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{{Short description|Abugida}}
{{Infobox Writing system
| name = Gunjala Gondi Lipi
| altname = {{Script|Gong|𑵶𑶍𑶕𑶀𑵵𑶊 𑵶𑶓𑶕𑶂𑶋 𑵵𑶋𑶅𑶋}}
| sample = Shukla Gunjala Gondi Script.svg
| caption = "Gunjala Gondi Lipi" written in Gunjala Gondi script
| time = c. 1750-Present
| type = [[Abugida]]
| iso15924 = Gong
| fam1 = [[Egyptian hieroglyphs]]
| fam2 = [[Proto-Sinaitic]]
| fam3 = [[Phoenician alphabet|Phoenician]]
| fam4 = [[Aramaic script]]
| fam5 = [[Brahmi script|Brahmi]]
| fam6 = [[Gupta script|Gupta]]
| fam7 = [[Siddhaṃ script|Siddhaṃ]]
| fam8 = [[Nāgarī script|Nāgarī]]
| sisters = Unknown, strong resemblance with [[Modi script|Modi]]
| languages = [[Gondi language|Gondi]]
| unicode = [https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U11D60.pdf U+11D60–U+11DAF]
| note = none
}}
{{Contains special characters
| special = uncommon [[Unicode]] characters
| fix = Help:Multilingual support#Gunjala Gondi
| image = Replacement character.svg
| link = Specials (Unicode block)#Replacement character
| alt = <?>
| compact = yes
}}

The '''Gunjala Gondi lipi''' or '''Gunjala Gondi script''' is a script used to write the [[Gondi language]], a Dravidian language spoken by the [[Gond people]] of northern [[Telangana]], eastern [[Maharashtra]], southeastern [[Madhya Pradesh]], and [[Chhattisgarh]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/almanac-in-a-near-extinct-adivasi-script/article26178311.ece|title=Almanac in a near-extinct Adivasi script|last=Vadlamudi|first=Swathi|date=2019-02-05|work=The Hindu|access-date=2019-02-16|language=en-IN|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> Approximately a dozen manuscripts in the script were recovered from [[Gunjala]], a Gond village in [[Adilabad district]] of [[Telangana]], by a team of researchers from the [[University of Hyderabad]], led by Professor Jayadheer Tirumala Rao.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/chance-discovery-of-gondi-script-opens-new-vistas-of-tribal-culture/article4359780.ece|title=Chance discovery of Gondi script opens new vistas of tribal culture|first=S. Harpal|last=Singh|work=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref> The script and preliminary font were unveiled in early 2014.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Hyderabad/gondi-script-and-font-unveiled/article5714329.ece|title=Gondi script and font unveiled|work=The Hindu|access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref>

== History of manuscripts ==

The manuscripts have been dated to approximately Year 1750, based on knowledge from Gondi pundits and researchers at the Center of Dalit and Adivasi Studies and Translation (CDAST).<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/other-states/gondi-manuscript-translation-to-reveal-gondwana-history/article5594658.ece|title=Gondi manuscript translation to reveal Gondwana history|first=S. Harpal|last=Singh|work=The Hindu|access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref> The information contained in the manuscripts includes that of the names of the months and days, a [[horoscope]] chart, grammar, and numbers. Additionally, manuscripts were found on "knowledge of the seasons, history, and the Gondi code of ethics and literature." Of the historical information that has been discovered, the following cases have been reported: the 6th-7th century trade relationship between the [[Pardhan people|Pardhan]] community and civilizations in Myanmar; the origins of the Indravelli mandal; the early eighteenth century rebellions of the [[Chandrapur]] Gond kings against the British, with the support of the [[Rohilla]] community, all of this among other pieces of information.

== Characters ==
The characters themselves, while bearing resemblance to similar [[phoneme]]s found in other Indian scripts, are in a different, "native" order, as the script starts with the letter "ya" instead of the traditional "ka" for other Indian scripts. The script includes 12 vowels and 25 consonants.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.typoday.in/spk_papers14/sridhar-typo14.pdf |title=Gunjala Gondi script |access-date=2014-05-27 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528011051/http://www.typoday.in/spk_papers14/sridhar-typo14.pdf |archive-date=2014-05-28 }}</ref>

== Response to discovery, education, and spread ==
The script has seen a very welcoming response by the various government agencies in [[Andhra Pradesh]], at the national level, and local agencies in the region.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/He-Gave-Colour-to-a-Fading-Script/2014/04/21/article2170394.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140528005728/http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/He-Gave-Colour-to-a-Fading-Script/2014/04/21/article2170394.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 28, 2014|title=He Gave Colour to a Fading Script|work=[[New Indian Express]]|access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref> The existence of the manuscripts has allegedly been known for 5–9 years, but were not prioritized until 2013, when Prof. Jayadheer Tirumala Rao discovered that only four elders in the village were still able to read the script. Currently, approximately eighty students are able to read the script, with students devising stories and elder Kotnak Jangu writing an autobiography. Plans are in place for the expansion of the script to fifteen other government schools in villages with a high Gond population. A reader for the script in [[Telugu language|Telugu]] was released for Standard I students.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-andhrapradesh/telugu-reader-for-gondi-language-released/article5625582.ece|title=Telugu reader for Gondi language released|work=The Hindu|access-date=12 January 2017}}</ref> Efforts are being undertaken to get the script into the [[Unicode]] standard. In 2015, a Unicode proposal was written by Anshuman Pandey from the Department of Linguistics at the [[University of California, Berkeley]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2015/15235r-gunjala-gondi.pdf|format=PDF|title=Proposal to encode the Gunjala Gondi script in Unicode|website=Unicode.org|access-date=2017-09-09}}</ref> The proposal was approved by the Unicode Technical Committee in November 2015.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.unicode.org/L2/L2015/15254.htm|title=UTC 145 Draft Minutes|website=Unicode.org|access-date=2016-04-27}}</ref>

==Unicode==
{{Main|Gunjala Gondi (Unicode block)}}
The Gunjala Gondi script was added to the [[Unicode]] Standard in June, 2018 with the release of version 11.0.<ref>{{Cite web | title=Unicode 11.0.0 | url=https://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode11.0.0/ | publisher=[[Unicode Consortium]] | date=June 5, 2018 | access-date=June 5, 2018 }}</ref>

The Unicode block for Gunjala Gondi is U+11D60–U+11DAF and it contains 63 characters:

{{Unicode chart Gunjala Gondi}}

==See also==
*[[Gondi script]]
*[[Gondi language]]
*[[Gond people]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{list of writing systems}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Brahmic scripts]]
[[Category:Gondi language]]

Gunjala Gondi script - Revision history

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