Gondi has typically been written in

Devanagari script Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

Telugu script Telugu script ( te, తెలుగు లిపి, Telugu lipi), an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write the Telugu language, a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as well a ...

, but native scripts are in existence. A Gond by the name of Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram designed a Brahmi-based script in 1918, and in 2006, a native script that dates up to 1750 has been discovered by a group of researchers from the University of Hyderabad. Nonetheless, most Gonds are unaware of their well developed language and do not use any script now. The Gunjala Gondi Lipi has witnessed a surge in prominence, and well-supported efforts are being undertaken in villages of northern

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

to widen its usage.

Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram Script

In 1918, Munshi Mangal Singh Masaram, a Gond from Balaghat district of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

, designed a script for Gondi based on Brahmi characters found in other descendant Indian scripts. However, this script is not widely used, even though a few publications have been made available by his followers and supporters.

Unicode

Masaram Gondi script was added to the

Unicode Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...

Standard in June, 2017 with the release of version 10.0. The Unicode block for Masaram Gondi is U+11D00–U+11D5F:

Gunjala Gondi Lipi

This script is the subject of ongoing linguistic and historical research. Discovered manuscripts have been dated up to 1750, and discuss information from as early as the 6th–7th centuries. Much of the information reveals independence initiatives by the Gond Rajas and encounters with the British. Also, the names of the days of the week, the months, the Gond festivals have been discovered in this Gondi script.

Unicode

Gunjala Gondi lipi was added to the

Standard in June, 2018 with the release of version 11.0. The Unicode block for Gunjala Gondi is U+11D60–U+11DAF:

References

External links

Gondi script
{{list of writing systems Writing systems Dravidian languages Languages of Madhya Pradesh