Ḹ
Example glyphs
Bengali-Assamese
Tibetan
Malayalam
Sinhala
Ashoka BrahmiḸ
DevanagariḸ
Cognates
Hebrewל
GreekΛ
LatinL, Ł, Ɬ
CyrillicЛ, Љ, Ԓ, Ӆ
Properties
Phonemic representation/l̩ː/
IAST transliterationḹ Ḹ
ISCII code point00 (0)

is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ḹ is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter ng. As an Indic vowel, Ḹ comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The "Ḹ" sign was used to modify a consonant's value ×108, but the vowel letter did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]

Historic Ḹ

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ḹ as found in Brahmi was missing in earlier geometric styles, but emerged during more flowing styles of Brahmi, such as the Kushana and Gupta. In both Tocharian and Kharoṣṭhī, Ḹ is not currently known from any source materials.

Brahmi Ḹ

The Brahmi letter Ḹ is only found as a vowel mark, and is derived from the consonant La, and therefore is probably from the Aramaic Lamed . This would make it related to the modern Latin L and Greek Lambda.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ḹ can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[3] 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, but Ḹ must be back-formed from later forms to match the reference geometric writing style, and the reference image for the independent letter is just the vowel mark enlarged to the size of a full letter.

Devanagari Ḹ

Ḹ vowel
Ḹ vowel sign
Devanagari independent Ḹ and Ḹ vowel sign.

() is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ḹ. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter 𑘉.

Devanagari Using Languages

The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ॡ is pronounced as []. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Ḹ

Ḹ vowel
Ḹ vowel sign
Bengali independent Ḹ and Ḹ vowel sign.

() is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter Ḹ, and is marked a lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ॡ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, ৡ is pronounced as []. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Ḹ

Ḹ vowel
Ḹ vowel sign
Gujarati independent Ḹ and Ḹ vowel sign.

() is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ḹ ll, and ultimately the Brahmi letter ll.

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ૡ is pronounced as []. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Javanese Ḹ

Telugu Ḹ

Telugu independent vowel Ḹ
Telugu vowel sign Ḹ
Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign Ḹ.

() is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ḹ Ḹ. It is closely related to the Kannada letter . Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Ḹ is a non-attaching vowel sign, and does not alter the underlying consonant or contextually shape itself in any way.

Telugu Ḹ vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kḹ, Khḹ, Gḹ, Ghḹ and Ngḹ.

Malayalam Ḹ

Malayalam independent vowel Ḹ
Malayalam vowel sign Ḹ
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Ḹ.

() is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ḹ, via the Grantha letter Ḹ . Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.

Odia Ḹ

Odia independent vowel Ḹ
Odia vowel sign Ḹ
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Ḹ.

() is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Ḹ, via the Siddhaṃ letter Ḹ . Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Comparison of Ḹ

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

Comparison of Ḹ in different scripts
Aramaic
Ḹ
Kharoṣṭhī
-
Ashoka Brahmi
Ḹ
Kushana Brahmi[lower-alpha 1]
𑀎
Tocharian[lower-alpha 2]
-
Gupta Brahmi
𑀎
Pallava
-
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
-
Siddhaṃ
Ḹ
Grantha
𑍡
Cham
-
Sinhala
Pyu /
Old Mon[lower-alpha 3]
-
Tibetan
Newa
𑐉
Ahom
-
Malayalam
Telugu
Burmese
Lepcha
-
Ranjana
Ḹ
Saurashtra
Dives Akuru
-
Kannada
Kayah Li
-
Limbu
-
Soyombo[lower-alpha 4]
-
Khmer
-
Tamil
-
Chakma
-
Tai Tham
-
Meitei Mayek
-
Gaudi
-
Thai
-
Lao
-
Tai Le
-
Marchen
-
Tirhuta
𑒊
New Tai Lue
-
Tai Viet
-
Aksara Kawi
-
'Phags-pa
-
Odia
Sharada
𑆌
Rejang
-
Batak
-
Buginese
-
Zanabazar Square
-
Bengali-Assamese
Takri
-
Javanese
Balinese
Makasar
-
Hangul[lower-alpha 5]
-
Northern Nagari
-
Dogri
-
Laṇḍā
-
Sundanese
-
Baybayin
-
Modi
𑘉
Gujarati
Khojki
-
Khudabadi
-
Mahajani
-
Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
Ḹ
Nandinagari
-
Kaithi
-
Gurmukhi
-
Multani
-
Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics[lower-alpha 6]
-
Soyombo[lower-alpha 7]
-
Sylheti Nagari
-
Gunjala Gondi
-
Masaram Gondi[lower-alpha 8]
-
Hanuno'o
-
Notes
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
  4. May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. May also be derived from Ranjana (see above)
  8. Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of Ḹ

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

Character information
Preview
Unicode name DEVANAGARI LETTER VOCALIC LL BENGALI LETTER VOCALIC LL TELUGU LETTER VOCALIC LL ORIYA LETTER VOCALIC LL KANNADA LETTER VOCALIC LL MALAYALAM LETTER VOCALIC LL GUJARATI LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode2401U+09612529U+09E13169U+0C612913U+0B613297U+0CE13425U+0D612785U+0AE1
UTF-8224 165 161E0 A5 A1224 167 161E0 A7 A1224 177 161E0 B1 A1224 173 161E0 AD A1224 179 161E0 B3 A1224 181 161E0 B5 A1224 171 161E0 AB A1
Numeric character referenceॡॡৡৡౡౡୡୡೡೡൡൡૡૡ
ISCII


Character information
Preview
Ashoka
Kushana
Gupta
𑍡
Unicode name BRAHMI LETTER VOCALIC LL SIDDHAM LETTER VOCALIC LL GRANTHA LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode69646U+1100E71049U+1158970497U+11361
UTF-8240 145 128 142F0 91 80 8E240 145 150 137F0 91 96 89240 145 141 161F0 91 8D A1
UTF-1655300 56334D804 DC0E55301 56713D805 DD8955300 57185D804 DF61
Numeric character reference𑀎𑀎𑖉𑖉𑍡𑍡


Character information
Preview𑐉𑆌
Unicode name NEWA LETTER VOCALIC LL SHARADA LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode70665U+1140970028U+1118C
UTF-8240 145 144 137F0 91 90 89240 145 134 140F0 91 86 8C
UTF-1655301 56329D805 DC0955300 56716D804 DD8C
Numeric character reference𑐉𑐉𑆌𑆌


Character information
Preview
Unicode name MYANMAR LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode4181U+1055
UTF-8225 129 149E1 81 95
Numeric character referenceၕၕ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL LYY
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode6062U+17AE
UTF-8225 158 174E1 9E AE
Numeric character referenceឮឮ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name SINHALA LETTER ILUUYANNA SAURASHTRA LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode3472U+0D9043147U+A88B
UTF-8224 182 144E0 B6 90234 162 139EA A2 8B
Numeric character referenceඐඐꢋꢋ


Character information
Preview𑘉
Unicode name MODI LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode71177U+11609
UTF-8240 145 152 137F0 91 98 89
UTF-1655301 56841D805 DE09
Numeric character reference𑘉𑘉


Character information
Preview𑒊
Unicode name TIRHUTA LETTER VOCALIC LL
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode70794U+1148A
UTF-8240 145 146 138F0 91 92 8A
UTF-1655301 56458D805 DC8A
Numeric character reference𑒊𑒊



Character information
Preview
Unicode name BALINESE LETTER LA LENGA TEDUNG JAVANESE LETTER NGA LELET RASWADI
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode6926U+1B0E43403U+A98B
UTF-8225 172 142E1 AC 8E234 166 139EA A6 8B
Numeric character referenceᬎᬎꦋꦋ



References

  1. Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  2. Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838
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