Gujarati script

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Gujarati
Type: Abugida
Languages: Gujarati, Kutchi
Time period:
ISO 15924 code: Gujr
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.
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 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

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 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 śarāphi (banker's), vāṇiāśāi (merchant's) or mahājani (trader's) script.

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

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 as a diacritical mark from their consonant or consonant set. These independent 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-possessing letter, to make a "joint letter" (joḍākṣar), thus in accordance with a discrete letter being a holder of a vowel, as previously mentioned. However, 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.

Gujarati script is an almost completely phonetic and regular script, barring a few exceptions which are themselves regular:

  • 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. See elision.
  • Both of these exceptions do not apply with conjunct characters.

There are many romanization schemes for Gujarati, which were 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, or by case-sensitivity and punctuation in ITRANS and Harvard-Kyoto. Used here and with all specimens of Gujarati on Wikipedia unless otherwise noted, is IAST. Here are its properties:

  • Diacritic-based, not case-sensitive.
  • Uses 22 characters. f, q, w, z excluded.
  • Overlining for long vowels: ā, ī, ū. e and o are long, but are not overlined as Gujarati does not have their short counterparts.
  • Proceeding h for aspiration.
  • Underlying dot for retroflex: ṭ, ṭh, ḍ, ḍh ṇ, ḷ. As IAST is Sanskrit-based this includes ષ્ → ṣ, which is now closer to /ʃ/.
  • As IAST is Sanskrit-based, ફ્ is romanized as ph because it represented /ph/. Though it is now /f/ and would be better represented by f.
  • Takes heed of vowel elision: સરકાર → sarakāra → sarkār.

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 ṇa 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 fə 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 ʋə
Fricative શ श śa ʃə ષ ष ṣa ʃə સ स sa sə હ ह ha hə ળ ळ ḷa ɭə


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


VOWELS Name Rom IPA
Indep. Dep. with ક
Guj Dev
અ अ ∅ ક a ə
આ आ ા કા કાનો kāno ā aː
ઇ इ િ કિ રસ્વઈ rasvaī i i
ઈ ई ી કી દિર્ગઈ dirgaī ī iː
ઉ उ ુ કુ રસ્વઉ rasvau u u
ઊ ऊ ૂ કૂ દિર્ગઉ dirgau ū uː
ઋ ऋ ૃ કૃ ṛ ru
એ ए ે કે માત્ર mātra e eː, ɛː
ઐ ऐ ૈ કૈ ai əy(ː)
ઍ ऍ ૅ કૅ æ
ઓ ओ ો કો કાનોમાત્ર kānomātra o oː, ɔː
ઔ औ ૌ કૌ au əʋ(ː)
ઑ ऑ ૉ કૉ ɔ(ː)
∅ ્ 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.
  • ઋ ṛ is pronounced differently across India, with the original sound supposedly being lost. Gujaratis pronounce it as ru.
  • 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).

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                                

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

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

  • Mistry, P. J. Gujarati Writing. The World's Writing Systems, Daniels and Bright: Oxford University Press

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