Gha
Example glyphs
Bengali-Assamese
Tibetan	གྷ
Thai	ฆ
Malayalam	ഘ
Sinhala	ඝ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ח
Greek	Η, Ͱ
Latin	H
Cyrillic	И
Properties
Phonemic representation	/gʱ/ /kʰ/B
IAST transliteration	gha Gha
ISCII code point	B6 (182)
^B in Khmer

Gha is the fourth consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, gha is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the Aramaic ("H/X") after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of घ are:^[1]

• घ [gʱə] = 4 (४)
• घि [gʱɪ] = 400 (४००)
• घु [gʱʊ] = 40,000 (४० ०००)
• घृ [gʱri] = 4,000,000 (४० ०० ०००)
• घॢ [gʱlə] = 4×10⁸ (४०^८)
• घे [gʱe] = 4×10¹⁰ (४०^१०)
• घै [gʱɛː] = 4×10¹² (४०^१२)
• घो [gʱoː] = 4×10¹⁴ (४०^१४)
• घौ [gʱɔː] = 4×10¹⁶ (४०^१६)

Historic Gha

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Gha as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Gha did not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form. The third form of gha, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Gha

The Brahmi letter , Gha, is probably derived from the Aramaic Heth , and is thus related to the modern Latin H and Greek Eta. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Gha can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.^[2] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Gha historic forms

Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Gha

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian Gha with vowel marks

Gha	Ghā	Ghi	Ghī	Ghu	Ghū	Ghr	Ghr̄	Ghe	Ghai	Gho	Ghau	Ghä

Devanagari script

Devanāgarī
Abugida Brahmic scripts Inherent vowel
Languages Hindi Marathi Nepali Konkani Maithili Sindhi Bodo Pali Prakrit Sanskrit and more
Transliteration IAST Hunterian NLK ISO 15919 Harvard-Kyoto ITRANS Velthuis SLP1 WX notation (ISCII)
Vowels and syllabic consonants अ a ॲ æ ऄ आ (का) ā इ (कि) i ई (की) ī उ (कु) u ऊ (कू) ū ॶ (कॖ) ॷ (कॗ) ऋ (कृ) r̥ ॠ (कॄ) r̥̄ ऌ (कॢ) l̥ ॡ (कॣ) l̥̄ ए (के) ē ऍ (कॅ) ê ऎ (कॆ) e ऐ (कै) ai (कॕ) (कॎ) ओ (को) ō ऑ (कॉ) ô ऒ (कॊ) o औ (कौ) au ॳ (कऺ) ॴ (कऻ) ॵ (कॏ) (Schwa deletion)
Consonants क k क़ q ख kh ख़ k̲h̲ ग g ग़ ġ ॻ gg घ gh ङ ṅ च c छ ch ज j ज़ z ॼ jj ॹ ž झ jh झ़ zh ञ ñ ट ṭ ठ ṭh ड ḍ ड़ ṛ ॾ ḍḍ ॸ ḍ ढ ḍh ढ़ ṛh ण ṇ त t थ th द d ध dh न n ऩ ṉ प p फ ph फ़ f ब b ॿ bb भ bh म m य y य़ ẏ ॺ र r ऱ ṟ ळ ḷ ऴ ḻ ल l व v श ś ष ṣ स s ह h ॽ (Conjuncts)
Diacritics, punctuation, symbols अं ṁ अः ḥ अँ m̐ अऀ ऽ ’ क़ क् ३ 3 ᳵ ẖ ᳶ ḫ अ॑ ` अ॒ _ अ॓ अ॔ ॐ aum̐ । ॥ ॰ ॱ ₹ INR and more (Devanagari (Unicode block) Devanagari Extended Devanagari Extended-A Vedic Extensions)
Numerals ० 0 १ 1 २ 2 ३ 3 ४ 4 ५ 5 ६ 6 ७ 7 ८ 8 ९ 9 Āryabhaṭa Akṣarapallī Bhūtasaṃkhyā Kaṭapayādi

Gha (घ) is the fourth consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઘ and the Modi letter 𑘑.

Conjuncts with घ

Half form of Gha.

Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular preferring the use of half forms where texts in other languages would show ligatures and vertical stacks.^[3]

Ligature conjuncts of घ

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.

• Repha र্ (r) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature rɡʱa: ^note

• Eyelash र্ (r) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature rɡʱa:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + rakar र (ra) gives the ligature ɡʱra:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + न (na) gives the ligature ɡʱna:

• द্ (d) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature dɡʱa:

Stacked conjuncts of घ

Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.

• छ্ (cʰ) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature cʰɡʱa:

• ढ্ (ḍʱ) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature ḍʱɡʱa:

• ड্ (ḍ) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature ḍɡʱa:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + च (ca) gives the ligature ɡʱca:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + ड (ḍa) gives the ligature ɡʱḍa:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + ज (ja) gives the ligature ɡʱja:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + ज্ (j) + ञ (ña) gives the ligature ɡʱjña:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + ल (la) gives the ligature ɡʱla:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + ङ (ŋa) gives the ligature ɡʱŋa:

• घ্ (ɡʱ) + ञ (ña) gives the ligature ɡʱña:

• ङ্ (ŋ) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature ŋɡʱa:

• ट্ (ṭ) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature ṭɡʱa:

• ठ্ (ṭʰ) + घ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature ṭʰɡʱa:

Bengali script

The Bengali script ঘ is derived from the Siddhaṃ , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, घ. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter ঘ will sometimes be transliterated as "gho" instead of "gha". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /ɡʱo/. Like all Indic consonants, ঘ can be modified by marks to indicate another (or no) vowel than its inherent "a".

Gurmukhi script

Kagaa [kə̀gːɑ] (ਘ) is the ninth letter of the Gurmukhi alphabet. Its name is [kʰəkʰːɑ] and pronounced as /kə̀/. To differentiate between consonants, the Punjabi tonal consonant kà is often transliterated in the way of the Hindi voiced aspirate consonants gha although Punjabi does not have this sound. It is derived from the Laṇḍā letter gha, and ultimately from the Brahmi ga. Gurmukhi kagaa does not have a special pairin or addha (reduced) form for making conjuncts, and in modern Punjabi texts do not take a half form or halant to indicate the bare consonant /k/, although Gurmukhi Sanskrit texts may use an explicit halant.

Gujarati Gha

Gujarati Gha.

Gha (ઘ) is the fourth consonant of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the 16th century Devanagari Gha with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed, and ultimately from the Brahmi letter . ઘ (Gha) is similar in appearance to ધ (Dha), and care should be taken to avoid confusing the two when reading Gujarati script texts.

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઘ is pronounced as [ɡʱə] or [ɡʱ] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Gha	Ghā	Ghi	Ghī	Ghu	Ghū	Ghr	Ghl	Ghr̄	Ghl̄	Ghĕ	Ghe	Ghai	Ghŏ	Gho	Ghau	Gh
Gujarati Gha syllables, with vowel marks in red.

Conjuncts with ઘ

Half form of Gha.

Gujarati ઘ exhibits conjunct ligatures, much like its parent Devanagari Script. Most Gujarati conjuncts can only be formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". A few conjunct clusters can be represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters, and vertically stacked conjuncts can also be found in Gujarati, although much less commonly than in Devanagari. True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Gujarati are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra.

• ર્ (r) + ઘ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature RGha:

• ઘ્ (ɡʱ) + ર (ra) gives the ligature GhRa:

• ઘ્ (ɡʱ) + ન (na) gives the ligature GhNa:

• દ્ (d) + ઘ (ɡʱa) gives the ligature DGha:

Telugu Gha

Telugu independent and subjoined Gha.

Gha (ఘ) is a consonant of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಘ. Most Telugu consonants contain a v-shaped headstroke that is related to the horizontal headline found in other Indic scripts, although headstrokes do not connect adjacent letters in Telugu. The headstroke is normally lost when adding vowel matras. Telugu conjuncts are created by reducing trailing letters to a subjoined form that appears below the initial consonant of the conjunct. Many subjoined forms are created by dropping their headline, with many extending the end of the stroke of the main letter body to form an extended tail reaching up to the right of the preceding consonant. This subjoining of trailing letters to create conjuncts is in contrast to the leading half forms of Devanagari and Bengali letters. Ligature conjuncts are not a feature in Telugu, with the only non-standard construction being an alternate subjoined form of Ṣa (borrowed from Kannada) in the KṢa conjunct.

Malayalam Gha

Malayalam letter Gha

Gha (ഘ) is a consonant of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter Gha. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Malayalam Gha matras: Gha, Ghā, Ghi, Ghī, Ghu, Ghū, Ghr̥, Ghr̥̄, Ghl̥, Ghl̥̄, Ghe, Ghē, Ghai, Gho, Ghō, Ghau, and Gh.

Thai script

Kho ra-khang (ฆ) is the sixth letter of the Thai alphabet. It falls under the low class of Thai consonants. In IPA, kho ra-khang is pronounced as [kʰ] at the beginning of a syllable and is pronounced as [k̚] at the end of a syllable. The second and third letters of the alphabet, kho khai (ข) and kho khuat (ฃ), are also named kho, however, they all fall under the high class of Thai consonants. The fourth and the fifth letters of the alphabet, kho khwai (ค), kho khon (ฅ), and kho ra-khang (ฆ), are also named kho and fall under the low class of Thai consonants. Unlike many Indic scripts, Thai consonants do not form conjunct ligatures, and use the pinthu—an explicit virama with a dot shape—to indicate bare consonants. In the acrophony of the Thai script, ra-khang (ระฆัง) means ‘bell’. Kho ra-khang corresponds to the Sanskrit character ‘घ’.

Odia Gha

Odia independent and subjoined letter Gha.

Gha (ଘ) is a consonant of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Gha. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Kaithi Gha

Kaithi consonant and half-form Gha.

Gha (𑂐) is a consonant of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Gha. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Comparison of Gha

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Gha, are related as well.

Comparison of Gha in different scripts

Aramaic Kharoṣṭhī 𐨓 Ashoka Brahmi Kushana Brahmi[lower-alpha 1] Tocharian[lower-alpha 2] Gupta Brahmi Pallava Kadamba - Bhaiksuki 𑰑 Siddhaṃ Grantha 𑌘 Cham ꨉ Sinhala ඝ Pyu / Old Mon[lower-alpha 3] - Tibetan གྷ Newa 𑐑 Ahom 𑜗 Malayalam ഘ Telugu ఘ Burmese ဃ Lepcha - Ranjana Saurashtra ꢕ Dives Akuru 𑤏 Kannada ಘ Kayah Li - Limbu ᤄ Soyombo[lower-alpha 4] 𑩟 Khmer ឃ Tamil - Chakma 𑄊 Tai Tham ᨥ Meitei Mayek ꯘ Gaudi - Thai ฆ Lao ຆ Tai Le - Marchen - Tirhuta 𑒒 New Tai Lue - Tai Viet - Aksara Kawi 'Phags-pa - Odia ଘ Sharada 𑆔 Rejang - Batak - Buginese - Zanabazar Square 𑨎 Bengali-Assamese Takri 𑚍 Javanese ꦓ Balinese ᬖ Makasar - Hangul[lower-alpha 5] - Northern Nagari - Dogri 𑠍 Laṇḍā - Sundanese - Baybayin - Modi 𑘑 Gujarati ઘ Khojki 𑈌 Khudabadi 𑊾 Mahajani 𑅘 Tagbanwa - Devanagari Nandinagari 𑦱 Kaithi Gurmukhi ਘ Multani 𑊈 Buhid - Canadian Syllabics[lower-alpha 6] - Soyombo[lower-alpha 7] 𑩟 Sylheti Nagari ꠊ Gunjala Gondi 𑵷 Masaram Gondi[lower-alpha 8] 𑴏 Hanuno'o - Notes ↑ The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms. ↑ Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession. ↑ Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script ↑ May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table) ↑ The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida. ↑ Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas. ↑ May also be derived from Ranjana (see above) ↑ Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of Gha

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Gha in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Gha from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information

Preview					ఘ		ଘ		ಘ		ഘ		ઘ		ਘ
Unicode name	DEVANAGARI LETTER GHA		BENGALI LETTER GHA		TELUGU LETTER GHA		ORIYA LETTER GHA		KANNADA LETTER GHA		MALAYALAM LETTER GHA		GUJARATI LETTER GHA		GURMUKHI LETTER GHA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	2328	U+0918	2456	U+0998	3096	U+0C18	2840	U+0B18	3224	U+0C98	3352	U+0D18	2712	U+0A98	2584	U+0A18
UTF-8	224 164 152	E0 A4 98	224 166 152	E0 A6 98	224 176 152	E0 B0 98	224 172 152	E0 AC 98	224 178 152	E0 B2 98	224 180 152	E0 B4 98	224 170 152	E0 AA 98	224 168 152	E0 A8 98
Numeric character reference	घ	घ	ঘ	ঘ	ఘ	ఘ	ଘ	ଘ	ಘ	ಘ	ഘ	ഘ	ઘ	ઘ	ਘ	ਘ
ISCII	182	B6	182	B6	182	B6	182	B6	182	B6	182	B6	182	B6	182	B6

Character information

Preview	Ashoka Kushana Gupta		𐨓				𑌘
Unicode name	BRAHMI LETTER GHA		KHAROSHTHI LETTER GHA		SIDDHAM LETTER NGA		GRANTHA LETTER GHA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	69654	U+11016	68115	U+10A13	71058	U+11592	70424	U+11318
UTF-8	240 145 128 150	F0 91 80 96	240 144 168 147	F0 90 A8 93	240 145 150 146	F0 91 96 92	240 145 140 152	F0 91 8C 98
UTF-16	55300 56342	D804 DC16	55298 56851	D802 DE13	55301 56722	D805 DD92	55300 57112	D804 DF18
Numeric character reference	𑀖	𑀖	𐨓	𐨓	𑖒	𑖒	𑌘	𑌘

Character information

Preview	𑘑		𑦱		𑩟		ꠊ		𑵷
Unicode name	MODI LETTER GHA		NANDINAGARI LETTER GHA		SOYOMBO LETTER GHA		SYLOTI NAGRI LETTER GHO		GUNJALA GONDI LETTER GHA		KAITHI LETTER GHA
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	71185	U+11611	72113	U+119B1	72287	U+11A5F	43018	U+A80A	73079	U+11D77	69776	U+11090
UTF-8	240 145 152 145	F0 91 98 91	240 145 166 177	F0 91 A6 B1	240 145 169 159	F0 91 A9 9F	234 160 138	EA A0 8A	240 145 181 183	F0 91 B5 B7	240 145 130 144	F0 91 82 90
UTF-16	55301 56849	D805 DE11	55302 56753	D806 DDB1	55302 56927	D806 DE5F	43018	A80A	55303 56695	D807 DD77	55300 56464	D804 DC90
Numeric character reference	𑘑	𑘑	𑦱	𑦱	𑩟	𑩟	ꠊ	ꠊ	𑵷	𑵷	𑂐	𑂐

See also

• Heth

References

• Kurt Elfering: Die Mathematik des Aryabhata I. Text, Übersetzung aus dem Sanskrit und Kommentar. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München, 1975, ISBN 3-7705-1326-6
• Georges Ifrah: The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
• B. L. van der Waerden: Erwachende Wissenschaft. Ägyptische, babylonische und griechische Mathematik. Birkhäuser-Verlag, Basel Stuttgart, 1966, ISBN 3-7643-0399-9
• Fleet, J. F. (January 1911). "Aryabhata's System of Expressing Numbers". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 43: 109–126. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00040995. ISSN 0035-869X. JSTOR 25189823.
• Fleet, J. F. (1911). "Aryabhata's System of Expressing Numbers". The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. 43: 109–126. doi:10.1017/S0035869X00040995. JSTOR 25189823.

^note Conjuncts are identified by IAST transliteration, except aspirated consonants are indicated with a superscript "h" to distinguish from an unaspirated cononant + Ha, and the use of the IPA "ŋ" and "ʃ" instead of the less dinstinctive "ṅ" and "ś".