Brahmi script

Brahmi script letters

comparison

The ancient Indian Brahmi script is the forerunner of more than a hundred Indian scripts , a combination of syllabary and letter script , according to the more recent name an Abugida . It was deciphered in the 1830s by the English Indologist James Prinsep .

particularities

In addition to independent vowel symbols for the beginning of a word, the other vowels are represented by modifications of the preceding consonant symbols. It is a one inherent vowel . The arrangement of the characters in the alphabet is based on a carefully thought-out division according to articulation point and articulation type.

history

The Brahmi script was developed for the writing of Prakrit , those Indo-Aryan languages which followed ancient Indian in the development of linguistic history . The oldest evidence of the Brahmi script can be found all over India on inscriptions by the Emperor Ashoka (3rd century BC), some of which are in Aramaic , Magadhic and Greek . These rock edicts proclaim the Buddhist faith and, through their placement, document the expansion of the Mauryan Empire . It is assumed that the writing was only invented in the Central Indian language period. The Brahmi was probably even a commission from Ashoka. Older texts were passed down orally for centuries and only written down later.

At the same time, the Kharoshthi script was also used in the inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka , which goes back to an Aramaic model (8th to 6th century BC) and how this is left-handed, but only occurs in northwestern India.

Hypotheses

A small number of researchers want the Brahmi script to date back to the 3rd millennium BC. Chr. Dated Indus script , to which, however, no intermediate stages were found.

Another opinion, which is more likely represented in research, is the hypothesis that the creators of the Brahmi script have adopted ideas from the Semitic scripts, most likely from the left-hand Aramaic script (but the Greek alphabet is also mentioned), which in turn are derived developed from the Phoenician script . A script was developed from the Aramaic script and based on this principle.

Depending on different writing materials, writing continued to develop in the following centuries. Although the forms changed considerably, the basic principle was retained.

Hypothetical derivation of the Brāhmī from the Phoenician alphabet
Greek	Α	Β	Γ	Δ		Ε	Υ	Ζ		Η	Θ		Ι	Κ		Λ	Μ	Ν		Ξ	Ο	Π		Ϻ	Ϙ		Ρ	Σ	Τ
Phoenician
Aramaic																								,
Brahmi						?				?											?
Bengali	অ	ব	গ	ধ	ঢ		ভ	দ	ড		থ	ঠ	য	ক	চ	ল	ম	ন	ণ	শ		প	ফ	স	খ	ছ	র	ষ	ত	ট
Devanagari	अ	ब	ग	ध	ढ		व	द	ड		थ	ठ	य	क	च	ल	म	न	ण	श		प	फ	स	ख	छ	र	ष	त	ट
Tamil	அ						வ						ய	க	ச	ல	ம	ந	ண	ஶ		ப		ஸ			ர	ஷ	த	ட
Kannada	ಅ	ಬ	ಗ	ಧ	ಢ		ವ	ದ	ಡ		ಥ	ಠ	ಯ	ಕ	ಚ	ಲ	ಮ	ನ	ಣ	ಶ		ಪ	ಫ	ಸ	ಖ	ಛ	ರ	ಷ	ತ	ಟ
Telugu	అ	బ	గ	ధ	ఢ		వ	ద	డ		థ	ఠ	య	క	చ	ల	మ	న	ణ	శ		ప	ఫ	స	ఖ	ఛ	ర	ష	త	ట
IAST	a	ba	ga	dha	ḍha		va	there?	there?		tha	ṭha	ya	ka	approx	la	ma	n / A	n / A	śa		pa	pha	sa	kha	cha	ra	ṣa	ta	ṭa

Unicode

In Unicode, characters are encoded in the Brahmi Unicode block (U + 11000 to U + 1107F).

literature

Metzler Lexicon Language (Indian writings), Verlag JB Metzler: Stuttgart and Weimar 1993
Kenneth R. Norman: The Development of Writing in India and its Effect upon the Pâli Canon , in: Wiener Zeitschrift für die Kunde Südasiens (36), 1993 (English)
Oscar von Hinüber: The Beginning of Writing and Early Writing in India , Franz Steiner Verlag: Stuttgart 1990.
Harry Falk: Writing in ancient India: A research report with annotations , Gunter Narr Verlag: Tübingen 1993.
Gérard Fussman: Les premiers systèmes d'écriture en Inde , in: Annuaire du Collège de France 1988–1989 (French)

Web links

Commons : Brahmi script - collection of images, videos and audio files

brahmi.sourceforge.net
ancientscripts.com
Imperial Brahmi font and text editor
Brahmi fonts
On The Origin Of The Early Indian Scripts: A Review Article ( December 20, 2006 memento in the Internet Archive ) by Richard Salomon, University of Washington

Individual evidence

^ Asko Parpola: The Indus Script . In: Peter T. Daniels , William Bright (Eds.): The Worlds Writing Systems . Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-507993-0 , pp. 165 , 2nd paragraph .
^ Richard G. Salomon: South Indian writing systems . In: Peter T. Daniels , William Bright (Eds.): The Worlds Writing Systems . Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-507993-0 , pp. 372 , 2nd paragraph .

[1] Asko Parpola: The Indus Script . In: Peter T. Daniels , William Bright (Eds.): The Worlds Writing Systems . Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-507993-0 , pp. 165 , 2nd paragraph .

[2] Richard G. Salomon: South Indian writing systems . In: Peter T. Daniels , William Bright (Eds.): The Worlds Writing Systems . Oxford University Press, New York, Oxford 1996, ISBN 0-19-507993-0 , pp. 372 , 2nd paragraph .