Gujarati script
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The Gujarati script (, transliterated: ) is an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
for the
Gujarati language Gujarati (; gu, ગુજરાતી, Gujarātī, translit-std=ISO, label=Gujarati script, ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. Gujarati is descended from Old Gu ...
,
Kutchi language Kutchi (; કચ્છી, , ڪڇّی) or Kachhi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in the Kutch region of India and Sindh region of Pakistan. The name of the language is also transliterated as Katchi, Kutchhi, Kachchi, Kachchhi, Kachhi or Cutch ...
, and various other languages. It is a variant of the
Devanagari 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 systems#Segmental syste ...
script differentiated by the loss of the characteristic horizontal line running above the letters and by a number of modifications to some characters. Gujarati
numerical digit A numerical digit (often shortened to just digit) is a single symbol used alone (such as "2") or in combinations (such as "25"), to represent numbers in a positional numeral system. The name "digit" comes from the fact that the ten digits (Latin ...
s are also different from their Devanagari counterparts.


Origin

The Gujarati script () was adapted from the
Nagari script Nagari may refer to: Writing systems * Nāgarī script, a script used in India during the first millennium * Devanagari, a script used since the late first millennium and currently in widespread use for the languages of northern India * Nandinag ...
to write the Gujarati language. The Gujarati language and script developed in three distinct phases — 10th to 15th century, 15th to 17th century and 17th to 19th century. The first phase is marked by use of
Prakrit The Prakrits (; sa, prākṛta; psu, 𑀧𑀸𑀉𑀤, ; pka, ) are a group of vernacular Middle Indo-Aryan languages that were used in the Indian subcontinent from around the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The term Prakrit is usu ...
, Apabramsa and its variants such as
Paisaci Paishachi or Paisaci () is a largely unattested literary language of the middle kingdoms of India mentioned in Prakrit and Sanskrit grammars of antiquity. It is generally grouped with the Prakrits, with which it shares some linguistic similarit ...
,
Shauraseni Shauraseni Prakrit (, ) was a Middle Indo-Aryan language and a Dramatic Prakrit. Shauraseni was the chief language used in drama in northern medieval India. Most of the material in this language originates from the 3rd to 10th centuries, thoug ...
,
Magadhi The Magahi language (), also known as Magadhi (), is a language spoken in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal states of eastern India, and in the Terai of Nepal. Magadhi Prakrit was the ancestor of Magahi, from which the latter's name derives. ...
and Maharashtri. In second phase,
Old Gujarati Old or OLD may refer to: Places * Old, Baranya, Hungary * Old, Northamptonshire, England *Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD) *OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, ...
script was in wide use. The earliest known document in the Old Gujarati script is a handwritten manuscript ''Adi Parva'' dating from 1591–92, and the script first appeared in print in a 1797 advertisement. The third phase is the use of script developed for ease and fast writing. The use of ''shirorekhā'' (the topline as in Devanagari) was abandoned. Until the 19th century it was used mainly for writing letters and keeping accounts, while the Devanagari script was used for literature and academic writings. It is also known as the ''śarāphī'' (banker's), ''vāṇiāśāī'' (merchant's) or ''mahājanī'' (trader's) script. This script became the basis of the modern script. Later the same script was adopted by writers of manuscripts.
Jain Jainism ( ), also known as Jain Dharma, is an Indian religion. Jainism traces its spiritual ideas and history through the succession of twenty-four tirthankaras (supreme preachers of ''Dharma''), with the first in the current time cycle being ...
community also promoted its use for copying religious texts by hired writers.


Overview

The Gujarati writing system is an
abugida An abugida (, from Ge'ez language, Ge'ez: ), sometimes known as alphasyllabary, neosyllabary or pseudo-alphabet, is a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; ...
, in which each base consonantal character possesses an inherent vowel, that vowel being ''a'' For postconsonantal vowels other than ''a'', the consonant is applied with
diacritic A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacriti ...
s, while for non-postconsonantal vowels (initial and post-vocalic positions), there are full-formed characters. With ''a'' being the most frequent vowel, this is a convenient system in the sense that it cuts down on the width of writing. Following out of the aforementioned property, consonants lacking a proceeding vowel may condense into the proceeding consonant, forming ''compound'' or ''conjunct'' letters. The formation of these conjuncts follows a system of rules depending on the consonants involved. In accordance with all the other
Indic scripts The Brahmic scripts, also known as Indic scripts, are a family of abugida writing systems. They are used throughout the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and parts of East Asia. They are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India ...
, Gujarati is written from left to right, and is not case-sensitive. The Gujarati script is basically
phonemic In phonology and linguistics, a phoneme () is a unit of sound that can distinguish one word from another in a particular language. For example, in most dialects of English, with the notable exception of the West Midlands and the north-west o ...
, with a few exceptions. First out of these is the written representation of non-pronounced ''a''s, which are of three types. *Word-final ''a''s. Thus ઘર "house" is pronounced ''ghar'' and not ''ghara''. The ''a''s remain unpronounced before
postposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s and before other words in compounds: ઘરપર "in the house" is ''gharpar'' and not ''gharapar''; ઘરકામ "housework" is ''gharkām'' and not ''gharakām''. This non-pronunciation is not always the case with conjunct characters: મિત્ર "friend" is truly ''mitra''. *Naturally
elided In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
''a''s through the combination of morphemes. The root પકડ઼ ''pakaṛ'' "hold" when inflected as પકડ઼ે "holds" remains written as ''pakaṛe'' even though pronounced as ''pakṛe''. ''See Gujarati phonology#ə-deletion''. *''a''s whose non-pronunciation follows the above rule, but which are in single words not resultant of any actual combination. Thus વરસાદ "rain", written as ''varasād'' but pronounced as ''varsād''. Secondly and most importantly, being of Sanskrit-based Devanagari, Gujarati's script retains notations for the obsolete (short ''i, u'' vs. long ''ī, ū''; ''r̥'', ''ru''; ''ś'', ''ṣ''), and lacks notations for innovations ( vs. ; vs. ; clear vs.
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...
vowels). Contemporary Gujarati uses
English punctuation English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, such as the
question mark The question mark (also known as interrogation point, query, or eroteme in journalism) is a punctuation mark that indicates an interrogative clause or phrase in many languages. History In the fifth century, Syriac Bible manuscripts used ques ...
,
exclamation mark The exclamation mark, , or exclamation point (American English), is a punctuation mark usually used after an interjection or exclamation to indicate strong feelings or to show emphasis. The exclamation mark often marks the end of a sentence, f ...
,
comma The comma is a punctuation mark that appears in several variants in different languages. It has the same shape as an apostrophe or single closing quotation mark () in many typefaces, but it differs from them in being placed on the baseline ...
, and
full stop The full stop (Commonwealth English), period (North American English), or full point , is a punctuation mark. It is used for several purposes, most often to mark the end of a declarative sentence (as distinguished from a question or exclamation ...
.
Apostrophe The apostrophe ( or ) is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritical mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet and some other alphabets. In English, the apostrophe is used for two basic purposes: * The marking of the omission of one o ...
s are used for the rarely written
clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
.
Quotation mark Quotation marks (also known as quotes, quote marks, speech marks, inverted commas, or talking marks) are punctuation marks used in pairs in various writing systems to set off direct speech, a quotation, or a phrase. The pair consists of an ...
s are not as often used for direct quotes. The full stop replaced the traditional
vertical bar The vertical bar, , is a glyph with various uses in mathematics, computing, and typography. It has many names, often related to particular meanings: Sheffer stroke (in logic), pipe, bar, or (literally the word "or"), vbar, and others. Usage ...
, and the colon, mostly obsolete in its Sanskritic capacity (see
below Below may refer to: *Earth *Ground (disambiguation) *Soil *Floor *Bottom (disambiguation) Bottom may refer to: Anatomy and sex * Bottom (BDSM), the partner in a BDSM who takes the passive, receiving, or obedient role, to that of the top or ...
), follows the European usage.


Use for Avestan

The Zoroastrians of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, would transcribe Avestan in Nagri script-based scripts as well as the
Avestan alphabet The Avestan alphabet (Middle Persian: transliteration: ''dyn' dpywryh'', transcription: ''dēn dēbīrē'', fa, دین دبیره, translit=din dabire) is a writing system developed during Iran's Sasanian era (226–651 CE) to render ...
. This is a relatively recent development first seen in the ca. 12th century texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, and which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in Gujarati script (
Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...
being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example, the /z/ in ''zaraθuštra'' is written with /j/ + dot below.


Influence in Southeast Asia

Miller (2010) presented a theory that the indigenous scripts of
Sumatra Sumatra is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (182,812 mi.2), not including adjacent i ...
(
Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...
),
Sulawesi Sulawesi (), also known as Celebes (), is an island in Indonesia. One of the four Greater Sunda Islands, and the world's eleventh-largest island, it is situated east of Borneo, west of the Maluku Islands, and south of Mindanao and the Sulu Ar ...
(Indonesia) and the
Philippines The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no), * bik, Republika kan Filipinas * ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas * cbk, República de Filipinas * hil, Republ ...
are descended from an early form of the Gujarati script. Historical records show that Gujaratis played a major role in the archipelago, where they were manufacturers and played a key role in introducing
Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...
.
Tomé Pires Tomé Pires (1465?–1524 or 1540)Madureira, 150–151. was a Portuguese apothecary from Lisbon who spent 1512 to 1515 in Malacca immediately after the Portuguese conquest, at a time when Europeans were only first arriving in Southeast As ...
reported a presence of a thousand Gujaratis in
Malacca Malacca ( ms, Melaka) is a state in Malaysia located in the southern region of the Malay Peninsula, next to the Strait of Malacca. Its capital is Malacca City, dubbed the Historic City, which has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site si ...
(
Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
) prior to 1512.


Gujarati letters, diacritics, and digits


Vowels

Vowels A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
(''svara''), in their conventional order, are historically grouped into "short" (''hrasva'') and "long" (''dīrgha'') classes, based on the "light" (''laghu'') and "heavy" (''guru'') syllables they create in traditional verse. The historical long vowels ''ī'' and ''ū'' are no longer distinctively long in pronunciation. Only in verse do syllables containing them assume the values required by meter. Finally, a practice of using inverted ''mātra''s to represent
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
and 's has gained ground. ર ''r'', જ ''j'' and હ ''h'' form the irregular forms of રૂ ''rū'', જી ''jī'' and હૃ ''hṛ''.


Consonants

Consonants (''vyañjana'') are grouped in accordance with the traditional, linguistically based
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
scheme of arrangement, which considers the usage and position of the tongue during their
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
. In sequence, these categories are:
velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
,
palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
,
retroflex A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the ha ...
, dental,
labial The term ''labial'' originates from '' Labium'' (Latin for "lip"), and is the adjective that describes anything of or related to lips, such as lip-like structures. Thus, it may refer to: * the lips ** In linguistics, a labial consonant ** In zoolog ...
,
sonorant In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant or resonant is a speech sound that is produced with continuous, non-turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; these are the manners of articulation that are most often voiced in the world's languages. Vowels are ...
and
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
. Among the first five groups, which contain the
stop Stop may refer to: Places * Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
s, the ordering starts with the
unaspirated In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized. In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ch ...
voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies v ...
, then goes on through aspirated voiceless,
unaspirated In linguistics, a tenuis consonant ( or ) is an obstruent that is voiceless, unaspirated and unglottalized. In other words, it has the "plain" phonation of with a voice onset time close to zero (a zero-VOT consonant), as Spanish ''p, t, ch ...
voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer ...
, and aspirated voiced, ending with the
Nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast majorit ...
s. Most have a Devanagari counterpart. * Letters can take names by suffixing કાર ''kār''. The letter ર ''ra'' is an exception; it is called રેફ ''reph''. * Starting with ક ''ka'' and ending with જ્ઞ ''jña'', the order goes: :Plosives & Nasals (left to right, top to bottom) → Sonorants & Sibilants (top to bottom, left to right) → Bottom box (top to bottom) *The final two are compound characters that happen to be traditionally included in the set. They are indiscriminate as to their original constituents, and they are the same size as a single consonant character. * Written (V)''h''V sets in speech result in murmured V̤(C) sets (''see Gujarati phonology#Murmur''). Thus (with ''ǐ'' = ''i'' or ''ī'', and ''ǔ'' = ''u'' or ''ū''): ''ha'' → from ; ''hā'' → from ; ''ahe'' → from ; ''aho'' → from ; ''ahā'' → from ; ''ahǐ'' → from ; ''ahǔ'' → from ; ''āhǐ'' → from ; ''āhǔ'' → from ; etc.


Non-vowel diacritics


Digits


Conjuncts

As mentioned, successive consonants lacking a vowel in between them may physically join together as a 'conjunct'. The government of these clusters ranges from widely to narrowly applicable rules, with special exceptions within. While standardized for the most part, there are certain variations in clustering, of which the Unicode used on this page is just one scheme. The rules: *23 out of the 36 consonants contain a vertical right stroke (ખ, ધ, ળ etc.). As first or middle fragments/members of a cluster, they lose that stroke. e.g. ત + વ = ત્વ, ણ + ઢ = ણ્ઢ, થ + થ = થ્થ. **શ ''ś(a)'' appears as a different, simple ribbon-shaped fragment preceding વ ''va'', ન ''na'', ચ ''ca'' and ર ''ra''. Thus શ્વ ''śva'', શ્ન ''śna'', શ્ચ ''śca'' and શ્ર ''śra''. In the first three cases the second member appears to be squished down to accommodate શ's ribbon fragment. In શ્ચ ''śca'' we see ચ's
Devanagari 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 systems#Segmental syste ...
equivalent of च as the squished-down second member. See the note on ર to understand the formation of શ્ર ''śra''. *ર ''r(a)'' **as a first member it takes the form of a curved upward dash above the final character or its ''kāno''. e.g. ર્ભ ''rbha'', ર્ભા ''rbhā'', ર્ગ્મ ''rgma'', ર્ગ્મા ''rgmā''. **as a final member ***with છ ''chha'', ટ ''Ta'', ઠ ''Tha'', ડ ''Da'', ઢ ''Dha'' and દ ''da'', it is two lines below the character, pointed downwards and apart. Thus છ્ર, ટ્ર, ઠ્ર, ડ્ર, ઢ્ર and દ્ર. ***elsewhere it is a diagonal stroke jutting leftwards and down. e.g. ક્ર, ગ્ર, ભ્ર. ત ''ta'' is shifted up to make ત્ર ''tra''. And as said before, શ ''ś(a)'' is modified to શ્ર ''śra''. *Vertical combination of
geminate In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
s ''ṭṭa'', ''ṭhṭha'', ''ḍḍa'' and ''ḍhḍha'': ટ્ટ, ઠ્ઠ, ડ્ડ, ઢ્ઢ. Also, ટ્ઠ ''ṭṭha'' and ડ્ઢ ''ḍḍha''. *As first shown with શ્ચ ''śca'', while Gujarati is a separate script with its own novel characters, for compounds it will often use the Devanagari versions. **દ ''d(a)'' as द preceding ગ ''ga'', ઘ ''gha'', ધ ''dha'', બ ''ba'' (as ब), ભ ''bha'', વ ''va'', મ ''ma'' and ર ''ra''. The first six-second members are shrunken and hang at an angle off the bottom left corner of the preceding દ/द. Thus દ્ગ ''dga'', દ્ઘ ''dgha'', દ્ધ ''ddha'', દ્બ ''dba'', દ્ભ ''dbha'', દ્વ ''dva'', દ્મ ''dma'' and દ્ર ''dra''. **હ ''h(a)'' as ह preceding ન ''na'', મ ''ma'', ય ''ya'', ર ''ra'', વ ''va'' and ઋ ''ṛ''. Thus હ્ન ''hna'', હ્મ ''hma'', હ્ય ''hya'', હ્ર ''hra'', હ્વ ''hva'' and હૃ ''hṛ''. **when ઙ ''ṅa'' and ઞ ''ña'' are first members we get second members of ક ''ka'' as क, ચ ''ca'' as च and જ ''ja'' as ज. ઙ forms compounds through vertical combination. ઞ's strokeless fragment connects to the stroke of the second member, jutting upwards while pushing the second member down. Thus ઙ્ક ''ṅka'', ઙ્ગ ''ṅga'', ઙ્ઘ ''ṅgha'', ઙ્ક્ષ ''ṅkṣa'', ઞ્ચ ''ñca'' and ઞ્જ ''ñja''. *The remaining vertical stroke-less characters join by squeezing close together. e.g. ક્ય ''kya'', જ્જ ''jja''. *Outstanding special forms: ન્ન ''nna'', ત્ત ''tta'', દ્દ ''dda'' and દ્ય ''dya''. The role and nature of
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
must be taken into consideration to understand the occurrence of consonant clusters. The
orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and mos ...
of written Sanskrit was completely phonetic, and had a tradition of not separating words by spaces. Morphologically it was highly synthetic, and it had a great capacity to form large compound words. Thus clustering was highly frequent, and it is Sanskrit loanwords to the Gujarati language that are the grounds of most clusters. Gujarati, on the other hand, is more analytic, has phonetically smaller, simpler words, and has a script whose orthography is slightly imperfect (''a''-elision) and separates words by spaces. Thus evolved Gujarati words are less a cause for clusters. The same can be said of Gujarati's other longstanding source of words,
Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, which also provides phonetically smaller and simpler words. An example attesting to this general theme is that of the series of ''d-'' clusters. These are essentially Sanskrit clusters, using the original Devanagari forms. There are no cluster forms for formations such as ''dta'', ''dka'', etc. because such formations weren't permitted in
Sanskrit phonology The grammar of the Sanskrit language has a complex verbal system, rich nominal declension, and extensive use of compound nouns. It was studied and codified by Sanskrit grammarians from the later Vedic period (roughly 8th century BCE), culminating ...
anyway. They are permitted under
Gujarati phonology Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. Much of its phonology is derived from Sanskrit. Vowels * Sanskrit's phonemic vowel length has been lost. Vowels are long when nasalized or in a final syllable. * Gujarati ...
, but are written unclustered (પદત ''padata'' "position", કૂદકો ''kūdko'' "leap"), with patterns such as ''a''-elision at work instead.


Romanization

Gujarati is
romanized Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
throughout
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a multilingual free online encyclopedia written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and using a wiki-based editing system. Wikipedia is the largest and most-read refer ...
in "standard orientalist"
transcription Transcription refers to the process of converting sounds (voice, music etc.) into letters or musical notes, or producing a copy of something in another medium, including: Genetics * Transcription (biology), the copying of DNA into RNA, the fir ...
as outlined in . Being "primarily a system of ''
transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...
'' from the Indian scripts, ndbased in turn upon
Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
" (cf.
IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that emerged during ...
), these are its salient features: subscript dots for
retroflex consonant A retroflex ( /ˈɹɛtʃɹoːflɛks/), apico-domal ( /əpɪkoːˈdɔmɪnəl/), or cacuminal () consonant is a coronal consonant where the tongue has a flat, concave, or even curled shape, and is articulated between the alveolar ridge and the har ...
s; macrons for etymologically, contrastively
long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, f ...
s; ''h'' denoting aspirated
stop Stop may refer to: Places * Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck d ...
s.
Tilde The tilde () or , is a grapheme with several uses. The name of the character came into English from Spanish, which in turn came from the Latin '' titulus'', meaning "title" or "superscription". Its primary use is as a diacritic (accent) in ...
s denote nasalized vowels and underlining denotes
murmured Breathy voice (also called murmured voice, whispery voice, soughing and susurration) is a phonation in which the vocal folds vibrate, as they do in normal (modal) voicing, but are adjusted to let more air escape which produces a sighing-like ...
vowels.
Vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
s and
consonant In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the vocal tract. Examples are and pronounced with the lips; and pronounced with the front of the tongue; and pronounced wit ...
s are outlined in the tables below. Hovering the mouse cursor over them will reveal the appropriate
IPA IPA commonly refers to: * India pale ale, a style of beer * International Phonetic Alphabet, a system of phonetic notation * Isopropyl alcohol, a chemical compound IPA may also refer to: Organizations International * Insolvency Practitioners ...
symbol. Finally, there are three Wikipedia-specific additions: ''f'' is used interchangeably with ''ph'', representing the widespread realization of as ; ''â'' and ''ô'' for novel characters ઍ and ઑ ; ''ǎ'' for 's where
elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
is uncertain. See
Gujarati phonology Gujarati is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat. Much of its phonology is derived from Sanskrit. Vowels * Sanskrit's phonemic vowel length has been lost. Vowels are long when nasalized or in a final syllable. * Gujarati ...
for further clarification.


Unicode

Gujarati 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 October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0. The Unicode block for Gujarati is U+0A80–U+0AFF: Further details regarding how to use Unicode for creating Gujarati script can be found on Wikibooks: How to use Unicode in creating Gujarati script.


Gujarati keyboard layouts


ISCII

The Indian Script Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) code-page identifier for Gujarati script is 57010.


See also

* Gujarati Braille *Wikibooks: How to use Unicode in creating Gujarati script *
Unicode and HTML Web pages authored using HyperText Markup Language (HTML) may contain multilingual text represented with the Unicode universal character set. Key to the relationship between Unicode and HTML is the relationship between the "document character se ...
* Yudit -
open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open-source model is a decentralized sof ...
tool for editing in Gujarati and other Unicode scripts. * Gujarati course in Wikibooks


References


Bibliography

*. *. *. *. *. *.


External links


TDIL
Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, India

with an extensive list of conjuncts
Gujarati Wiktionary

Example of Gujarati literature


Keyboard and script resources


The India Linux Project - Gujarati

MS Windows keyboard layout reference for major world languages
* Sun Microsystems reference
Indic keyboard layouts
* Linux

* Fedora project Gujarati keyboard layout
I18N/Indic/GujaratiKeyboardLayouts - Fedora Project Wiki
{{Portal bar, Languages, India Scripts with ISO 15924 four-letter codes Gujarati language Brahmic scripts Officially used writing systems of India