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The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems) used in South Asia
South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east....
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
, and parts of Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
 and East Asia
East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either Geography or cultural terms. Geography and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km?, or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as Central Asia....
, descended from the Brahmi script.

The individual syllabaries may be called Brahmic scripts or Indic scripts.

These scripts are used in many language families, these are Indo-European
Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages* Indo-European people, peoples speaking an Indo-European language** Aryan race, a 19th-century term for Indo-European speakers...
, Sino-Tibetan, Mongolic, Dravidian
Dravidian

Dravidian may refer to the following about southern South Asia:* Dravidian languages, a language family comprising about 21 languages including the four literary languages spoken mainly in South India and North-Eastern Sri Lanka...
, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Tai
TAI

As a three letter acronym, TAI can be:*TAI is the IATA airport code for Ta'izz International Airport*TAI is the ICAO code for Taca International Airlines...
, sometimes Japonic and possibly Korean
Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
.
History
Brahmic scripts are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India
History of India

The known history of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, from c....
, the earliest attested source of which being the Vikramkhol inscription.






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The Brahmic family is a family of syllabaries (writing systems) used in South Asia
South Asia

South Asia, also known as Southern Asia, is the southern region of the Asian continent, which comprises the sub-Himalayan countries and, for some authorities , also includes the adjoining countries on the west and the east....
, Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
, and parts of Central Asia
Central Asia

Central Asia is a region of Asia from the Caspian Sea in the west to central China in the east, and from southern Russia in the north to northern India in the south....
 and East Asia
East Asia

East Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either Geography or cultural terms. Geography and geopolitically, it covers about 12,000,000 km?, or about 28 percent of the Asian continent, about 15 percent bigger than the area of Europe, though some categorize Tibet, Xinjiang, and Mongolia as Central Asia....
, descended from the Brahmi script.

The individual syllabaries may be called Brahmic scripts or Indic scripts.

These scripts are used in many language families, these are Indo-European
Indo-European

Indo-European may refer to:* Indo-European languages* Indo-European people, peoples speaking an Indo-European language** Aryan race, a 19th-century term for Indo-European speakers...
, Sino-Tibetan, Mongolic, Dravidian
Dravidian

Dravidian may refer to the following about southern South Asia:* Dravidian languages, a language family comprising about 21 languages including the four literary languages spoken mainly in South India and North-Eastern Sri Lanka...
, Austro-Asiatic, Austronesian, Tai
TAI

As a three letter acronym, TAI can be:*TAI is the IATA airport code for Ta'izz International Airport*TAI is the ICAO code for Taca International Airlines...
, sometimes Japonic and possibly Korean
Korean language

Korean is the official language of North Korea and South Korea. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China....
.

History


Brahmic scripts are descended from the Brahmi script of ancient India
History of India

The known history of India begins with the Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the north-western part of the Indian subcontinent, from c....
, the earliest attested source of which being the Vikramkhol inscription. Some scholars believe that Brahmi originated from or was at least inspired by the Semitic Aramaic alphabet
Aramaic alphabet

The Aramaic alphabet has been called an abjad--that is, a consonantal alphabet -- used for writing Aramaic language. It is adapted from the Phoenician alphabet, and became distinctive from it by the eighth century BCE....
. Others speculate that Brahmi may have had an origin indigenous to the Indian subcontinent
Indian subcontinent

The Indian subcontinent is a large section of the Asian continent consisting of the land lying substantially on the Indian Plate. The subcontinent includes parts of various countries in South Asia, including those on the continental crust , an Island#Continental islands country on the continental shelf , and an Island#Oceanic islands countr...
 via the Indus script
Indus script

The term Indus script refers to short strings of symbols associated with the Indus Valley Civilization, in use during the Mature Harappan period, between the 26th century BC and 20th century BC centuries BC....
. This script may, in turn, have derived from Sumerian cuneiform
Cuneiform

Cuneiform can refer to:*Cuneiform script, an ancient writing system originating in Mesopotamia in the 4th millennium BC*Cuneiform , three bones in the human foot...
, or it may have been developed separately from any other script.

The most prominent member of the family is Devanagari
Devanagari

, or 'Nagari', is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together....
, which is used to write several languages of India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
 and Nepal
Nepal

Nepal , officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia and is the world's youngest republic. It is bordered to the north by the People's Republic of China, and to the south, east, and west by India....
, including Hindi
Hindi

Standard Hindi, also known as High Hindi, Nagari Hindi or Literary Hindi is a Standard language register of Hindi. It is one of the 22 official languages of India, and is used, along with English language, for administration of the central government....
, Konkani
Konkani language

Konkani is an Indo-Aryan languages belonging to the Indo-European languages family of languages spoken in the Konkan coast of India. It has approximately 7.6 million speakers of its two individual languages, Konkani and Goan Konkani....
, Marathi, Nepali
Nepali language

Nepali is a language in the Indo-Aryan languages of the Indo-European languages.It is the lingua-franca of Nepal and is also spoken in Bhutan, parts of India and parts of Myanmar ....
, Nepal Bhasa
Nepal Bhasa

Nepal Bhasa is one of the major languages of Nepal. It is one of roughly five hundred Sino-Tibetan languages, and belongs to the Tibeto-Burman branch of this family....
 and Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
. Other northern Brahmic scripts include the Eastern Nagari script
Eastern Nagari script

The Eastern Nagari script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts whose use is associated with the Assamese language, Bengali language, Maithili language, Mishing language, Bishnupriya Manipuri language, Meitei language, Sylheti language, and Chittagonian language languages....
, which is used to write Bengali
Bengali language

Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-European languages language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....
, Assamese
Assamese language

Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language that is spoken mainly in the States and territories of India of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam....
, Bishnupriya Manipuri
Bishnupriya Manipuri language

The Bishnupriya or Bishnupriya Manipuri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in parts of the Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Manipur and others, as well as in Bangladesh, Burma, and other countries....
, and other eastern Indic languages, the Oriya script
Oriya script

The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya language, and can be used for several other Indian languages, for example, Sanskrit.History ...
, the Gujarati script
Gujarati script

The Gujarati script , which like all Nagari writing systems is strictly speaking an abugida rather than an alphabet, is used to write the Gujarati language and Kutchi language languages....
, the Ranjana script
Ranjana script

The Ranjana script is an abugida writing system developed as a derivate of Brahmi script in 11th century. It is primarily used for writing Nepal Bhasa but is also used in monasteries of India, Tibet, coastline China, Mongolia, and Japan....
, the Prachalit script, the Bhujimol script
Bhujimol

Bhujimol is the name of the most ancient form of the Nepal script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa....
, the Modi
Modi script

is the name of one of the scripts used to write the Marathi language, which is the primary language spoken in the state of Maharashtra in western India....
 and the Gurmukhi script
Gurmukhi script

Gurmukhi is the most common script used for writing the Punjabi language. An abugida derived from the La??a script and ultimately descended from Brahmi script, Gurmukhi was standardized by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad Dev, in the 16th century....
. The Dravidian languages
Dravidian languages

The Dravidian Language families and languages includes approximately 73 languages and are mainly spoken in South India and northeastern Sri Lanka Tamils , as well as certain areas in Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and eastern and central India, as well as in parts of Afghanistan, Iran, and overseas in other countries such as Malaysia and Si...
 of southern India have some aspects of Brahmic scripts but share very little structural characteristics with the Northern scripts giving credence to the theory that they originated indigenously and separately from the northern Indo-European family of languages. The earliest evidence for Brahmi script in South India comes from Bhattiprolu
Bhattiprolu

Bhattiprolu is a small village in Guntur District of Andhra Pradesh State in Southern India....
 in Guntur
Guntur

Guntur is a city and a municipal corporation in the Indian States and territories of India of Andhra Pradesh, located to the north of Bay of Bengal....
 district of Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh , abbreviated A.P.,is a state situated on eastern coast of India. It is India's List of states of India by area and List of states of India by population....
. Bhattiprolu was a great centre of Buddhism
Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
 during 3rd century CE and from where Buddhism spread to east Asia. The present Telugu script is derived from Bhattiprolu Script
Bhattiprolu Script

The Bhattiprolu script is an Indic writing system which has been found in old inscriptopns at Bhattiprolu, a small village in Guntur district, Andhra Pradesh, south India....
 or 'Kannada-Telugu script', also known as 'old Kannada script', owing to its similarity to the same .

Initially, minor changes were made which is now called Tamil brahmi which has far fewer letters than some of the other Indic scripts as it has no separate aspirated
Aspiration (phonetics)

In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
 or voiced consonants. Later under the influence of Granta vetteluthu evolved which looks similar to present day malayalam script. Still further changes were made in 19th and 20th centuries to make use of printing and typewriting needs before we have the present script.

Burmese
Burmese language

The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the government officially recognizes the language as Myanmar in English, most continue to refer to the language as Burmese....
, Cambodian
Khmer language

Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austro-Asiatic languages, with speakers in the tens of millions....
, Lao
Lao language

Lao or Laotian is a tonal language of the Kradai language family. It is the official language of Laos, and also spoken in the northeast of Thailand, where it is usually referred to as the Isan language....
, Thai
Thai language

Thai , is the national language and official language language of Thailand and the mother tongue of the Thai people, Thailand's dominant ethnic group....
, Javanese
Javanese language

Javanese is the language of the people in the central and eastern parts of the island of Java, in Indonesia. In addition, there are also some pockets of Javanese speakers in the northern coast of western Java....
, Balinese
Balinese script

The Balinese script is an abugida that was used to write the Balinese language, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesia island of Bali....
 and Tibetan
Tibetan language

The Tibetan languages are a cluster of mutually unintelligible Tibeto-Burman languages spoken primarily by Tibetan peoples who live across a wide area of eastern Central Asia bordering South Asia, including the Tibetan Plateau and the northern Indian subcontinent in Baltistan, Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim, and Bhutan....
 are also written in Brahmic scripts, though with considerable modification to suit their phonology
Phonology

Phonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system....
. The Siddham (kanji: ??, modern Japanese pronunciation: shittan) script was especially important in Buddhism
Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
 because many sutra
Sutra

Sutra , literally means a rope or thread that holds things together, and more metaphorically refers to an aphorism , or a collection of such aphorisms in the form of a manual....
s were written in it, and the art of Siddham calligraphy
Calligraphy

Calligraphy is the art of writing . A contemporary definition of calligraphic practice is "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious and skillful manner" ....
 survives today in Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
. these areas were once ruled and controlled by people of the Southern kingdoms and so their languages show evidence of being influenced more by southern script (i.e. no line running through the top of words).

Some characteristics, which may not be present in all the scripts are:
  • Each consonant
    Consonant

    In articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper vocal tract, the upper vocal tract being defined as that part of the vocal tract that lies above the larynx....
     has an inherent vowel which is usually short 'a' (in Bengali
    Bengali language

    Bengali or Bangla is an Indo-European languages language of the eastern Indian subcontinent, evolved from the Magadhi Prakrit and Sanskrit languages....
    , Oriya
    Oriya language

    Oriya is an Indian language, belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language family. It is mainly spoken in the Indian States and territories of India of Orissa....
    , and Assamese
    Assamese language

    Assamese is the easternmost Indo-Aryan language that is spoken mainly in the States and territories of India of Assam in North-East India. It is also the official language of Assam....
    , it is short 'ô' due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A mark
    Diacritic

    A diacritic is a small sign added to a letter to alter pronunciation or to distinguish between similar words. The term derives from the Greek language d?a???t???? ....
    , known in Sanskrit
    Sanskrit

    Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
     as a virama
    Virama

    Virama, or virama, is a generic term for the diacritic in many Brahmic scripts that is used to suppress the inherent vowel that otherwise occurs with every consonant letter....
    /halant can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel.
  • Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not part of a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
  • Consonants (up to 5 in Devanagari) can be combined in ligature
    Ligature (typography)

    In writing and typography, a ligature occurs where two or more graphemes are joined as a single glyph. Ligatures usually replace consecutive characters sharing common components, and are part of a more general class of glyphs called "contextual forms" where the specific shape of a letter depends on context such as surrounding letters or prox...
    s. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
  • Nasalization
    Nasalization

    In phonetics, nasalization is the production of a sound while the soft palate is lowered, so that some air escapes through the nose during the production of the sound by the mouth....
     and aspiration
    Aspiration (phonetics)

    In phonetics, aspiration is the strong burst of Earth's atmosphere that accompanies either the release or, in the case of preaspiration, the closure of some obstruents....
     of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
  • The traditional ordering can be summarized as follows: vowels, velar consonant
    Velar consonant

    Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the Soft palate)....
    s, palatal consonants, retroflex consonant
    Retroflex consonant

    In phonetics, retroflex consonants are consonant sounds used in some languages. The tongue is placed behind the alveolar ridge, and may even be curled back to touch the palate: that is, they are articulated in the postalveolar consonant to palatal consonant region of the mouth....
    s, dental consonant
    Dental consonant

    In linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth, such as , , , and in some languages....
    s, bilabial consonant
    Bilabial consonant

    In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:...
    s, approximants, sibilants, and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four consonants (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a nasalised consonant.


Many languages using Brahmic scripts are sometimes written in Latin script, primarily for the benefit of non-native speakers or for use in computer software without support for said scripts.

Professor Gari Ledyard
Gari Ledyard

Gari Keith Ledyard is Sejong Professor of Korean History Emeritus at Columbia University. He is best known for his work on the history of the hangul alphabet....
 has hypothesized that the hangul
Hangul

Hangul is the native alphabet of the Korean language, as distinguished from the logogram Sino-Korean vocabulary hanja system. It was created in the mid-fifteenth century, and is now the official writing system of both North Korea and South Korea, being co-official in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture of China....
 script used to write Korean is based on the Mongol Phagspa script
Phagspa script

The Phags-pa script was an abugida designed by the Tibetan people Lama Drog?n Ch?gyal Phagpa for the emperor Kublai Khan during the Yuan Dynasty in China, as a unified script for all languages within the Yuan Dynasty, although the effort to promote this script was largely unsuccessful....
, a descendant of the Brahmic family via Tibetan.

Comparison

Below are comparison charts of several of the major Indic scripts; pronunciation is indicated in National Library at Calcutta romanization and IPA. Pronunciation is taken from Sanskrit
Sanskrit

Sanskrit is a historical Indo-Aryan language, one of the liturgical languages of Hinduism and Buddhism, and one of the 22 official languages of India....
 where possible, but other languages where necessary. These lists are not comprehensive; some glyphs are unrepresented. Some pronunciations are different from the ones listed.

Consonants

NL
National Library at Kolkata romanization

The National Library of India romanization is the most widely used transliteration scheme in dictionaries and grammars of Indic languages. This transliteration scheme is also known as Library of Congress and is nearly identical to one of the possible ISO 15919 variants.The tables below mostly use Devanagari but include letters from Kannad...
 		IPA Dev
Devanagari

, or 'Nagari', is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together....
 		 Ben
Eastern Nagari script

The Eastern Nagari script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts whose use is associated with the Assamese language, Bengali language, Maithili language, Mishing language, Bishnupriya Manipuri language, Meitei language, Sylheti language, and Chittagonian language languages....
 		 Gur
Gurmukhi script

Gurmukhi is the most common script used for writing the Punjabi language. An abugida derived from the La??a script and ultimately descended from Brahmi script, Gurmukhi was standardized by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad Dev, in the 16th century....
 Guj
Gujarati script

The Gujarati script , which like all Nagari writing systems is strictly speaking an abugida rather than an alphabet, is used to write the Gujarati language and Kutchi language languages....
 		 Ori
Oriya script

The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya language, and can be used for several other Indian languages, for example, Sanskrit.History ...
 		 Tam
Tamil script

The Tamil script is a Vatteluttu that is used to write the Tamil language. With the use of special diacritics to represent aspiration and voice consonants not represented in the basic script, it is also used to write Saurashtra language and, by Tamil people, to write Sanskrit....
 		 Tel
Telugu script

Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu language, a South Central Dravidian languages found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states....
 		 Kan
Kannada script

The Kannada script is a syllabary of the Brahmic family, primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages languages in India....
 		 Mal
Malayalam script

The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. From the Brahmi script script, the Grantha script emerged as one of the earliest Southern scripts....
 		 Sin Tib
Tibetan script

The Tibetan script is an abugida of Brahmic family origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language....
 		 Thai
Thai alphabet

The Thai alphabet is used to write the Thai language and other :Category:Languages of Thailands in Thailand. It has forty-four consonants , fifteen vowel symbols that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks ....
 		 Bur
Burmese alphabet

The Burmese script is an abugida in the Brahmic family used in Burma for writing Burmese language. In addition, various other scripts share some aspect and letters of the Burmese script, though they should not be considered strictly Burmese, including Mon language, Shan language, S'gaw Karen, Eastern and Western Pwo Karen dialects, Geba Kare...
KhmLao
Lao alphabet

The Lao script is used mainly to write the Lao language.The minority languages of Laos are also written in the Lao script, and officially it is the only script to write them in Laos, but many speakers of Hmong language prefer the Latin alphabet....
k ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
kh ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
g ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
gh ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ?   ? ???
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
c c ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
ch ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
j ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
jh ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ???   ? ??  
ñ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?/???
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
?h ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
? ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
?h ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ?   ? ??  
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
t ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
th ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
d ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
dh ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ?   ? ??  
n n ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
? n ?         ?             ?    
p p ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
ph ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
b b ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
bh ? ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ?   ? ???
m m ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
y j ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
r r ? ?/? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
? r ?         ? ? ? ?       ?    
l l ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
? ?   ?? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?     ?    
   ? ?         ?   ? ?       ?    
v ? ? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???
s ? ? ?? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
? ? ?   ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
s s ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ??  
h h ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ???


Vowels

Vowels are presented in their independent form on the left of each column, and combined with the corresponding consonant ka on the right.
NLAC IPA Devanagari Eastern Nagari Gurmukhi Gujarati Oriya Tamil Telugu Kannada Malayalam Sinhala Tibetan Burmese
a ? ?   ?   ?   ?   ?   ? ? ?   ?   ? ? ? ? ?   ? ?
a ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ?? ??
æ                                       ? ??        
?                                       ? ??        
i i ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ? ??
i i? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ??? ??? ? ??
u u ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ? ??
u u? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ??? ??? ? ??
e e ? ??                 ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ??     ? ??
e e? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ??? ???
ai ai ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ??    
o o ? ??                 ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ??     ? ???
o o? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ??    
au au ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ??? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ?? ? ????
? ? ?? ? ??     ? ?? ? ??     ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ? ?? ?? ??? ? ??
? ? ?? ? ??     ? ?? ?       ?       ?   ? ?? ??? ?? ? ??
? ? ?? ? ??         ?       ? ?? ?   ? ???    ????? ? ??
? ? ?? ? ??         ?       ?   ?   ? ???   ??????? ? ??


Numerals

Number Devanagari Eastern NagariGurmukhi Gujarati Oriya Tamil Telugu Kannada Malayalam Tibetan Burmese
0 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
1 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
2 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
3 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
4 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
5 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
6 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
7 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
8 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?
9 ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?


List of Brahmic scripts encoded in Unicode

Kanheri Brahmi
* Balinese
Balinese script

The Balinese script is an abugida that was used to write the Balinese language, an Austronesian language spoken by about three million people on the Indonesia island of Bali....
  • Baybayin
    Baybayin

    Baybayin or Alibata is a pre-Spain Philippine writing system that originated from the Java nese script Old Kawi. The writing system is a member of the Brahmic family and is believed to have been in use as early as the 14th century....
     (Tagalog)
  • Buhid
    Buhid script

    Buhid , is an indigenous Brahmic script writing system of the Philippines, and is used today by the Mangyans to write in their language, Buhid language....
  • Burmese (Myanmar)
  • Cham - added in Unicode 5.1
  • Devanagari
    Devanagari

    , or 'Nagari', is an abugida alphabet of India and Nepal. It is written from left to right, lacks distinct letter cases, and is recognizable by a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the letters that links them together....
     (used for writing Hindi and a number of other Indo-Aryan languages)
  • Eastern Nagari
    Eastern Nagari script

    The Eastern Nagari script is an Abugida system of writing belonging to the Brahmic family of scripts whose use is associated with the Assamese language, Bengali language, Maithili language, Mishing language, Bishnupriya Manipuri language, Meitei language, Sylheti language, and Chittagonian language languages....
     (Bengali
    Bengali script

    The Bengali script is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Assamese language and Bishnupriya Manipuri language, and also for Maithili ....
    , Assamese
    Assamese script

    The Assamese script is a variant of the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali language and Bishnupriya Manipuri language. The Eastern Nagari script belongs to the Brahmic family of scripts and has a continuous history of development from Nagari script, a precursor of Devanagari....
    , etc.)
  • Gujarati
    Gujarati script

    The Gujarati script , which like all Nagari writing systems is strictly speaking an abugida rather than an alphabet, is used to write the Gujarati language and Kutchi language languages....
  • Gurmukhi
    Gurmukhi script

    Gurmukhi is the most common script used for writing the Punjabi language. An abugida derived from the La??a script and ultimately descended from Brahmi script, Gurmukhi was standardized by the second Sikh guru, Guru Angad Dev, in the 16th century....
  • Hanunó'o
  • Javanese
    Javanese script

    The 'Javanese script', natively known as Carakan , is the pre-colonial script used to write the Javanese language.As of 2008 Javanese is difficult to render on a computer, but Unicode support is underway....
  • Kannada
    Kannada script

    The Kannada script is a syllabary of the Brahmic family, primarily to write the Kannada language, one of the Dravidian languages languages in India....
  • Khmer
    Khmer script

    The Khmer script is used to write the Khmer language which is the official language of Cambodia. It is generally thought that the Khmer script developed from the Pallava script of India....
  • Lao
  • Lepcha
    Lepcha script

    The Lepcha script is an abugida used by the Lepcha people to write the Lepcha language. Unusually for an abugida, syllable-final consonants are written as diacritics....
     - added in Unicode 5.1
  • Limbu
    Limbu script

    The Limbu alphabet, or Kirat-Sirijonga script, is a Brahmic script writing system used to write the Limbu language of northern India and Nepal....
  • Lontara
    Lontara script

    The Lontara script is an Brahmic script traditionally used for the Bugis language, Makassarese language, and Mandar languages of Sulawesi in modern Indonesia....
     (Buginese)
  • Malayalam
    Malayalam script

    The Malayalam script is an abugida of the Brahmic family, used to write the Malayalam language. From the Brahmi script script, the Grantha script emerged as one of the earliest Southern scripts....
  • New Tai Lue
    New Tai Lue

    New Tai Lue, also known as Simplified Tai Lue, is an alphabet used to write the Tai L? language. Developed in China in the 1950s, New Tai Lue is based on the traditional Tai Tham script script developed ca....
  • Oriya
    Oriya script

    The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya language, and can be used for several other Indian languages, for example, Sanskrit.History ...
  • Phagspa
    Phagspa script

    The Phags-pa script was an abugida designed by the Tibetan people Lama Drog?n Ch?gyal Phagpa for the emperor Kublai Khan during the Yuan Dynasty in China, as a unified script for all languages within the Yuan Dynasty, although the effort to promote this script was largely unsuccessful....
  • Rejang
    Rejang script

    The Rejang script, sometimes spelt Redjang and locally known as Surat Ulu , is an abugida of the Brahmic family, and is related to other scripts of the region, like Batak script, Buginese script, and others....
     - added in Unicode 5.1
  • Saurashtra
    Saurashtra script

    Saurashtra is a script used to write the Saurashtra language. Its usage has declined and Tamil script and Latin are now used more commonly....
     - added in Unicode 5.1
  • Sinhala
  • Sundanese
    Sundanese script

    Sundanese script is a writing system which is currently used by some Sundanese people. It is built based on Old Sundanese script which was used by ancient...
     - added in Unicode 5.1
  • Sylheti Nagari
    Sylheti Nagari

    Sylheti Nagari or Syloti Nagri is the original script used for writing the Sylheti language. It is an almost extinct script, as the Sylheti language is currently written in the Eastern Nagari script also used for Bengali language and Assamese language....
  • Tagbanwa
  • Tai Le
    Tai Le script

    Tai Le is a script used for the Tai N?a language....
  • Tamil
    Tamil script

    The Tamil script is a Vatteluttu that is used to write the Tamil language. With the use of special diacritics to represent aspiration and voice consonants not represented in the basic script, it is also used to write Saurashtra language and, by Tamil people, to write Sanskrit....
  • Telugu
    Telugu script

    Telugu script, an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write Telugu language, a South Central Dravidian languages found in the Southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh as well as several other neighboring states....
  • Thai
    Thai alphabet

    The Thai alphabet is used to write the Thai language and other :Category:Languages of Thailands in Thailand. It has forty-four consonants , fifteen vowel symbols that combine into at least twenty-eight vowel forms, and four tone marks ....
  • Tibetan
    Tibetan script

    The Tibetan script is an abugida of Brahmic family origin used to write the Tibetan language as well as the Dzongkha language, Ladakhi language and sometimes the Balti language....


Other Brahmic scripts

  • Ahom
    Ahom script

    The Ahom script is an abugida that was used to write the Ahom language, an extinct Tai language spoken by the Ahom people who ruled the Brahmaputra valley in the Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries....
  • Batak
  • Bhujimol
    Bhujimol

    Bhujimol is the name of the most ancient form of the Nepal script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa....
  • Brahmi
  • Burmese script with modifications
    • Eastern and Western Pwo Karen
    • Geba Karen
    • Kayah
    • Mon
      Mon

      Mon may refer to:Places:* Mon State, a subdivision of Burma* Mon, India, a town in Nagaland* Mon District, Nagaland, India* Mon, Switzerland, a village in the Grisons...
    • Rumai Palaung
    • S'gaw Karen
    • Shan
      Shan

      The Shan are a Tai peoples ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The Shan live primarily in the Shan State of Myanmar, but also inhabit parts of Mandalay Division, Kachin State, and Kayin State, and in adjacent regions of China and Thailand....
  • Chakma
  • Divehi Akuru
    Dhives Akuru

    Divehi Akuru or Dhives Akuru is a script formerly used to write the Divehi language. This script was christened "Dives Akuru" by H. C. P. Bell who studied Maldive epigraphy when he retired from the British government service in Colombo and wrote an extensive monography on the archaeology, history and epigraphy of the Maldive islands....
     - extinct
  • Golmol
  • Grantha
  • Gupta
    Gupta script

    The Gupta script was used for writing Sanskrit and is associated with the Gupta Empire of India which was a period of material prosperity and great religion and science developments....
  • Javanese
    Javanese script

    The 'Javanese script', natively known as Carakan , is the pre-colonial script used to write the Javanese language.As of 2008 Javanese is difficult to render on a computer, but Unicode support is underway....
  • Kadamba
    Kadamba script

    The Kadamba script marks the birth of a dedicated Kannada script that was used for Kannada language. It is a descendent of the Brahmi script. The Kadamba script was developed during the reign of the Kadambas in the 4th - 6th centuries....
  • Kaithi
    Kaithi

    Kaithi , also called "Kayathi" or "Kayasthi", is the name of a historical script used widely in parts of North India, primarily in the former North-Western Provinces & Oudh and Bihar....
  • Kutila
  • Tai Tham
  • Litumol
  • Meeitei Mayek
  • Mithilakshar
    Mithilakshar

    Mithilakshar or Tirhuta is the traditional writing system of the Maithili language, an Indo-European language spoken in the Indian state of Bihar and eastern Nepal....
  • Modi
    Modi script

    is the name of one of the scripts used to write the Marathi language, which is the primary language spoken in the state of Maharashtra in western India....
  • Nepal
    Nepal script

    Nepal script is a group of scripts that developed from the Brahmi script and are used primarily in Nepal Bhasa. It is also used to write Sanskrit....
  • Prachalit
    Prachalit Nepal script

    Prachalit Nepal script is a type of Abugida script developed from the Mol script derivatives of Brahmi Script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit and Pali....
  • Ranjana
    Ranjana script

    The Ranjana script is an abugida writing system developed as a derivate of Brahmi script in 11th century. It is primarily used for writing Nepal Bhasa but is also used in monasteries of India, Tibet, coastline China, Mongolia, and Japan....
  • Sharada
  • Siddham
  • Soyombo
    Soyombo script

    The Soyombo script is an abugida developed by the Mongolian monk and scholar Bogdo Zanabazar in 1686 to write Mongolian language.It can also be used to write Tibetan language and Sanskrit....
  • Tai Dam
  • Varang Kshiti
    Varang Kshiti

    Varang Kshiti is a syllabic alphabet invented by Lako Bodra , used in primary and adult education and in various publications. It is used to write Ho language, a language used in the Indian states of Bihar and Orissa....


Brahmic-like scripts

  • Kharosthi script
  • Thaana
    Thaana

    Thaana, Taana or Tana is the modern writing system of the Divehi language spoken in the Maldives. Taana has characteristics of both an abugida and a true alphabet , with consonants derived from indigenous and Arabic numerals, and vowels derived from the vowel diacritics of the Arabic alphabet....
  • Tocharian - extinct


See also

  • ISCII
    ISCII

    Indian Script Code for Information Interchange is a coding scheme for representing various writing systems of India. It encodes the main Indic scripts and a Roman transliteration....
     — the coding scheme specifically designed to represent Indic scripts.


External links

  • A means to transliterate from romanized to Unicode Indian scripts.
  • Character & Pronunciation
  • – a Firefox add-on