Ḹ is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ḹ is derived from the early " Ashoka" Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ḹ comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the

Greek numerals Greek numerals, also known as Ionic, Ionian, Milesian, or Alexandrian numerals, are a system of writing numbers using the letters of the Greek alphabet. In modern Greece, they are still used for ordinal numbers and in contexts similar to tho ...

, even after the invention of

Indian numerals Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

. The "Ll" sign was used to modify a consonant's value , but the vowel letter did not have an inherent value by itself.

Historic Ḹ

There are three different general early historic scripts -

Brahmi Brahmi (; ; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such ...

and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called ''slanting Brahmi''. Ḹ as found in

was missing in earlier geometric styles, but emerged during more flowing styles of Brahmi, such as the Kushana and Gupta. In both Tocharian and Kharoṣṭhī, Ḹ is not currently known from any source materials.

Brahmi Ḹ

The Brahmi letter Ḹ is only found as a vowel mark, and is derived from the consonant La, and therefore is probably from the Aramaic Lamed Lamed

. This would make it related to the modern Latin L and Greek

Lambda Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave rise ...

. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ḹ can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 183

/ref> As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the

Edicts of Ashoka The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who reigned from 268 BCE to 232 BCE. Ashoka used the expres ...

and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, but Ḹ must be back-formed from later forms to match the reference geometric writing style, and the reference image for the independent letter Brahmi lii

is just the vowel mark enlarged to the size of a full letter.

Devanagari Ḹ

Ḹ (ॡ) is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the

letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati script, Gujarati letter ૡ, and the Modi alphabet, Modi letter 𑘉.

Devanagari Using Languages

The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ॡ is pronounced as . Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Ḹ

Ḹ (ৡ) is a vowel of the Bengali script, Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked a lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ॡ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese language, Assamese. In most languages, ৡ is pronounced as . Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Ḹ

Ḹ (ૡ) is a vowel of the Gujarati script, Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ḹ , and ultimately the

letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati language, Gujarati and Kutchi language, Kutchi languages. In both languages, ૡ is pronounced as . Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Javanese Ḹ

Telugu Ḹ

Ḹ (ౡ) is a vowel of the Telugu script, Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the

letter Ḹ. It is closely related to the Kannada script, Kannada letter ೡ. Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Ḹ is a non-attaching vowel sign, and does not alter the underlying consonant or contextually shape itself in any way. Telugu Ll matra

Malayalam Ḹ

Ḹ (ൡ) is a vowel of the Malayalam script, Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the

letter , via the Grantha script, Grantha letter ''ll''. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.

Odia Ḹ

Ḹ (ୡ) is a vowel of the Odia script, Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the

letter , via the Siddhaṃ script, Siddhaṃ letter ''ll''. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Comparison of Ḹ

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Ḹ, are related as well.

Character encodings of Ḹ

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Ḹ in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Ḹ from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ll (Indic) Indic letters