Laṇḍā scripts

The Laṇḍā scripts, from the term ''laṇḍā'' meaning "without a tail", is a Punjabi word used to refer to writing systems used in Punjab and adjoining areas. In Sindhi, it was known as 'Wāṇiko' or 'Baniyañ'.

Development

Laṇḍā is a script that evolved from the Sharada script during the 10th century. It was widely used in the northern and northwestern Indian subcontinent, in the Indus River plain, and adjoining areas, comprising Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir, Haryana and some parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was used to write Punjabi (and various Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari, Multani, Hindko, Majhi, Doabi) as well as Sindhi, Balochi, Kashmiri, and Pashto.

The Laṇḍā scripts form a "typologically distinct group," and are closer in norms to its predecessor Brahmi than they are to the Nāgarī scripts to the east, in their general avoidance of conjunct glyphs or marking of the Middle Indo-Aryan geminations distinctive of Panjābī. While possessing full sets of consonants, even separate letters for the common Lahnda consonant clusters ''tr'' and ''dr'', their indication of vowels is less regular; they possess three vowel letters to indicate initial /ə ɪ ʊ/, but no letters or signs in other positions, thus being "alphabetical on the restricted Semitic model of Ugaritic cuneiform."

Functions

Landa scripts were originally used as mercantile shorthand for commercial purposes in the Punjab region and Sindh; they often lacked the full set of vowel sounds, as well as often imperfect correspondence of consonants. This made them liable to misreadings, frequently recognized by the local population through local proverbs referring to its usefulness only to the original writer. Various technical improvements would make certain descendant scripts fully suitable for literary use, primarily motivated by interest in recording religious scripture, particularly in the cases of Gurmukhī in Punjab, and Khojkī in Sindh.

Variants

Pandey (2010) further classifies Laṇḍā scripts into "Panjābī" and "Sindhī" regional subclasses.

*Panjābī: Gurmukhī, Bahāwalpurī, Lamawasī, Multānī (Karikkī, Sarāī, Ochikī Punjābī, Wuch), Thul (in Derajat), Sarika (in Derajat)
*Sindhī (named after the various regions, communities, or occupations with which they were associated): Aroṛā, Baniyā, Bhatiā, Haidarābādī, Karadī, Khudāwādī, Khwājā (Khojkī), Haṭāī, Haṭavāṇikā, Laraī, Lohāṇākī (Lohāṇā), Maimon, Rajaī, Sakkar, Shikārpurī, Sewhanī Bhabhira, Thatta (Thattai), Vaniyā, Wangaī, Wāṇiko

Grammarians of the 19th century variously identified as many as six Laṇḍā forms used in Punjab and as many as twelve in Sindh. Further typological differences used in this subclassification include:

*''character repertoire'': the Laṇḍā character sets of the Sindhi class possess characters for the implosive consonants of the language;
*''character shapes'': common letters can be identified by subclass depending on shape;
*''collation'': Panjābī Laṇḍā shares Gurmukhī's sorting order, starting with vowels, then fricatives ''sa'' and ''ha'', then the 5×5 set of occlusives, then sonorants, while Sindhī Laṇḍā follows Devanāgarī more closely; and
*''orthographic norms'': Panjābī Laṇḍā do not use dependent vowel diacritics, the approximate vowel letter is written after the consonant letter, e.g. the syllable /ki/ is written with the letter 'k' followed by the letter 'i'. After standardization, dependent vowel diacritics were introduced into Sindhī Laṇḍā.

Even within these subclasses, the scripts exhibit further differences.

Fully attested

Currently, five Laṇḍā-descended scripts have enough information to be supported in Unicode.

# Gurmukhī is used for Punjabi and sometimes for Sindhi. Originally used in Sikh scripture and writings, it is the only major Landa-descended script in modern day usage.Pandey, Anshuman. (2010). L2/10-011
''A Roadmap for Scripts of the Landa Family''
/ref> It has preserved the distinctive names of letters (''kakkā'', ''khakkhā'', etc.) and collation order of Laṇḍā (vowels→fricatives→occlusives→sonorants)
# Khojkī, an ecclesiastical