Devanagari script

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Script type	Abugida
Creator
Created
Published

The Devanagari script is an abugida used in India, Nepal, and a few other countries to write several major Indo-Aryan languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, and Nepali. It is one of the most used writing systems in the world. Devanagari is characterized by its distinctive horizontal line that runs along the top of the full letters.

History

Devanagari evolved from the earlier Brahmi script, through the Gupta script and later the Nagari script, which had been in use from around the 8th century AD. The name 'Devanagari' is derived from the Sanskrit words 'deva', meaning 'god', and 'nagari', meaning 'city'. Thus, Devanagari translates to 'the city of the gods'.

Structure

Devanagari is an abugida, meaning each basic character represents a consonant and inherent vowel, typically 'a'. Other vowels, or the absence of a vowel, are indicated with diacritical marks placed around the consonant. The script is written from left to right.

Consonants

Devanagari consists of 36 consonants, known as 'Vyanjan'. These consonants are categorized based on their place of articulation, ranging from gutturals to labials.

Vowels

There are 12 basic vowel phonemes in Devanagari, known as 'Svar'. These vowels can be written as independent letters when they occur at the beginning of a syllable or as diacritical marks when they modify a consonant.

Modifiers

Devanagari uses several modifiers, such as the virama (halant) which is used to suppress the inherent vowel of a consonant, and various nasal signs.

Usage

Devanagari is not only used for literary and formal texts but is also employed in everyday communication. It is the official script for writing Hindi, the official language of India, and is used in several other languages across South Asia.

Typography

The typographic style of Devanagari has evolved significantly with technology. From traditional hand-written manuscripts to modern digital typesetting, the script has adapted to various media while maintaining its characteristic features.

Unicode

Devanagari was added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991 with the release of version 1.0. The Unicode block for Devanagari is U+0900–U+097F.

See also

• Brahmi script
• Nagari script
• Sanskrit
• Hindi
• Marathi
• Nepali

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