GUJARATI SCRIPT

The 'Gujarati script' (ગુજરાતી લિપિ ''Gujǎrātī 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 is a variant of Devanāgarī script differentiated by the loss of the characteristic horizontal line running above the letters and by a small number of modifications in the remaining characters.
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

Origin

Overview

Categorization and Arrangement

Orthography

Punctuation

Romanization

Consonants

Digits

Gujarati in Unicode

Gujarati keyboard layouts

Inscript keyboard layout

Keyboard and script resources

How To: Use Unicode for creating Gujarati script

References

Bibliography

See also

External links

Origin

Gujarati script is descended from Brahmi and is part of the Brahmic family.
The Gujarātī script was adapted from the Devanāgarī script to write the Gujarātī language. The earliest known document in the Gujarātī script is a handwritten manuscript dating from 1592, and the script first appeared in print in a 1797 advertisement. Until the 19th century it was used mainly for writing letters and keeping accounts, while the Devanāgarī 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.^[1]

Overview

Categorization and Arrangement

The Gujarati alphabet utilizes 75 fundamental shapes, which may be broken down as follows:

★ 75 shapes

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★ 59 characters

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★
★ 36 consonants

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★ 34 singular

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★ 2 compound

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★ 13 vowels

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★ 10 numerical digits

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★ 16 diacritics

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★ 13 vowelic

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★ 3 other
The consonants (''vyañjana'') 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 (see the point on alphabet order below for more details).
Vowels (''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.^[2]
Two new vowel characters were created in Gujarati to represent English's /æ/'s and /ɔ/'s.

Orthography

The Gujarati writing system is an abugida, in which each base consonantal character has an inherent vowel, that vowel being ''a''. For postconsonantal vowels other than ''a'', the consonant is applied with diacritics, while for non-postconsonantal vowels (initial and post-vocalic positions), there are full-formed characters. There is also a diacritic that strikes out the inherent ''a'', as well a nasalizing diacritic used for nasalizing vowels, and in place of the five nasal consonants.
In accordance with all the other Indic scripts, Gujarati is written from left to right, and is not case-sensitive. One or more letters join together to make a word (''śabda''), which then in turn, separated by spaces, join to make a sentence (''vākya'').
Discrete letters are constituted by 0-5
^★ successive consonants, followed by a vowel. Thus when a consonant lacks a directly proceeding vowel, it is not written as its own letter; it condenses and joins as a fragment the proceeding vowel-possessing letter, to make a larger "joint letter" . However, when the joint letter form can't be remembered, or is difficult to write, the characters may be left uncondensed, with a diacritic representing the lack of a vowel instead.
The Gujarati script is basically phonemic, with a few exceptions. First out of these are ''a''-elisions, or schwa deletions; where some ''a's are not pronounced in spite of being represented. A part of script-based schwa deletion works on the same basis as phonological schwa deletion (''see Gujarati phonology#.C9.99-deletion''), but there is a difference. One is a phonological convention of the ''actual'' deletion of existing an schwa due to suffixing, while the other is a script convention of the ''inferred'' non-pronunciation of a written schwa due to what's already there. This elision falls in line with these rules^[3]:

★ A non-primary syllable, if ''a'', will be silent if the following syllable has a non-''a'' vowel, or has another syllable after it.

★
★ Among other things, this rule corresponds to phonological internal schwa deletion, such that schwas will be represented even if they have been deleted.

★ If a word's final vowel (either before a space or a postposition) is ''a'', it will be silent.

★ The first rule does not, and the second rule might not, apply, when characters conjunct characters are involved.
Secondly, being of Sanskrit-based Devanagari, Gujarati's script retains notations for the obsolete (short ''i, u'' vs. long ''ī, ū''; ''ṛ'', ''ru''; ''ś'', ''ṣ''), and lacks notations for innovations (/e/ vs. /ɛ/; /o/ vs. /ɔ/; clear vs. murmured vowels).<sup>[1]

★</sup> 5 is the highest number of conjunct consonants in a real word, in Devanagari (Sanskrit) at least, with the usually quoted example being ''kārtsnya''.^[5] In unicode it looks like कार्त्स्न्य — કાર્ત્સ્ન્ય, in the reference material the ''n'' fragment is made small and rests beneath ''s's connecting line to ''y''.

Punctuation

Contemporary Gujarati uses European punctuation, such as the question mark, exclamation mark, comma, and full stop. Apostrophes are used for the rare(ly written) clitic. Quotation marks are not often used for direct quotes. The full stop replaced the traditional vertical bar, and the colon, mostly obsolete in its Sanskrit capacity, follows the European usage.

Romanization

There are many possible romanization schemes for Gujarati, initially created to represent Sanskrit/Devanagari. The 26 roman characters alone are not enough to clearly represent Gujarati, so this is dealt with by the use of diacritics in IAST, ISO 15919, and the National Library at Calcutta romanization, and by case-sensitivity and punctuation in ITRANS and Harvard-Kyoto. Used as the basis of the romanization of all specimens of Gujarati on Wikipedia unless otherwise noted, is IAST.
'Properties of IAST'

★ Not transcription, but a 'transliteration' of Gujarati script, thus inheriting the same gulfs between the Sanskrit-based script that it is and Gujarati speech.

★ Writing of the inherent ''a''.

★ However, takes heed of ''a'' elision: સરકાર → ''sarakāra'' → ''sarkār''.

★ 22 characters. ''f, q, w, z'' excluded.

★ Diacritic-based, not case-sensitive.

★ Overlining for long vowels: ''ā, ī, ū''. ''e'' and ''o'' were historically long, but are not overlined as there were no short counterparts.

★ Proceeding ''h'' for aspiration.

★ Underlying dot for retroflex: ''ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh ṇ, ḷ, ṣ''.
'Wikipedia-specific additions'

★ ''f'' is used interchangeably with ''ph'', representing the widespread usage of [f] in place of [p^h].

★ Where it can be differentiated for certain, ''è'' and ''é'' are used for /ɛ/ and /e/, and ''ò'' and ''ó'' for /ɔ/ and /o/.

★ ''â'' and ''ô'' for the characters representing English /æ/ and /ɔ/.

★ ''ǎ'' for ''a''s where elision in uncertain.

★ Murmured vowels are underlined. ''tāro'' [t̪aɾo] "star"; ''tāro'' [t̪a̤ɾo] "my".

★ Written (V)''h''V sets that in speech result in murmured V̤(C) sets, according to the 3 murmur rules (''see Gujarati phonology#Murmur''), are underlined. Thus (with ''ǐ'' = ''i'' or ''ī'', and ''ǔ'' = ''u'' or ''ū'') —

★
★ ''ha'' → [ə̤], not [hə].

★
★ ''hā'' → [a̤], not [ha].

★
★ ''ahe'' → [ɛ̤], not [əhe].

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★ ''aho'' → [ɔ̤], not [əho].

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★ ''ahā'' → [a̤], not [əha].

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★ ''ahǐ'' → [ə̤j], not [əhi].

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★ ''ahǔ'' → [ə̤ʋ], not [əhu].

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★ ''āhǐ'' → [a̤j], not [ahi].

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★ ''āhǔ'' → [a̤ʋ], not [ahu].
==Gujarati characters, diacritics, and numerals==

Vowels

	SHORT					LONG
	Ind.	Dep.	Dep. w/ ક	ROM	IPA	Ind.	Dep.	Dep. w/ ક	ROM	IPA
Central	અ		ક	a		આ	ા	કા	ā
High front	ઇ	િ	કિ	i		ઈ	ી	કી	ī
High back	ઉ	ુ	કુ	u		ઊ	ૂ	કૂ	ū
High back vibrant	ઋ	ૃ	કૃ
Mid front						એ	ે	કે	e
Mid front diphthong						ઐ	ૈ	કૈ	ai
Mid back						ઓ	ો	કો	o
Mid back diphthong						ઔ	ૌ	કૌ	au

	ENGLISH
	Ind.	Dep.	Dep. w/ ક	ROM	IPA
Low front	ઍ	ૅ	કૅ	â
Mid back	ઑ	ૉ	કૉ	ô

Consonants

	Plosive												Nasal			Sonorant			Sibilant
	Voiceless						Voiced
	Unaspirated			Aspirated			Unaspirated			Aspirated
Velar	ક	ka		ખ	kha		ગ	ga		ઘ	gha		ઙ
Palatal	ચ	ca		છ	cha		જ	ja		ઝ	jha		ઞ	ña		ય	ya		શ	śa
Retroflex	ટ			ઠ			ડ			ઢ			ણ			ર	ra		ષ
Dental	ત	ta		થ	tha		દ	da		ધ	dha		ન	na		લ	la		સ	sa
Labial	પ	pa		ફ	pha		બ	ba		ભ	bha		મ	ma		વ	va

Guttural	હ	ha
Retroflex	ળ
	ક્ષ		kʃə
	જ્ઞ	jña	ɡɲə

★ Listed above is the traditional Sanskrit-based consonantal matrix.

★ The palatals ''c'', ''ch'', ''j'', and ''jh'' are phonetically affricates but they pattern like the other stops.^[1]

★ Letters can take names, by suffixing કાર ''kār''. ર ''ra'' is an exception; it's called રેફ ''reph''.^[7]

★ Starting with ક ''ka'' and ending with જ્ઞ ''jña'', the order goes^[8]:
: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.

Digits

0	૦	''mīṇḍuṃ''
1	૧	''ekaḍo''
2	૨	''bagaḍo''
3	૩	''tragaḍo''
4	૪	''cogaḍo''
5	૫	''pāṃcaḍo''
6	૬	''chagaḍo''
7	૭	''sātaḍo''
8	૮	''āthaḍo''
9	૯	''navaḍo''

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

★ For further details regarding Unicode Code-points and standards, you may refer to Unicode Code-chart — Standard 4.1.

Gujarati keyboard layouts

Inscript keyboard layout

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

Keyboard and script resources

★ The India Linux Project - Gujarati

★ MS Windows keyboard layout reference for major world languages

★ Sun Microsystem reference: Indic keyboard layouts

★ Linux: Indic language support

★ Microsoft — Indic language website: Use of Gujarati Input Method Editor (IME) (free download)

★ How To: Set your existing keyboard as Gujarati (Unicode) keyboard in Windows XP

★ Indic Multilingual Project by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing — C-DAC India

How To: Use Unicode for creating Gujarati script

Additional details regarding how to use Unicode for creating Gujarati script can be found on Wikibooks: or on this Subpage -

References

1.
2.
3. Snell, R. with Weightman, S. (1989) ''Teach Yourself Hindi''. McGraw-Hill. Reprint 2003. p. 16.
4.
5. Wikner, C. (1996) ''A Practical Sanskrit Introductory''. p. 59.
6.
7. Dwyer, R. (1995) ''Teach Yourself Gujarati.'' (43 Mb) London: Hodder and Stoughton. p. 18.
8. Gujarati-English Dictionary. Ratilal Chandaria's Online Language Resources. —Notice the order of the consonants on the keyboard.

Bibliography

★ .

★ .

See also

★ Wikibooks:

★ Gujarati language

★ Gujarati grammar

★ Gujarati phonology

★ Unicode and HTML

★ Yudit - open source tool for editing in Gujarati and other Unicode scripts.

★

★

External links

★ TDIL: Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, India

★ Gujarati Wiktionary

★ Gujarati Editor

★ Send email in Gujarati script (No fonts required)