਼

়

The nuqta ( Hindi–Urdu: //, fa, , noqte; from ar, نقطة, nuqṭa, dot; sometimes also spelled nukta) is a diacritic mark that was introduced in Devanagari and some other Indic scripts to represent sounds not present in the original scripts. It takes the form of a dot placed below a character. This idea is inspired from the Arabic script; for example, there are some letters in Urdu that share the same basic shape but differ in the placement of dots(s) or nuqta(s) in the Perso-Arabic script: the letter ع ''ain'', with the addition of a nuqta on top, becomes the letter غ g͟hain.

Use in Devanagari

Perso-Arabic consonants

Examples from Devanagari (the script used to write Hindi): hi, क़, qa, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ख़, k͟ha, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ग़, ġa, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ज़, za, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, झ़, zha, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ड़, ṛa, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ढ़, ṛha, translit-std=ISO, label=none; and hi, फ़, fa, translit-std=ISO, label=none. Respectively, these letters modify hi, क, ka, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ख, kha, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ग, ga, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ज, ja, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, झ, jha, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ड, ḍa, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, ढ, ḍha, translit-std=ISO, label=none; and hi, फ, pha, translit-std=ISO, label=none. The term () is itself an example of the use of the nuqta. Other examples include hi, क़िला ( ur, ), qilā, fortress, translit-std=ISO, label=none; and hi, आग़ा ख़ान ( ur, ), Āġā K͟hān, translit-std=ISO, label=none: a combination of a Perso-Arabic (''āġā'') and a Turko-Mongolic (''k͟hān'') honorific, now the title of the leader of the Nizari Ismaili sect. Examples of more common words are hi, बड़ा, baṛā, big, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, पढ़ना, paṛhnā, to read, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, पेड़, pēṛ, tree, translit-std=ISO, label=none; hi, अंग्रेज़ी, Aṅgrēzī, English, translit-std=ISO, label=none; and hi, करोड़, karōṛ, crore, translit-std=ISO, label=none.

The nuqta, and the phonological distinction it represents, is sometimes ignored in practice; e.g., being simply spelled as . In the text ''Dialect Accent Features for Establishing Speaker Identity'', Manisha Kulshreshtha and Ramkumar Mathur write, "A few sounds, borrowed from the other languages like Persian and Arabic, are written with a dot (bindu or nuktā). Many people who speak Hindi as a second language, especially those who come from rural backgrounds and do not speak conventional Hindi (also called ''Khariboli''), or speak in one of its dialects, pronounce these sounds as their nearest equivalents." For example, these rural speakers will assimilate the sound ɣ (Devanagari: ग़; Urdu: ) as ɡ (Devanagari: ग; Urdu: ).

With a renewed Hindi–Urdu language contact, many Urdu writers now publish their works in Devanagari editions. Since the Perso-Arabic orthography is preserved in Nastaʿlīq script Urdu orthography, these writers use the nuqta in Devanagari when transcribing these consonants. Sometimes, व़ is used to explicitly represent the /w/ consonant and to differentiate it from /v/ consonant व.

Dravidian consonants

Devanagari also includes coverage for the Dravidian consonants hi, ऴ, ḻa, translit-std=ISO, label=none /ɻ/; hi, ऱ, ṟa, translit-std=ISO, label=none /r/ and hi, ऩ, ṉa, translit-std=ISO, label=none /n/. (Respectively, these letters modify hi, ळ, ḷa, translit-std=ISO, label=none /ɭ/; hi, र, ra, translit-std=ISO, label=none /ɾ/ and hi, न, na, translit-std=ISO, label=none /n̪/). An example is hi, तमिऴ् /t̪amiɻ/ ( ta, தமிழ்), tamiḻ, translit-std=ISO, label=none.

Dardic consonants

For example, the letters and are used in Devanagari to write the Kashmiri alveolar affricates and respectively.

Eastern Indo-Aryan letters

To represent the Eastern Nagari letter representing /ɔ/, the consonant hi, य़, ẏa, translit-std=ISO, label=none is used in Devanagari.

In Maithili, there are four non-syllabic vowels: i̯, u̯, e̯, o̯ written in Devanagari as य़, व़, य़ॆ, व़ॊ. But colloquially, these are written without nuqta.

Similar diacritics

Sindhi's and Saraiki's implosives are accommodated in Devanagari with a line attached below—a diacritical bar: , , , .

In Tamil script, the special character (, ) is used like nuqta to represent non-native consonants.

In Thaana script of Maldives, one or many nuqtas are added to their native consonants to represent Perso-Arabic consonants, and each phoneme is encoded as a whole in the Unicode block (instead of a separate codepoint for the diacritic).

See also

*Hindustani phonology
* Hindi-Urdu transliteration
* Hunterian transliteration

References

Works cited

Bibliography

*Vajpeyi, K. D. (Kishorī Dās Vājpayī; किशोरीदास वाजपेयी), ''Hindī shabdanushāsan'' हिन्दी शब्दनुशासन (1957, 1958, 1973, 1976, 1988).

External links

Nuqte ka funda , नुक़्ते का फ़ंडा , نقطے کا فنڈا
(in Hindi/Urdu)
An Introduction to Indic scripts

SCRIPT GRAMMAR FOR HINDI LANGUAGE

{{Navbox diacritical marks

Brahmic diacritics
Hindustani orthography