Gujarati script

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Gujarati, written using Gujarati script.

The Gujarati script (ગુજરાતી લિપિ Gujarātī Lipi), which like all Nāgarī writing systems is strictly speaking an abugida rather than an alphabet, is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. It resembles Devanāgarī script without the characteristic horizontal line running above the letters. Except for a small number of exceptions, Gujarati characters are very similar to their Devanagari counterparts.

With a few additional characters, added for this purpose, the Gujarati script is also often used to write Sanskrit.

Gujarati numerical digits are also different from their Devanagari counterparts.

Contents

[edit] Gujarati characters, diacritics, and numerals

Excerpt from "My experiments with truth" - the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi in its original Gujarati script.
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Excerpt from "My experiments with truth" - the autobiography of Mahatma Gandhi in its original Gujarati script.

The Gujarati alphabet utilizes overall 94 distinct legitimate and recognised shapes, which mainly includes 34 vyanjana (ornamented sounds – consonants), 2 compound characters that are treated as consonants (not lexically though), and 14 svara (pure sounds – vowels).

The alphabet is ordered by logically grouping the vowels and the consonants based on their pronunciations. The vowels (svara) consists of three pure sounds – a, i, and u. In the alphabet, the vowels follow the following order:

  • Pure sounds with their lengthened versions: a, aa ; i, ii ; u, uu
  • Combined versions: ae, ai, o, ou
  • Nasal and Aspirated: .m, .h

The consonants (vyanjana), on the other hand, are grouped in eight categories; seven of which are named by considering the usage and position of the tongue during their pronunciation. These categories are (in order): velar, palatal, retroflex, dental, labial, sonorant and fricatives. Further, each group (with a couple of exceptions) has five consonants in which the group starts with the softer sounding consonants, then the aspirated forms appear, and the group ends with the nasal sounding consonant. The alphabetic arrangement thus made aids in easy recitation and is retained in the memory for longer duration.

[edit] Sentence construction

In accordance with all the other Indic scripts, Gujarati is also written from left to right, and is not case-sensitive. One or more letters (akṣar) join together to make a word (śabda), which then in turn join to make a sentence (vākya).

The discrete letters (shown below) are constituted by 0-5 successive consonants (vyanjana), followed by a vowel (svara). Consonant-less, bare vowels are said to be in their independent form, and are written differently than their dependent forms that spring from a consonant. They are found at the beginning of words or following other vowels. When a consonant lacks a vowel, it is not meant to be written as a lone letter. It condenses with the proceeding vowel-posessing letter, to make a "joint letter" (joḍākṣar). When the joint letter form can't be remembered, or is difficult to write, the characters may be left uncondensed.

Unlike Sanskrit where a sentence may be written literally without any spaces in between, Gujarati words are separated by a blank space. A space indicates the end of a word, but is not used as a form of explicit punctuation. The Gujarati writing system can be categorized under abugida, where each consonant has an inherent vowel (a), which can be modified by the application of other vowels.

[edit] Resemblance with Devanagari

Owing to their origin from Brahmi, both Devanagari (used for Indic languages like Sanskrit, Hindi, Marathi and alike) and Gujarati scripts share the same shape for majority of their alphabets. The apparent difference can be attributed to the missing horizontal top bar from the Gujarati letter-forms compared to Devanagari. That apart, a reader who is able to read Devanagari script, should be able to interpret Gujarati script fairly easily. Consider the following example where a Sanskrit shloka is written in both the scripts:

Devanagari – असतोमा सदगमय, तमसोमा ज्योतीर् गमय, र्मुत्योर्मा अमृतम् गमय।
Gujarati – અસતોમા સદગમય, તમસોમા જ્યોતીર્ ગમય, ર્મુત્યોર્મા અમૃતમ્ ગમય.
Romanized – asatomā sadagamaya, tamasomā jyotīr gamaya, rmutyormā amṛtam gamaya.

[edit] Reading

Gujarati is a semi-phonetic script; it can be pronounced as it is written, with these few exceptions.

  • A second syllable, if a, will be silent if the following third syllable has a non-a vowel, or has fourth syllable after it
  • If a word's final vowel is a, it is silent.
  • Both of these exceptions do not apply with conjunct characters.

Gujarati romanization, however, takes these exceptions into consideration and omits a's where necessary. Therefore, Romanized Gujarati is completely phonetic.

[edit] Alphabet table


CONSONANTS Guj Dev Rom IPA Guj Dev Rom IPA Guj Dev Rom IPA Guj Dev Rom IPA Guj Dev Rom IPA
Velar ક क ka kə ખ ख kha khə ગ ग ga ɡə ઘ घ gha ɡɦə ઙ ङ ṅa ŋə
Palatal ચ च ca tʃə છ छ cha tʃhə જ ज ja dʒə ઝ झ jha dʒɦə ઞ ञ ña ɲə
Retroflex ટ ट ṭa ʈə ઠ ठ ṭha ʈhə ડ ड ḍa ɖə ઢ ढ ḍha ɖɦ ણ ण ṇ ɳə
Dental ત त ta t̪ə થ थ tha t̪hə દ द da d̪ə ધ ध dha d̪ɦə ન न na n̪ə
Labial પ प pa pə ફ फ pha phə બ ब ba bə ભ भ bha bɦə મ म ma mə
Sonorant ય य ya jə ર र ra ɾə લ ल la lə વ व va və
Fricative શ श śa ɕə ષ ष ṣa ʂə સ स sa sə હ ह ha hə ળ ळ ḷa ɭə


COMPOUND CONSONANTS
Guj Dev Rom IPA
ક્ષ क्ष kṣa
જ્ઞ ज्ञ jña


IMPORT CONSONANTS
Guj Dev Rom IPA
ક઼ क़ qa qə
ખ઼ ख़ kha xə
ગ઼ ग़ ġa ɣə
જ઼ ज़ za zə
ફ઼ फ़ fa fə
ડ઼ ड़ ṛa ɽə
ઢ઼ ढ़ ṛha ɽhə


VOWELS Name Rom IPA
Indep. Dep. with ક
Guj Dev
અ अ ∅ ક a ə
આ आ ા કા કાનો kāno ā ɑ
ઇ इ િ કિ રસ્વઈ rasvaī i ɪ
ઈ ई ી કી દિર્ગઈ dirgaī ī i
ઉ उ ુ કુ રસ્વઉ rasvau u ʊ
ઊ ऊ ૂ કૂ દિર્ગઉ dirgau ū u
ઋ ऋ ૃ કૃ ṛ rɪ
એ ए ે કે માત્ર mātra e e(ː)
ઐ ऐ ૈ કૈ ai ɛ
ઍ ऍ ૅ કૅ
ઓ ओ ો કો કાનોમાત્ર kānomātra o o(ː)
ઔ औ ૌ કૌ au ɔ
ઑ ऑ ૉ કૉ
∅ ્ ક્ ∅ ∅
અં अं ં કં અનુસ્વાર anusvāra ṃ ə̃
અઃ अः ઃ કઃ ḥ əh / əə̥


DIGITS
Guj ૦ ૧ ૨ ૩ ૪ ૫ ૬ ૭ ૮ ૯
Dev ० १ २ ३ ४ ५ ६ ७ ८ ९
Eng 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9


  • The field is highlighted in yellow in cases were the Gujarati and Devanagari counterparts differ significantly
  • Letters are mostly referred to by their sounds, but they can take names, by suffixing કાર kār. ર ra is an exception; it's called રેફ reph.

[edit] Foreign Sounds

The 3 major foreign influences to Gujarati's Indo-Aryan base are English, Persian, and Arabic. English is accommodated with 2 new vowels, marked by the inverted mātra: ઍ and ઑ, representing the sounds in English's at and hot, respectively. Besides this, English words written in Gujarati can be easily recognized by even the novice due to three additional characteristics: the preference for retroflex consonants over dental, more frequent and larger (ie triple) compound characters, and the high occurrence of independent vowels within the middle of words (due to diphthongs).

Perso-arabic brings in 5 consonants, which are represented by the domestic character that sounds most like it, with a dot, ઼ (nukta), underneath. However it is worth noting that while this notation and inventory is available for use, in the case of Gujarati, one rarely sees the nukta. Original perso-arabic consonants tend not to be upheld and are just approximated with the closest domestic. Where a Hindi speaker may be faithful to Persian's "life" with ज़िंदगी zindagī, a Gujarati will say જિંદગી jindgī. Lastly, there seems to be one instance of backward assimilation, with ફ pha sounding like ફ઼ fa.

[edit] Alphabet and script related reference and resources

[edit] Gujarati in Unicode

The Unicode range for Gujarati script is from U+0A80 to U+0AFF. The ISCII Code-page identifier for Gujarati script is 57010.

The table below shows the glyphs that are implemented in Unicode standard 4.0.0. Gray boxes indicate the code-points that are undefined/unused.

x= 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F
U+0A8x   ઁ ં ઃ   અ આ ઇ ઈ ઉ ઊ ઋ   ઍ   એ
U+0A9x ઐ ઑ   ઓ ઔ ક ખ ગ ઘ ઙ ચ છ જ ઝ ઞ ટ
U+0AAx ઠ ડ ઢ ણ ત થ દ ધ ન   પ ફ બ ભ મ ય
U+0ABx ર   લ ળ   વ શ ષ સ હ     ઼ ઽ ા િ
U+0ACx ી ુ ૂ ૃ ૄ ૅ   ે ૈ ૉ   ો ૌ ્    
U+0ADx ૐ                              
U+0AEx ૠ           ૦ ૧ ૨ ૩ ૪ ૫ ૬ ૭ ૮ ૯
U+0AFx                                

[edit] Gujarati keyboard layouts

[edit] Inscript keyboard layout

INSCRIPT Keyboard - available for MS Windows, Linux, Unix, Solaris.

[edit] Keyboard and script resources

[edit] How To: Use Unicode for creating Gujarati script

Additional details regarding how to use Unicode for creating Gujarati script can be found on Wikibooks: b:How to use Unicode in creating Gujarati script or on this Subpage - /How To: Use Unicode for creating Gujarati script

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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