱ] | न | na
[n] | ल | la
[l] | स | sa
[s]
oṣṭhya
(Labial)  | प | pa
[p] | फ | pha
[pʰ] | ब | ba
[b] | भ | bha
[bʱ] | म | ma
[m] | व | va
[ʋ] |

* Additionally, there is ळ ḷa (IPA: [ɭ] or [ɭ̆]), the intervocalic lateral flap allophone of the voiced retroflex stop in Vedic Sanskrit, which is a phoneme in languages such as Marathi, Konkani, Garhwali, and Rajasthani.[54]
* Beyond the Sanskritic set, new shapes have rarely been formulated. Masica (1991:146) offers the following, "In any case, according to some, all possible sounds had already been described and provided for in this system, as Sanskrit was the original and perfect language. Hence it was difficult to provide for or even to conceive other sounds, unknown to the phoneticians of Sanskrit". Where foreign borrowings and internal developments did inevitably accrue and arise in New Indo-Aryan languages, they have been ignored in writing, or dealt through means such as diacritics and ligatures (ignored in recitation).
* The most prolific diacritic has been the subscript dot (nuqtā) ़. Hindi uses it for the Persian, Arabic and English sounds क़ qa /q/, ख़ xa /x/, ग़ ġa /ɣ/, ज़ za /z/, झ़ zha /ʒ/, and फ़ fa /f/, and for the allophonic developments ड़ ṛa /ɽ/ and ढ़ ṛha /ɽʱ/.[55] (Although ऴ ḻa /ɻ/ could also exist, it is not used in Hindi.)
* Sindhi's and Saraiki's implosives are accommodated with a line attached below: ॻ [ɠə], ॼ [ʄə], ॾ [ɗə], ॿ [ɓə].
* Aspirated sonorants may be represented as conjuncts/ligatures with ह ha: म्ह mha, न्ह nha, ण्ह ṇha, व्ह vha, ल्ह lha, ळ्ह ḷha, र्ह rha.
* Masica (1991:147) notes Marwari as using ॸ for ḍa [ɗə] (while ड represents [ɽə]).

For a list of the 297 (33×9) possible Sanskrit consonant-(short) vowel syllables see Āryabhaṭa numeration.

### Vowel diacritics[edit | edit source]

Vowel diacritics on क

Table: Consonants with vowel diacritics. Vowels in their independent form on the left and in their corresponding dependent form (vowel sign) combined with the consonant 'k' on the right. 'ka' is without any added vowel sign, where the vowel 'a' is inherent. ISO 15919[56] transliteration is on the top two rows.

ISO | a | ā | æ | ɒ | i | ī | u | ū | e | ē | ai | o | ō | au | r̥ | r̥̄ | l̥ | l̥̄ | ṁ | ḥ  |

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| a  | ka  | ā  | kā  | æ  | kæ  | ɒ  | kɒ  | i  | ki  | ī  | kī  | u  | ku  | ū  | kū  | e  | ke  | ē  | kē  | ai  | kai  | o  | ko  | ō  | kō  | au  | kau  | r̥  | kr̥  | r̥̄  | kr̥̄  | l̥  | kl̥  | l̥̄  | kl̥̄  | ṁ  | kaṁ  | ḥ  | kaḥ  | k
Devanagari  | अ | क | आ | का | ॲ | कॅ | ऑ | कॉ | इ | कि | ई | की | उ | कु | ऊ | कू | ऎ | कॆ | ए | के | ऐ | कै | ऒ | कॊ | ओ | को | औ | कौ | ऋ | कृ | ॠ | कॄ | ऌ | कॢ | ॡ | कॣ | अं | कं | अः | कः  | क्

A vowel combines with a consonant in their diacritic form. For example, the vowel आ (ā) combines with the consonant क् (k) to form the syllabic letter का (kā), with halant (cancel sign) removed and added vowel sign which is indicated by diacritics. The vowel अ (a) combines with the consonant क् (k) to form क (ka) with halant removed. But the diacritic series of क, ख, ग, घ ... (ka, kha, ga, gha) is without any added vowel sign, as the vowel अ (a) is inherent.

Barakhadi Table  अ  | आ  | इ  | ई  | उ  | ऊ  | ए  | ऐ  | ओ  | औ  | अं  | अः

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क  | का  | कि  | की  | कु  | कू  | के  | कै  | को  | कौ  | कं  | कः
ख  | खा  | खि  | खी  | खु  | खू  | खे  | खै  | खो  | खौ  | खं  | खः
ग  | गा  | गि  | गी  | गु  | गू  | गे  | गै  | गो  | गौ  | गं  | गः
घ  | घा  | घि  | घी  | घु  | घू  | घे  | घै  | घो  | घौ  | घं  | घः
ङ  | ङा  | ङि  | ङी  | ङु  | ङू  | ङे  | ङै  | ङो  | ङौ  | ङं  | ङः
च  | चा  | चि  | ची  | चु  | चू  | चे  | चै  | चो  | चौ  | चं  | चः
छ  | छा  | छि  | छी  | छु  | छू  | छे  | छै  | छो  | छौ  | छं  | छः
ज  | जा  | जि  | जी  | जु  | जू  | जे  | जै  | जो  | जौ  | जं  | जः
झ  | झा  | झि  | झी  | झु  | झू  | झे  | झै  | झो  | झौ  | झं  | झः
ञ  | ञा  | ञि  | ञी  | ञु  | ञू  | ञे  | ञै  | ञो  | ञौ  | ञं  | ञः
ट  | टा  | टि  | टी  | टु  | टू  | टे  | टै  | टो  | टौ  | टं  | टः
ठ  | ठा  | ठि  | ठी  | ठु  | ठू  | ठे  | ठै  | ठो  | ठौ  | ठं  | ठः
ड  | डा  | डि  | डी  | डु  | डू  | डे  | डै  | डो  | डौ  | डं  | डः
ढ  | ढा  | ढि  | ढी  | ढु  | ढू  | ढे  | ढै  | ढो  | ढौ  | ढं  | ढः
ण  | णा  | णि  | णी  | णु  | णू  | णे  | णै  | णो  | णौ  | णं  | णः
त  | ता  | ति  | ती  | तु  | तू  | ते  | तै  | तो  | तौ  | तं  | तः
थ  | था  | थि  | थी  | थु  | थू  | थे  | थै  | थो  | थौ  | थं  | थः
द  | दा  | दि  | दी  | दु  | दू  | दे  | दै  | दो  | दौ  | दं  | दः
ध  | धा  | धि  | धी  | धु  | धू  | धे  | धै  | धो  | धौ  | धं  | धः
न  | ना  | नि  | नी  | नु  | नू  | ने  | नै  | नो  | नौ  | नं  | नः
प  | पा  | पि  | पी  | पु  | पू  | पे  | पै  | पो  | पौ  | पं  | पः
फ  | फा  | फि  | फी  | फु  | फू  | फे  | फै  | फो  | फौ  | फं  | फः
ब  | बा  | बि  | बी  | बु  | बू  | बे  | बै  | बो  | बौ  | बं  | बः
भ  | भा  | भि  | भी  | भु  | भू  | भे  | भै  | भो  | भौ  | भं  | भः
म  | मा  | मि  | मी  | मु  | मू  | मे  | मै  | मो  | मौ  | मं  | मः
य  | या  | यि  | यी  | यु  | यू  | ये  | यै  | यो  | यौ  | यं  | यः
र  | रा  | रि  | री  | रु  | रू  | रे  | रै  | रो  | रौ  | रं  | रः
ल  | ला  | लि  | ली  | लु  | लू  | ले  | लै  | लो  | लौ  | लं  | लः
व  | वा  | वि  | वी  | वु  | वू  | वे  | वै  | वो  | वौ  | वं  | वः
श  | शा  | शि  | शी  | शु  | शू  | शे  | शै  | शो  | शौ  | शं  | शः
ष  | षा  | षि  | षी  | षु  | षू  | षे  | षै  | षो  | षौ  | षं  | षः
स  | सा  | सि  | सी  | सु  | सू  | से  | सै  | सो  | सौ  | सं  | सः
ह  | हा  | हि  | ही  | हु  | हू  | हे  | है  | हो  | हौ  | हं  | हः

### Conjunct consonants[edit | edit source]

Main article: Devanagari conjuncts

File:1765 Saka, 1843 CE, Jnanesvari Jnandeva Dnyaneshwar manuscript page 1 and 2, Devanagari Marathi.jpg

The Jnanesvari is a commentary on the Bhagavad Gita, dated to 1290 CE. It is in written in Marathi using Devanagari script.

As mentioned, successive consonants lacking a vowel in between them may physically join together as a conjunct consonant or ligature. When Devanagari is used for writing languages other than Sanskrit, conjuncts are used mostly with Sanskrit words and loan words. Native words typically use the basic consonant and native speakers know to suppress the vowel when it is conventional to do so. For example, the native Hindi word karnā is written करना (ka-ra-nā).[57] The government of these clusters ranges from widely to narrowly applicable rules, with special exceptions within. While standardised for the most part, there are certain variations in clustering, of which the Unicode used on this page is just one scheme. The following are a number of rules:

* File:Complete1 made by CB.png

All forms of श

24 out of the 36 consonants contain a vertical right stroke (ख kha, घ gha, ण ṇa etc.). As first or middle fragments/members of a cluster (when letters are to be written as half pronounced), they lose that stroke. e.g. त् \+ व = त्व tva, ण् \+ ढ = ण्ढ ṇḍha, स् \+ थ = स्थ stha. In Unicode, as in Hindi, these consonants without their vertical stems are called half forms.[58] श ś(a) appears as a different, simple ribbon-shaped fragment preceding व va, न na, च ca, ल la, and र ra, causing these second members to be shifted down and reduced in size. Thus श्व śva, श्न śna, श्च śca श्ल śla, श्र śra, and शृ śri.
* र r(a) as a first member takes the form of a curved upward dash above the final character or its ā-diacritic. e.g. र्व rva, र्वा rvā, र्स्प rspa, र्स्पा rspā. As a final member with ट ṭa, ठ ṭha, ड ḍa, ढ ḍha, ड़ ṛa, छ cha, it is two lines together below the character pointed downwards. Thus ट्र ṭra, ठ्र ṭhra, ड्र ḍra, ढ्र ḍhra, ड़्र ṛra, छ्र chra. Elsewhere as a final member it is a diagonal stroke extending leftwards and down. e.g. क्र ग्र भ्र ब्र. त ta is shifted up to make the conjunct त्र tra.
* As first members, remaining characters lacking vertical strokes such as द d(a) and ह h(a) may have their second member, reduced in size and lacking its horizontal stroke, placed underneath. क k(a), छ ch(a), and फ ph(a) shorten their right hooks and join them directly to the following member.
* The conjuncts for kṣ and jñ are not clearly derived from the letters making up their components. The conjunct for kṣ is क्ष (क् \+ ष) and for jñ it is ज्ञ (ज् \+ ञ).

### Accent marks[edit | edit source]

Main article: Vedic accent

The pitch accent of Vedic Sanskrit is written with various symbols depending on shakha. In the Rigveda, anudātta is written with a bar below the line (◌॒), svarita with a stroke above the line (◌॑) while udātta is unmarked.

### Punctuation[edit | edit source]

The end of a sentence or half-verse may be marked with the "।" symbol (called a daṇḍa, meaning "bar", or called a pūrṇa virām, meaning "full stop/pause"). The end of a full verse may be marked with a double-daṇḍa, a "॥" symbol. A comma (called an alpa virām, meaning "short stop/pause") is used to denote a natural pause in speech.[59][60] Punctuation marks of Western origin, such as the colon, semicolon, exclamation mark, dash, and question mark have been in use in Devanagari script since at least the 1900s,[citation needed] matching their use in European languages.[61]

### Old forms[edit | edit source]

File:11th-century Shisyalekha palm leaf mauscript, 5th-century CE Buddhist epistolary text by Candragomin, Devanagari script, Nepal talapatra.jpg

A few palm leaves from the Buddhist Sanskrit text Shisyalekha composed in the 5th century by Candragomin. Shisyalekha was written in Devanagari script by a Nepalese scribe in 1084 CE (above). The manuscript is in the Cambridge University library.[62]

A mid-10th-century college land grant in Devanagari inscription (Sanskrit) discovered on a buried, damaged stone in north Karnataka. Parts of the inscription are in Canarese script.[63]

The following letter variants are also in use, particularly in older texts.[64]

Letter variants  standard | ancient

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File:Devanagari a.svg | File:Devanagari a old.svg
| File:Devanagari jh old.svg
File:Devanagari nn.svg |
File:Devanagari l old.svg | File:Devanagari l.svg

### Numerals[edit | edit source]

See also: Indian numerals, Brahmi numerals, and Hindu–Arabic numeral system

Devanagari digits ० | १ | २ | ३ | ४ | ५ | ६ | ७ | ८ | ९

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0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4  | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

### Fonts[edit | edit source]

A variety of Unicode fonts are in use for Devanagari. These include Akshar,[65] Annapurna,[66] Arial,[67] CDAC-Gist Surekh,[68] CDAC-Gist Yogesh,[69] Chandas,[70] Gargi,[71] Gurumaa,[72] Jaipur,[73] Jana,[74] Kalimati,[75] Kanjirowa,[76] Lohit Devanagari, Mangal,[77] Kokila,[78] Raghu,[79] Sanskrit2003,[80] Santipur OT,[81] Siddhanta, and Thyaka.[82]

The form of Devanagari fonts vary with function. According to Harvard College for Sanskrit studies:[81]

> Uttara [companion to Chandas] is the best in terms of ligatures but, because it is designed for Vedic as well, requires so much vertical space that it is not well suited for the "user interface font" (though an excellent choice for the "original field" font). Santipur OT is a beautiful font reflecting a very early [medieval era] typesetting style for Devanagari. Sanskrit 2003[83] is a good all-around font and has more ligatures than most fonts, though students will probably find the spacing of the CDAC-Gist Surekh[68] font makes for quicker comprehension and reading.

The Google Fonts project has a number of Unicode fonts for Devanagari in a variety of typefaces in serif, sans-serif, display and handwriting categories.

## Transliteration[edit | edit source]

Main article: Devanagari transliteration

File:Examples of complex text rendering.png

Indic scripts share common features, and along with Devanagari, all major Indic scripts have been historically used to preserve Vedic and post-Vedic Sanskrit texts.

There are several methods of Romanisation or transliteration from Devanagari to the Roman script.[84]

### Hunterian system[edit | edit source]

Main article: Hunterian transliteration

The Hunterian system is the "national system of romanisation in India" and the one officially adopted by the Government of India.[85][86][87]

### ISO 15919[edit | edit source]

Main article: ISO 15919

A standard transliteration convention was codified in the ISO 15919 standard of 2001. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic graphemes to the Latin script. The Devanagari-specific portion is nearly identical to the academic standard for Sanskrit, IAST.[88]

### IAST[edit | edit source]

The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is the academic standard for the romanisation of Sanskrit. IAST is the de facto standard used in printed publications, like books, magazines, and electronic texts with Unicode fonts. It is based on a standard established by the Congress of Orientalists at Athens in 1912. The ISO 15919 standard of 2001 codified the transliteration convention to include an expanded standard for sister scripts of Devanagari.[88]

The National Library at Kolkata romanisation, intended for the romanisation of all Indic scripts, is an extension of IAST.

### Harvard-Kyoto[edit | edit source]

Compared to IAST, Harvard-Kyoto looks much simpler. It does not contain all the diacritic marks that IAST contains. It was designed to simplify the task of putting large amount of Sanskrit textual material into machine readable form, and the inventors stated that it reduces the effort needed in transliteration of Sanskrit texts on the keyboard.[89] This makes typing in Harvard-Kyoto much easier than IAST. Harvard-Kyoto uses capital letters that can be difficult to read in the middle of words.

### ITRANS[edit | edit source]

ITRANS is a lossless transliteration scheme of Devanagari into ASCII that is widely used on Usenet. It is an extension of the Harvard-Kyoto scheme. In ITRANS, the word devanāgarī is written "devanaagarii" or "devanAgarI". ITRANS is associated with an application of the same name that enables typesetting in Indic scripts. The user inputs in Roman letters and the ITRANS pre-processor translates the Roman letters into Devanagari (or other Indic languages). The latest version of ITRANS is version 5.30 released in July 2001. It is similar to Velthuis system and was created by Avinash Chopde to help print various Indic scripts with personal computers.[89]

#### Velthuis[edit | edit source]

Main article: Velthuis

The disadvantage of the above ASCII schemes is case-sensitivity, implying that transliterated names may not be capitalised. This difficulty is avoided with the system developed in 1996 by Frans Velthuis for TeX, loosely based on IAST, in which case is irrelevant.

### ALA-LC Romanisation[edit | edit source]

ALA-LC[90] romanisation is a transliteration scheme approved by the Library of Congress and the American Library Association, and widely used in North American libraries. Transliteration tables are based on languages, so there is a table for Hindi,[91] one for Sanskrit and Prakrit,[92] etc.

### WX[edit | edit source]

Main article: WX notation

WX is a Roman transliteration scheme for Indian languages, widely used among the natural language processing community in India. It originated at IIT Kanpur for computational processing of Indian languages. The salient features of this transliteration scheme are as follows.

* Every consonant and every vowel has a single mapping into Roman. Hence it is a prefix code, advantageous from computation point of view.
* Lower-case letters are used for unaspirated consonants and short vowels, while capital letters are used for aspirated consonants and long vowels. While the retroflex stops are mapped to 't, T, d, D, N', the dentals are mapped to 'w, W, x, X, n'. Hence the name 'WX', a reminder of this idiosyncratic mapping.

## Encodings[edit | edit source]

### ISCII[edit | edit source]

ISCII is an 8-bit encoding. The lower 128 codepoints are plain ASCII, the upper 128 codepoints are ISCII-specific.

It has been designed for representing not only Devanagari but also various other Indic scripts as well as a Latin-based script with diacritic marks used for transliteration of the Indic scripts.

ISCII has largely been superseded by Unicode, which has, however, attempted to preserve the ISCII layout for its Indic language blocks.

### Unicode[edit | edit source]

Main articles: Devanagari (Unicode block), Devanagari Extended (Unicode block), Devanagari Extended-A (Unicode block), and Vedic Extensions (Unicode block)

The Unicode Standard defines four blocks for Devanagari: Devanagari (U+0900–U+097F), Devanagari Extended (U+A8E0–U+A8FF), Devanagari Extended-A (U+11B00–11B5F), and Vedic Extensions (U+1CD0–U+1CFF).

Devanagari[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

| 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  | ॰ | ॱ | ॲ | ॳ | ॴ | ॵ | ॶ | ॷ | ॸ | ॹ | ॺ | ॻ | ॼ | ॽ | ॾ | ॿ
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
Devanagari Extended[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F
U+A8Ex  | ꣠  | ꣡  | ꣢  | ꣣  | ꣤  | ꣥  | ꣦  | ꣧  | ꣨  | ꣩  | ꣪  | ꣫  | ꣬  | ꣭  | ꣮  | ꣯
U+A8Fx  | ꣰  | ꣱  | ꣲ  | ꣳ  | ꣴ  | ꣵ  | ꣶ  | ꣷ  | ꣸  | ꣹  | ꣺  | ꣻ  | ꣼  | ꣽ  | ꣾ  | ꣿ
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
Devanagari Extended-A[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F
U+11B0x  | 𑬀 | 𑬁 | 𑬂 | 𑬃 | 𑬄 | 𑬅 | 𑬆 | 𑬇 | 𑬈 | 𑬉 |  |  |  |  |  |
U+11B1x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
U+11B2x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
U+11B3x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
U+11B4x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
U+11B5x  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points
Vedic Extensions[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)

| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F
U+1CDx  | ᳐ | ᳑ | ᳒ | ᳓ | ᳔ | ᳕ | ᳖ | ᳗ | ᳘ | ᳙ | ᳚ | ᳛ | ᳜ | ᳝ | ᳞ | ᳟
U+1CEx  | ᳠ | ᳡ | ᳢ | ᳣ | ᳤ | ᳥ | ᳦ | ᳧ | ᳨ | ᳩ | ᳪ | ᳫ | ᳬ | ᳭ | ᳮ | ᳯ
U+1CFx  | ᳰ | ᳱ | ᳲ | ᳳ | ᳴ |  ᳵ |  ᳶ | ᳷ | ᳸ | ᳹ | ᳺ |  |  |  |  |
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

## Devanagari keyboard layouts[edit | edit source]

For a list of Devanagari input tools and fonts, please see Help:Multilingual support (Indic).

Introduction to Inscript Key board

### InScript layout[edit | edit source]

InScript is the standard keyboard layout for Devanagari as standardized by the Government of India. It is inbuilt in all modern major operating systems. Microsoft Windows supports the InScript layout (using the Mangal font), which can be used to input unicode Devanagari characters. InScript is also available in some touchscreen mobile phones.

Devanagari INSCRIPT bilingual keyboard layout

### Typewriter[edit | edit source]

This layout was used on manual typewriters when computers were not available or were uncommon. For backward compatibility some typing tools like Indic IME still provide this layout.

### Phonetic[edit | edit source]

File:AKphonetic.jpg

Devanagari Phonetic Keyboard Layout

File:Marathi Wikipedia ULS.webm

One can use ULS "अक्षरांतरण" (Transliteration) or "मराठी लिपी" (Inscript) typing options to search or edit Marathi Wikipedia articles as shown in this video clip; One can click on the cc to change the subtitle languages to Marathi, English, Sanskrit, Konkani, Ahirani languages.

Such tools work on phonetic transliteration. The user writes in the Latin alphabet and the IME automatically converts it into Devanagari. Some popular phonetic typing tools are Akruti, Baraha IME and Google IME.

The Mac OS X operating system includes two different keyboard layouts for Devanagari: one resembles the INSCRIPT/KDE Linux, while the other is a phonetic layout called "Devanagari QWERTY".

Any one of the Unicode fonts input systems is fine for the Indic language Wikipedia and other wikiprojects, including Hindi, Bhojpuri, Marathi, and Nepali Wikipedia. While some people use InScript, the majority uses either Google phonetic transliteration or the input facility Universal Language Selector provided on Wikipedia. On Indic language wikiprojects, the phonetic facility provided initially was java-based, and was later supported by Narayam extension for phonetic input facility. Currently Indic language Wiki projects are supported by Universal Language Selector (ULS), that offers both phonetic keyboard (Aksharantaran, Marathi: अक्षरांतरण, Hindi: लिप्यंतरण, बोलनागरी) and InScript keyboard (Marathi: मराठी लिपी).

The Ubuntu Linux operating system supports several keyboard layouts for Devanagari, including Harvard-Kyoto, WX notation, Bolanagari and phonetic. The 'remington' typing method in Ubuntu IBUS is similar to the Krutidev typing method, popular in Rajasthan. The 'itrans' method is useful for those who know English (and the English keyboard) well but are not familiar with typing in Devanagari.

## See also[edit | edit source]

* Languages of India
* Clip font
* Devanagari transliteration
* Devanagari Braille
* ISCII
* Nagari Pracharini Sabha
* Nepali
* Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages
* Shiksha – the Vedic study of sound, focusing on the letters of the Sanskrit alphabet

## References[edit | edit source]

### Citations[edit | edit source]

1. ^ a b c d Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency at Google Books, Rudradaman’s inscription from 1st through 4th century CE found in Gujarat, India, Stanford University Archives, pages 30–45, particularly Devanagari inscription on Jayadaman's coins pages 33–34
2. ^ a b Isaac Taylor (1883), History of the Alphabet: Aryan Alphabets, Part 2, Kegan Paul, Trench & Co, p. 333, ISBN 978-0-7661-5847-4, "... In the Kutila this develops into a short horizontal bar, which, in the Devanagari, becomes a continuous horizontal line ... three cardinal inscriptions of this epoch, namely, the Kutila or Bareli inscription of 992, the Chalukya or Kistna inscription of 945, and a Kawi inscription of 919 ... the Kutila inscription is of great importance in Indian epigraphy, not only from its precise date, but from its offering a definite early form of the standard Indian alphabet, the Devanagari ..."
3. ^ Salomon, Richard (1998). Indian epigraphy: a guide to the study of inscriptions in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and the other Indo-Aryan languages. South Asia research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 39–41. ISBN 978-0-19-509984-3.
4. ^ https://www.gov.za/documents/constitution/chapter-1-founding-provisions|Reference[permanent dead link]
5. ^ Salomon 1996, p. 378. sfn error: no target: CITEREFSalomon1996 (help)
6. ^ Salomon, Richard, On The Origin Of The Early Indian Scripts: A Review Article. Journal of the American Oriental Society 115.2 (1995), 271–279, archived from the original on 22 May 2019, retrieved 27 March 2021
7. ^ Daniels, P.T. (January 2008). "Writing systems of major and minor languages". `{{cite journal}}`: Cite journal requires `|journal=` (help)
8. ^ Masica, Colin (1993). The Indo-Aryan languages. p. 143.
9. ^ a b c Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, ISBN 978-1615301492, page 83
10. ^ a b c Danesh Jain; George Cardona (26 July 2007). The Indo-Aryan Languages. Routledge. p. 115\. ISBN 978-1-135-79710-2. Archived from the original on 2 March 2020. Retrieved 21 January 2019. "Nagari has a strong preference for symmetrical shapes, especially squared outlines and right angles [7 lines above the character grid]"
11. ^ a b c Richard Salomon (2014), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195356663, pages 40–42
12. ^ David Templin. "Devanagari script". omniglot.com. Archived from the original on 1 April 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
13. ^ a b c d Devanagari (Nagari) Archived 2 July 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Script Features and Description, SIL International (2013), United States
14. ^ Akira Nakanishi, Writing systems of the World, ISBN 978-0804816540, page 48
15. ^ a b c George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415772945, pages 75–77
16. ^ Hindi Archived 28 May 2012 at the Wayback Machine, Omniglot Encyclopedia of Writing Systems and Languages
17. ^ Snell, Rupert. (1991). The Hindi classical tradition : a Braj Bhāṣā reader. London: School of Oriental and African studies. ISBN 0-7286-0175-3. OCLC 24794163.
18. ^ George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415772945, page 75
19. ^ Reinhold Grünendahl (2001), South Indian Scripts in Sanskrit Manuscripts and Prints, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, ISBN 978-3447045049, pages xxii, 201–210
20. ^ Monier Monier-Williams, A Sanskrit-English Dictionary” Etymologically and Philologically Arranged to cognate Indo-European Languages, Motilal Banarsidass, page 492
21. ^ Monier Williams Online Dictionary, nagara Archived 20 August 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Cologne Sanskrit Digital Lexicon, Germany
22. ^ Maurer, Walter H. (1976). "On the Name Devanāgarī". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 96 (1): 101–104. doi:10.2307/599893. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 599893. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
23. ^ a b c Steven Roger Fischer (2004), A history of writing, Reaktion Books, ISBN 978-1-86189-167-9, archived from the original on 7 March 2020, retrieved 15 November 2015, "(p. 110) "... an early branch of this, as of the fourth century CE, was the Gupta script, Brahmi's first main daughter. [...] The Gupta alphabet became the ancestor of most Indic scripts (usually through later Devanagari). [...] Beginning around AD 600, Gupta inspired the important Nagari, Sarada, Tibetan and Pāḷi scripts. Nagari, of India's northwest, first appeared around AD 633\. Once fully developed in the eleventh century, Nagari had become Devanagari, or "heavenly Nagari", since it was now the main vehicle, out of several, for Sanskrit literature.""
24. ^ George Cardona and Danesh Jain (2003), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, ISBN 978-0415772945, pages 68–69
25. ^ Krishna Chandra Sagar (1993), Foreign Influence on Ancient India, South Asia Books, ISBN 978-8172110284, page 137
26. ^ Richard Salomon (2014), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195356663, page 71
27. ^ Michael Willis (2001), Inscriptions from Udayagiri: locating domains of devotion, patronage and power in the eleventh century, South Asian Studies, 17(1), pages 41–53
28. ^ Brick with Sanskrit inscription in Nagari script Archived 19 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine, 1217 CE, found in Uttar Pradesh, India (British Museum)
29. ^ Wayan Ardika (2009), Form, Macht, Differenz: Motive und Felder ethnologischen Forschens (Editors: Elfriede Hermann et al.), Universitätsverlag Göttingen, ISBN 978-3940344809, pages 251–252; Quote: "Nagari script and Sanskrit language in the inscription at Blangjong suggests that Indian culture was already influencing Bali (Indonesia) by the 10th century CE."
30. ^ Michael Witzel (2006), in Between the Empires : Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE (Editor: Patrick Olivelle), Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195305326, pages 477–480 with footnote 60;
Original manuscript, dates in Saka Samvat, and uncertainties associated with it: Mahabhasya of Patanjali, F Kielhorn
31. ^ Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838 [1]
32. ^ William Woodville Rockhill, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, p. 671, at Google Books, United States National Museum, page 671
33. ^ David Quinter (2015), From Outcasts to Emperors: Shingon Ritsu and the Mañjuśrī Cult in Medieval Japan, Brill, ISBN 978-9004293397, pages 63–65 with discussion on Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī Sūtra
34. ^ Richard Salomon (2014), Indian Epigraphy, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0195356663, pages 157–160
35. ^ Avenir S. Teselkin (1972). Old Javanese (Kawi). Cornell University Press. pp. 9–14. Archived from the original on 26 January 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
36. ^ J. G. de Casparis (1975). Indonesian Palaeography: A History of Writing in Indonesia from the Beginnings to c. AD 1500. BRILL Academic. pp. 35–43. ISBN 90-04-04172-9. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
37. ^ Mary S. Zurbuchen (1976). Introduction to Old Javanese Language and Literature: A Kawi Prose Anthology. Center for South and Southeast Asian Studies, University of Michigan. pp. xi–xii. ISBN 978-0-89148-053-2. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
38. ^ Briggs, Lawrence Palmer (1950). "The Origin of the Sailendra Dynasty: Present Status of the Question". Journal of the American Oriental Society. JSTOR. 70 (2): 79–81. doi:10.2307/595536. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 595536.
39. ^ John Norman Miksic; Goh Geok Yian (2016). Ancient Southeast Asia. Taylor & Francis. pp. 177–179, 314–322. ISBN 978-1-317-27904-4. Archived from the original on 6 March 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2018.
40. ^ Salomon (2003:71)
41. ^ a b Salomon (2003:75)
42. ^ Wikner (1996:13, 14)
43. ^ Wikner (1996:6)
44. ^ Snell (2000:44–45)
45. ^ Snell (2000:64)
46. ^ Snell (2000:45)
47. ^ Snell (2000:46)
48. ^ Salomon (2003:77)
49. ^ Verma (2003:501)
50. ^ "Hindi Translation of "dollar" | Collins English-Hindi Dictionary". www.collinsdictionary.com. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
51. ^ Wikner (1996:73)
52. ^ Stella Sandahl (2000). A Hindi reference grammar. Peeters. pp. 1–4. ISBN 978-9042908802. Archived from the original on 27 April 2017. Retrieved 26 April 2017.
53. ^ Tej K. Bhatia (1987). A History of the Hindi Grammatical Tradition. BRILL Academic. pp. 51–63, 77–94. ISBN 90-04-07924-6. Archived from the original on 10 June 2016. Retrieved 15 November 2015.
54. ^ Masica (1991:97)
55. ^ Pandey, Dipti; Mondal, Tapabrata; Agrawal, S. S.; Bangalore, Srinivas (2013). "Development and suitability of Indian languages speech database for building watson based ASR system". 2013 International Conference Oriental COCOSDA Held Jointly with 2013 Conference on Asian Spoken Language Research and Evaluation (O-COCOSDA/CASLRE): 3. doi:10.1109/ICSDA.2013.6709861. ISBN 978-1-4799-2378-6. S2CID 26461938. "Only in Hindi 10 Phonemes व /v/ क़ /q/ ञ /ɲ/ य /j/ ष /ʂ/ ख़ /x/ ग़ /ɣ/ ज़ /z/ झ़ /ʒ/ फ़ /f/"
56. ^ Difference between ISO 15919 & IAST
57. ^ Saloman, Richard (2007) “Typological Observations on the Indic Scripts” Archived 4 November 2018 at the Wayback Machine in The Indic Scripts: Paleographic and Linguistic Perspecticves D.K. Printworld Ltd., New Delhi. ISBN 812460406-1. p. 33.
58. ^ "The Unicode Standard, chapter 9, South Asian Scripts I" (PDF). The Unicode Standard, v. 6.0. Unicode, Inc. Archived (PDF) from the original on 3 August 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
59. ^ Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard, Version 3.0, Volume 1, ISBN 978-0201616330, Addison-Wesley, pages 221–223
60. ^ Transliteration from Hindi Script to Meetei Mayek Archived 6 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine Watham and Vimal (2013), IJETR, page 550
61. ^ Michael Shapiro (2014), The Devanagari Writing System in A Primer of Modern Standard Hindi, Motilal Banarsidass, ISBN 978-8120805088, page 26
62. ^ Śiṣyalekha (MS Add.1161) Archived 31 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, University of Cambridge Digital Libraries
63. ^ Salotgi Inscription, The Indian Antiquary: A Journal of Oriental Research, S.P. Pandit (1872), pp.205–211; Quote: "The inscription of which a translation is given below, is engraved on a stone pillar about 4 feet 10 inches in height, 1 foot 2 inches thick, and 1 foot 9 inches broad. It is cut in Devanagari characters on three of its four sides, and [...]"
64. ^ Bahri 2004, p. (xiii) harvnb error: no target: CITEREFBahri2004 (help)[full citation needed]
65. ^ Akshar Unicode Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
66. ^ Annapurna SIL Unicode Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine, SIL International (2013)
67. ^ Arial Unicode Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
68. ^ a b CDAC-GIST Surekh Unicode Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
69. ^ CDAC-GIST Yogesh Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
70. ^ Sanskrit Devanagari Fonts[permanent dead link] Harvard University (2010); see Chanda and Uttara ttf Archived 10 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine 2010 archive (Accessed: July 8, 2015)
71. ^ Gargi Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
72. ^ Gurumaa Unicode – a sans font Archived 11 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine KDE (2012)
73. ^ Jaipur Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
74. ^ Jana Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
75. ^ Kalimati Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
76. ^ Kanjirowa Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
77. ^ Mangal Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
78. ^ alib-ms. "Kokila font family - Typography". docs.microsoft.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2020. Retrieved 19 September 2020.
79. ^ Raghu Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
80. ^ Sanskrit Ashram Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
81. ^ a b Sanskrit Devanagari Fonts[permanent dead link] Harvard University (2010); see Chanda and Uttara ttf Archived 10 March 2015 at the Wayback Machine 2010 archive (Accessed: July 8, 2015)
82. ^ Thyaka Archived 9 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine South Asia Language Resource, University of Chicago (2009)
83. ^ Devanagari font Archived 13 November 2014 at the Wayback Machine Unicode Standard 8.0 (2015)
84. ^ Daya Nand Sharma (1972), Transliteration into Roman and Devanagari of the languages of the Indian group, Survey of India, 1972, archived from the original on 3 June 2016, retrieved 15 November 2015, "... With the passage of time there has emerged a practically uniform system of transliteration of Devanagari and allied alphabets. Nevertheless, no single system of Romanisation has yet developed ..."
85. ^ United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2007), Technical reference manual for the standardisation of geographical names, United Nations Publications, 2007, ISBN 978-92-1-161500-5, archived from the original on 24 April 2016, retrieved 15 November 2015, "... ISO 15919 ... There is no evidence of the use of the system either in India or in international cartographic products ... The Hunterian system is the actually used national system of romanisation in India ..."
86. ^ United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (1955), United Nations Regional Cartographic Conference for Asia and the Far East, Volume 2, United Nations, 1955, archived from the original on 27 April 2016, retrieved 15 November 2015, "... In India the Hunterian system is used, whereby every sound in the local language is uniformly represented by a certain letter in the Roman alphabet ..."
87. ^ National Library (India) (1960), Indian scientific & technical publications, exhibition 1960: a bibliography, Council of Scientific & Industrial Research, Government of India, 1960, archived from the original on 27 April 2016, retrieved 15 November 2015, "... The Hunterian system of transliteration, which has international acceptance, has been used ..."
88. ^ a b Devanagari IAST conventions Archived 14 November 2015 at the Wayback Machine Script Source (2009), SIL International, United States
89. ^ a b Transliteration of Devanāgarī Archived 6 June 2007 at the Wayback Machine D. Wujastyk (1996)
90. ^ "LOC.gov". LOC.gov. Archived from the original on 6 November 2020. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
91. ^ "0001.eps" (PDF). Library of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 17 February 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2011.
92. ^ "LOC.gov" (PDF). Library of Congress. Archived (PDF) from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 13 June 2011.

### General sources[edit | edit source]

* Lambert, Hester Marjorie (1953), Introduction to the Devanagari Script: For Students of Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati and Bengali, London: Geoffrey Cumberlege (Oxford University Press).
* Masica, Colin (1991), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-29944-2.
* Snell, Rupert (2000), Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script, Hodder & Stoughton, ISBN 978-0-07-141984-0.
* Salomon, Richard (2003), "Writing Systems of the Indo-Aryan Languages", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 67–103, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
* Verma, Sheela (2003), "Magahi", in Cardona, George; Jain, Dhanesh (eds.), The Indo-Aryan Languages, Routledge, pp. 498–514, ISBN 978-0-415-77294-5.
* Wikner, Charles (1996), A Practical Sanskrit Introductory.

### Census and catalogues of manuscripts in Devanagari[edit | edit source]

Thousands of manuscripts of ancient and medieval era Sanskrit texts in Devanagari have been discovered since the 19th century. Major catalogues and census include:

* A Catalogue of Sanskrit Manuscripts in Private Libraries at Google Books, Medical Hall Press, Princeton University Archive
* A Descriptive Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts at Google Books, Vol 1: Upanishads, Friedrich Otto Schrader (Compiler), University of Michigan Library Archives
* A preliminary list of the Sanskrit and Prakrit manuscripts, Vedas, Sastras, Sutras, Schools of Hindu Philosophies, Arts, Design, Music and other fields, Friedrich Otto Schrader (Compiler), (Devanagiri manuscripts are identified by Character code De.)
* Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Part 1: Vedic Manuscripts, Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
* Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Part 4: Manuscripts of Hindu schools of Philosophy and Tantra, Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
* Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts, Part 5: Manuscripts of Medicine, Astronomy and Mathematics, Architecture and Technical Science Literature, Julius Eggeling (Compiler), Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
* Catalogue of the Sanskrit Manuscripts at Google Books, Part 6: Poetic, Epic and Purana Literature, Harvard University Archives (mostly Devanagari)
* David Pingree (1970–1981), Census of the Exact Sciences in Sanskrit: Volumes 1 through 5, American Philosophical Society, Manuscripts in various Indic scripts including Devanagari

## External links[edit | edit source]

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Devanagari

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Devanagari stroke order and Devanagari pronunciation.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Learning Devanagari.

* Devnagari Unicode Legacy Font Converters Archived 27 September 2021(Date mismatch) at the Wayback Machine
* Digital Nagari fonts, University of Chicago
* Devanagari in different fonts, Wazu, Japan (Alternate collection: Luc Devroye's comprehensive Indic Fonts Archived 25 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine, McGill University)
* Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, p. 30, at Google Books, Rudradaman's inscription in Sanskrit Nagari script from 1st through 4th century CE (coins and epigraphy), found in Gujarat, India, pages 30–45
* Numerals and Text in Devanagari Archived 22 November 2020 at the Wayback Machine, 9th century temple in Gwalior Madhya Pradesh, India, Current Science
* Maurer, Walter H. (1976). "On the Name Devanāgarī". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 96 (1): 101–104. doi:10.2307/599893. JSTOR 599893.

* v
* t
* e

Devanāgarī

* Abugida
* Brahmic scripts
* Inherent vowel

Languages|

* Hindi
* Marathi
* Nepali
* Konkani
* Maithili
* Sindhi
* Bodo
* Pali
* Prakrit
* Sanskrit and more

Transliteration|

* IAST
* Hunterian
* National Library at Kolkata
* ISO 15919
* Harvard-Kyoto
* ITRANS
* Velthuis
* SLP1
* WX notation
* (ISCII)

Vowels and
syllabic consonants|

|  अ a|  ॲ æ|  ऄ|  आ (का) ā| | |

|
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इ (कि) i| | |  ई (की) ī| | |
उ (कु) u| | |  ऊ (कू) ū|  ॶ (कॖ)|  ॷ (कॗ)|
ऋ (कृ) r̥| | |  ॠ (कॄ) r̥̄| | |
ऌ (कॢ) l̥| | |  ॡ (कॣ) l̥̄| | |
ए (के) ē|  ऍ (कॅ) ê|  ऎ (कॆ) e|  ऐ (कै) ai|  (कॕ)|  (कॎ)|
ओ (को) ō|  ऑ (कॉ) ô|  ऒ (कॊ) o|  औ (कौ) au|  ॳ (कऺ)|  ॴ (कऻ)|  ॵ (कॏ)

* Schwa deletion in Indo-Aryan languages

Consonants|

|  क k|  क़ q| | |  ख kh|  ख़ k̲h̲| | |  ग g|  ग़ ġ|  ॻ gg| |  घ gh| |  ङ ṅ|

|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|

च c| | | |  छ ch| | | |  ज j|  ज़ z|  ॼ jj|  ॹ ž|  झ jh|  झ़ zh|  ञ ñ|
ट ṭ| | | |  ठ ṭh| | | |  ड ḍ|  ड़ ṛ|  ॾ ḍḍ|  ॸ ḍ|  ढ ḍh|  ढ़ ṛh|  ण ṇ|
त t| | | |  थ th| | | |  द d| | | |  ध dh| |  न n|  ऩ ṉ
प p| | | |  फ ph|  फ़ f| | |  ब b| |  ॿ bb| |  भ bh| |  म m|
य y|  य़ ẏ| |  ॺ|  र r|  ऱ ṟ|  ळ ḷ|  ऴ ḻ|  ल l| | | |  व v| | |
श ś| | | |  ष ṣ| | | |  स s| | | |  ह h| | |  ॽ
* Consonant conjuncts

Diacritics,
punctuation
and other symbols|

|  अं ṁ (anusvāra)|  अः ḥ (visarga)|  अँ m̐ (candrabindu)|  अऀ (inverted candrabindu)|  ऽ ’ (avagraha)

|
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|
|

क़ (nuqta)|  क् (virāma)|  ३ 3 (pluta)|  ᳵ ẖ (jihvāmūlīya)|  ᳶ ḫ (upadhmānīya)
अ॑ ` (svarita)|  अ॒ (anudātta)|  अ॓ (grave)|  अ॔ (acute)|  ॐ aum̐
। (daṇḍa)|  ॥ (double daṇḍa)|  ॰ (lāghava cihna)|  ॱ (high spacing dot)|  ₹ INR (Indian rupee sign)
* Devanagari (Unicode block)
* Devanagari Extended
* Vedic Extensions

Numerals|

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

|
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* Āryabhaṭa numeration
* Akṣarapallī
* Bhūtasaṃkhyā system
* Kaṭapayādi system

Hindi

* Grammar
* Declension
* Phonology
* Devanagari
* Braille
* History
* Vocabulary
* Hindustani

Varieties|

| Western|

* Braj
* Bundeli
* Haryanvi
* Hindustani
* Kannauji
* Kauravi
* Sansi Boli

|

Eastern|

* Awadhi
* Bagheli
* Caribbean Hindustani
* Chhattisgarhi
* Fiji Hindi

Pidgins and Creoles|

* Andaman Creole Hindi
* Bombay Hindi
* Haflong Hindi
* Hinglish

Language politics|

* Anti-Hindi agitations of Karnataka
* Anti-Hindi agitations of Tamil Nadu
* Hindi–Urdu controversy
* Punjabi Suba movement

National organizations|

* Department of Official Language

Global organizations|

* World Hindi Secretariat
* World Hindi Conference

Arts|

* Literature
* Awards
* Sahitya Akademi Award
* Jnanpith Award
* Hindi cinema
* Music
* Writers
* Poets

* v
* t
* e

Sanskrit

Influence zone|

* Greater India
* Indosphere
* Mandala political model

Mode of spread|

* Sanskritisation:
* History of Indian influence on Southeast Asia
* Indian maritime history
* Indianisation
* Indianised polities of Philippine
* Silk Road transmission of Buddhism

* Buddhism by country:
* Buddhism in Cambodia
* Buddhism in China
* Buddhism in Japan
* Buddhism in Korea
* Buddhism in Malaysia
* Buddhism in Myanmar
* Buddhism in the Philippines
* Buddhism in Singapore
* Buddhism in Thailand
* Buddhism in Vietnam
* Buddhism in Laos

* Hinduism by country:
* Hinduism in Cambodia
* Hinduism in China
* Hinduism in Japan
* Hinduism in Korea
* Hinduism in Malaysia
* Hinduism in Myanmar
* Hinduism in Philippines
* Hinduism in Singapore
* Hinduism in Thailand
* Hinduism in Vietnam
* Hinduism in Laos

Language|

* Vedic Sanskrit
* Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit
* Grammar
* Nouns
* Pronouns
* Compounds
* Verbs
* Vedic grammar
* Prosody

Scripts|

* Origin:
* Brahmi script

* Later development:
* Devanagari
* Nandinagari
* Nagari script

* Spread of usage:
* Bangla script
* Gujarati script
* Kawi script
* Odia script
* Suyat family of scripts

Literature|

* Buddhist literature
* Drama
* Epics
* Historic Sanskrit texts
* Legendary creatures in Sanskrit Hindu mythology
* Literature
* Sanskrit poets
* Vyākaraṇa
* Category:Sanskrit literature

Current usage|

* As liturgical language of Indian-origin religions:
* Buddhism
* Hinduism
* Jainism
* Sikhism

* Institutions with Sanskrit mottos:
* Sanskrit mottos of universities in India

* Sanskrit loanwords:
* English
* Hindi
* Indonesian
* Tagalog
* Sanskrit inscriptions in the Malay world

Conservation, education and revival|

* Sanskrit revival
* Sanskrit studies
* Sanskrit academic institutes outside India
* Sanskrit universities in India
* Sanskrit Wikipedia
* Sanskrit Wikisource

See also|

* Buddhist texts
* Hindu texts
* Languages of South Asia

* v
* t
* e

Marathi

* Grammar
* Phonology
* Literature
* Poetry
* Samyukta Maharashtra Movement
* Maharashtra State
* Marathi Wikipedia

Marathi dialects and
Marathic languages|

* Maharastri Prakrit
* Andh
* Deccani
* East Indian (Mumbai dialect)
* Judeo-Marathi
* Katkari
* Maharashtrian Konkani
* Malvani Konkani
* Phudagi
* Samvedi
* Thanjavur Marathi
* Varhadi (Varhadi-Nagpuri)
* Varli

Marathi scripts|

* Balbodh style of Devanagari
* Braille
* Modi

Other|

* Marathi Cinema
* Marathi theatre
* Literature
* Marathi people (List)

Arts|

* Awards
* Sahitya Akademi Award
* Jnanpith Award
* Writers
* Poets
* National Film Award
* Maharashtra

* v
* t
* e

Types of writing systems

| Overview|

* History of writing
* Grapheme
* Hieroglyph

|

Lists|

* Writing systems
* undeciphered
* inventors
* constructed
* Languages by writing system / by first written accounts

Types

Abjads

* Numerals

* Aramaic
* Hatran
* Arabic
* Elifba
* Egyptian hieroglyphs
* Elymaic
* Hebrew
* Ashuri
* Cursive
* Rashi
* Solitreo
* Tifinagh
* Mandaic
* Manichaean
* Nabataean
* Old North Arabian
* Pahlavi
* Book
* Inscriptional
* Inscriptional Parthian
* Psalter
* Pegon
* Phoenician
* Paleo-Hebrew
* Pitman shorthand
* Proto-Sinaitic
* Punic
* Samaritan
* South Arabian
* Zabur
* Musnad
* Sogdian
* Syriac
* ʾEsṭrangēlā
* Serṭā
* Maḏnḥāyā
* Teeline Shorthand
* Ugaritic

Abugidas

| Brahmic|

| Northern|

* Bengali–Assamese
* Bhaiksuki
* Brāhmī
* Devanāgarī
* Dogri
* Gujarati
* Gupta
* Gurmukhī
* Kaithi
* Kalinga
* Khema
* Khojki
* Khudabadi
* Laṇḍā
* Lepcha
* Mahajani
* Marchen
* Meitei
* Modi
* Multani
* Nagari
* Nandinagari
* Nepalese scripts
* Bhujimol
* Golmol
* Himmol
* Kummol
* Kvemmol
* Pachumol
* Pracalit (Newar)
* Ranjana
* Tamyig
* Tirhuta
* Limbu
* Litumol
* Odia
* Karani
* ʼPhags-pa
* Sharada
* Siddhaṃ
* Soyombo
* Sylheti Nagri
* Takri
* Tibetan
* Uchen
* Umê
* Tocharian
* Zanabazar Square

|

Southern|

* Ahom
* Balinese
* Batak
* Baybayin
* Bhattiprolu
* Buda
* Buhid
* Chakma
* Cham
* Fakkham
* Grantha
* Goykanadi
* Hanunuo (Hanunó'o)
* Javanese
* Kadamba
* Kannada
* Karen
* Kawi
* Khmer
* Khom Thai
* Kulitan
* Lanna
* Langdi
* Lao
* Leke
* Lampung
* Lontara
* Bilang-bilang
* Makasar
* Malayalam
* Old Maldivian
* Dhives Akuru
* Eveyla Akuru
* Mon–Burmese
* Pallava
* Pyu
* Rejang
* Rencong
* Saurashtra
* Shan
* Sinhala
* Sukhothai
* Sundanese
* Old Sundanese
* Tagbanwa
* Tai Le
* New Tai Lue
* Tai Noi
* Tai Tham
* Tai Viet
* Lai Tay
* Tamil
* Tamil-Brahmi
* Tanchangya
* Telugu
* Thai
* Tigalari
* Vatteluttu
* Kolezhuthu
* Malayanma

Others|

* Boyd's syllabic shorthand
* Canadian syllabics
* Blackfoot
* Déné syllabics
* Dham
* Fox I
* Geʽez
* Gunjala Gondi
* Japanese Braille
* Sarati
* Jenticha
* Kharosthi
* Mandombe
* Masaram Gondi
* Meroitic
* Miao
* Mwangwego
* Pahawh Hmong
* Sorang Sompeng
* Tengwar
* Thaana
* Thomas Natural Shorthand
* Warang Citi

Alphabets

| Linear|

* Adlam
* Armenian
* Avestan
* Pazend
* Avoiuli
* Bassa Vah
* Borama
* Carian
* Caucasian Albanian
* Cirth
* Coelbren
* Coorgi–Cox alphabet
* Coptic
* Cyrillic
* Early
* Deseret
* Duployan shorthand
* Chinook writing
* Eclectic shorthand
* Elbasan
* Enochian
* Etruscan
* Evenki
* Fox II
* Fraser
* Gabelsberger shorthand
* Garay
* Georgian
* Asomtavruli
* Nuskhuri
* Mkhedruli
* Gjirokastër
* Glagolitic
* Gothic
* Gregg shorthand
* Greek (archaic forms)
* Greco-Iberian alphabet
* Hangul
* Hanifi
* Jenticha
* Kaddare
* Kayah Li
* Klingon
* Latin
* Beneventan
* Blackletter
* Carolingian minuscule
* Fraktur
* Gaelic
* Insular
* IPA
* Kurrent
* Merovingian
* Sigla
* Sütterlin
* Tironian notes
* Visigothic
* Luo
* Lycian
* Lydian
* Manchu
* Medefaidrin
* Molodtsov
* Mongolian
* Mru
* Mundari Bani
* Neo-Tifinagh
* N'Ko
* Ogham
* Oirat
* Ol Chiki
* Old Hungarian
* Old Italic
* Old Permic
* Orkhon
* Old Uyghur
* Ol Onal
* Osage
* Osmanya
* Pau Cin Hau
* Runic
* Anglo-Saxon
* Cipher
* Dalecarlian
* Elder Futhark
* Younger Futhark
* Gothic
* Marcomannic
* Medieval
* Staveless
* Shavian
* Sidetic
* Sorang Sompeng
* Tifinagh
* Todhri
* Tolong Siki
* Vagindra
* Vellara
* Visible Speech
* Vithkuqi
* Wancho
* Warang Citi
* Yezidi
* Zaghawa

|

Non-linear|

* Braille
* Maritime flags
* Telegraph code
* New York Point
* Flag semaphore
* Moon type

Ideograms and pictograms

* Adinkra
* Aztec
* Blissymbol
* Dongba
* Ersu Shaba
* Emoji
* IConji
* Isotype
* Kaidā
* Miꞌkmaw
* Mixtec
* New Epoch Notation Painting
* Nsibidi
* Ojibwe Hieroglyphs
* Olmec
* Siglas poveiras
* Testerian
* Yerkish
* Zapotec

Logograms

| Chinese family of scripts|

| Chinese Characters|

* Simplified
* Traditional
* Oracle bone script
* Bronze Script
* Seal Script
* large
* small
* bird-worm
* Hanja
* Idu
* Kanji
* Chữ Nôm
* Zhuang

|

Chinese-influenced|

* Jurchen
* Khitan large script
* Sui
* Tangut

Cuneiform|

* Akkadian
* Assyrian
* Elamite
* Hittite
* Luwian
* Sumerian

Other logo-syllabic|

* Anatolian
* Bagam
* Cretan
* Isthmian
* Maya
* Proto-Elamite
* Yi (Classical)

Logo-consonantal|

* Demotic
* Hieratic
* Hieroglyphs

Numerals|

* Hindu-Arabic
* Abjad
* Attic (Greek)
* Muisca
* Roman

Semi-syllabaries

| Full|

* Linear Elamite
* Celtiberian
* Northeastern Iberian
* Southeastern Iberian
* Khom
* Dunging

|

Redundant|

* Espanca
* Pahawh Hmong
* Khitan small script
* Southwest Paleohispanic
* Zhuyin fuhao

Sign languages

* ASLwrite
* SignWriting
* si5s
* Stokoe Notation

Syllabaries

* Afaka
* Bamum
* Bété
* Byblos
* Canadian Aboriginal
* Cherokee
* Cypriot
* Cypro-Minoan
* Ditema tsa Dinoko
* Eskayan
* Geba
* Great Lakes Algonquian
* Iban
* Idu
* Japanese
* Hiragana
* Katakana
* Man'yōgana
* Hentaigana
* Sōgana
* Jindai moji
* Kikakui
* Kpelle
* Linear B
* Linear Elamite
* Lisu
* Loma
* Nüshu
* Nwagu Aneke script
* Old Persian Cuneiform
* Sumerian
* Vai
* Woleai
* Yi (Modern)
* Yugtun

* v
* t
* e

Braille ⠃⠗⠁⠊⠇⠇⠑

Braille cell|

* 1829 braille
* International uniformity
* ASCII braille
* Unicode braille patterns

Braille scripts|

| French-ordered|

* Albanian
* Azerbaijani
* Cantonese
* Catalan
* Chinese (mainland Mandarin) (largely reassigned)
* Czech
* Dutch
* English (Unified English)
* Esperanto
* French
* German
* Ghanaian
* Guarani
* Hawaiian
* Hungarian
* Iñupiaq
* IPA
* Irish
* Italian
* Latvian
* Lithuanian
* Luxembourgish (extended to 8-dot)
* Maltese
* Māori
* Navajo
* Nigerian
* Philippine
* Polish
* Portuguese
* Romanian
* Samoan
* Slovak
* South African
* Spanish
* Taiwanese Mandarin (largely reassigned)
* Turkish
* Vietnamese
* Welsh
* Yugoslav
* Zambian

| Nordic family|

* Estonian
* Faroese
* Icelandic
* Northern Sami
* Scandinavian
* Danish
* Finnish
* Greenlandic
* Norwegian
* Swedish

|

Russian lineage family
i.e. Cyrillic-mediated scripts|

* Belarusian
* Bulgarian
* Kazakh
* Kyrgyz
* Mongolian
* Russian
* Tatar
* Ukrainian

Egyptian lineage family
i.e. Arabic-mediated scripts|

* Arabic
* Persian
* Urdu (Pakistan)

Indian lineage family
i.e. Bharati Braille|

* Devanagari (Hindi / Marathi / Nepali)
* Bengali (Bangla / Assamese)
* Gujarati
* Kannada
* Malayalam
* Odia
* Punjabi
* Sinhala
* Tamil
* Telugu
* Urdu (India)

Other scripts|

* Amharic
* Armenian
* Burmese
* Dzongkha (Bhutanese)
* Georgian
* Greek
* Hebrew
* Inuktitut (reassigned vowels)
* Khmer
* Thai and Lao (Japanese vowels)
* Tibetan

Reordered|

* Algerian Braille (obsolete)

Frequency-based|

* American Braille (obsolete)

Independent|

* Chinese semi-syllabaries
* Cantonese
* Mainland Chinese Mandarin
* Taiwanese Mandarin
* Two-cell Chinese (Shuangpin)
* Japanese
* Korean

Eight-dot|

* Luxembourgish
* Kanji
* Gardner–Salinas braille codes (GS8)

Symbols in braille|

* Braille music
* Canadian currency marks
* Computer Braille Code
* Gardner–Salinas braille codes (science; GS8/GS6)
* International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA)
* Nemeth braille code

Braille technology|

* Braille e-book
* Braille embosser
* Braille translator
* Braille watch
* Mountbatten Brailler
* Optical braille recognition
* Perforation
* Perkins Brailler
* Refreshable braille display
* Slate and stylus
* Braigo

People|

* Louis Braille
* Charles Barbier
* Róża Czacka
* Valentin Haüy
* Harris Mowbray
* Thakur Vishva Narain Singh
* Sabriye Tenberken
* William Bell Wait

Organisations|

* Braille Institute of America
* Braille Without Borders
* Japan Braille Library
* National Braille Association
* Blindness organizations
* Schools for the blind
* American Printing House for the Blind

Other tactile alphabets|

* Decapoint
* Moon type
* New York Point
* Night writing
* Vibratese

Related topics|

* Accessible publishing
* Braille literacy
* RoboBraille

* v
* t
* e

Electronic writing systems

* Emoticons
* Emoji
* Kaomoji
* iConji
* Unicode

* v
* t
* e

Internet slang variants

* 3arabizi
* Alay (Indonesia)
* Denglisch
* Doge
* DoggoLingo
* Fingilish (Persian)
* Greeklish
* Gyaru-moji (Japan)
* Jejemon (Philippines)
* Leet ("1337")
* Lolspeak / LOLspeak / Kitteh
* Martian language (Chinese)
* Miguxês (Portuguese)
* Padonkaffsky jargon (Russian)
* Pseudo-Chinese
* SMS language (used in phones)
* Translit
* Volapuk
* Yaminjeongeum (Korean)

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