Tirhuta script: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 19:36, 27 May 2022

The Tirhuta or Maithili script is the primary historical script for the Maithili language, as well as one of the historical scripts for Sanskrit. It is believed to have originated in the 10th century CE. It is very similar to Bengali–Assamese script, with most consonants being effectively identical in appearance. For the most part, writing in Maithili has switched to the Devanagari script, which is used to write neighboring Central Indic languages to the west and north such as Hindi and Nepali, and the number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped considerably in recent years.

12th Century Stone inscription from Simroungarh showing early Tirhuta writing

History and current status[edit]

Before 14th CE, Tirhuta was exclusively used to write Sanskrit, later Maithili was written in this script. Despite the near universal switch from Tirhuta to the Devanagari script for writing Maithili, some traditional pundits still use the script for sending one another ceremonial letters (pātā) related to some important function such as marriage. Metal type for this script was first produced in the 1920s, and digital fonts in the 1990s.^[1]

The 2003 inclusion of Maithili in the VIIIth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, having accorded official recognition to it as a language independent of Hindi, there is a possibility that this might lead to efforts to re-implement Tirhuta on a wider basis, in accord with similar trends in India reinforcing separate identities. However, currently, only Maithili in the Devanagari script is officially recognized.

Characters[edit]

Consonant letters[edit]

Most of the consonant letters are effectively identical to Bengali–Assamese. The Unicode submission, for example, only bothered to create new graphic designs for 7 of the 33 letters: ⟨jh, ṭ, ḍh, ṇ, l, ś, h⟩.

Consonants
Sign		Transcription
Image	Text	IAST	IPA
	𑒏	ka	/kə/
	𑒐	kha	/kʰə/
	𑒑	ga	/gə/
	𑒒	gha	/gʱə/
	𑒓	ṅa	/ŋə/
	𑒔	ca	/t͡ʃə/
	𑒕	cha	/t͡ʃʰə/
	𑒖	ja	/d͡ʒə/
	𑒗	jha	/d͡ʒʱə/
	𑒘	ña	/ɲə/
	𑒙	ṭa	/ʈə/
	𑒚	ṭha	/ʈʰə/
	𑒛	ḍa	/ɖə/
	𑒜	ḍha	/ɖʱə/
	𑒝	ṇa	/ɳə/
	𑒞	ta	/t̪ə/
	𑒟	tha	/t̪ʰə/
	𑒠	da	/d̪ə/
	𑒡	dha	/d̪ʱə/
	𑒢	na	/nə/
	𑒣	pa	/pə/
	𑒤	pha	/pʰə/
	𑒥	ba	/bə/
	𑒦	bha	/bʱə/
	𑒧	ma	/mə/
	𑒨	ya	/jə/
	𑒩	ra	/rə/
	𑒪	la	/lə/
	𑒫	va	/ʋə/
	𑒬	śa	/ʃə/
	𑒭	ṣa	/ʂə/
	𑒮	sa	/sə/
	𑒯	ha	/ɦə/

Vowels[edit]

Vowels
Independent		Dependent		Transcription
Image	Text	Image	Text	IAST	IPA
	𑒁			a	/а/
	𑒂		𑒰	ā	/аː/
	𑒃		𑒱	і	/і/
	𑒄		𑒲	ī	/іː/
	𑒅		𑒳	u	/u/
	𑒆		𑒴	ū	/uː/
	𑒇		𑒵	ṛ	/r̩/
	𑒈		𑒶	ṝ	/r̩ː/
	𑒉		𑒷	ḷ	/l̩/
	𑒊		𑒸	ḹ	/l̩ː/
	𑒋		𑒹	ē	/еː/
			𑒺	e	/е/
	𑒌		𑒻	аі	/аі/
	𑒍		𑒼	ō	/оː/
			𑒽	о	/о/
	𑒎		𑒾	аu	/аu/

Other signs[edit]

Other dependent signs
Text	Name	Notes
𑒿	chandrabindu	marks the nasalization of a vowel
𑓀	anusvara	marks nasalization
𑓁	visarga	marks the sound [h], which is an allophone of [r] and [s] in pausa (at the end of an utterance)
𑓂	virama	used to suppress the inherent vowel
𑓃	nukta	used to create new consonant signs
𑓄	avagraha	used to indicate prodelision of an [a]
𑓅	gvang	used to mark nasalization
𑓇	Om	Om sign

Numerals[edit]

Tirhuta script uses its own signs for the positional decimal numeral system.

Digits
Image
Text	𑓐	𑓑	𑓒	𑓓	𑓔	𑓕	𑓖	𑓗	𑓘	𑓙
Digit	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9

Image gallery[edit]

The first two images shown below are samples illustrating the history of Tirhuta. The first is the sacred sign of Ganesha, called āñjī, used for millennia by students before beginning Tirhuta studies. Displayed further below are images of tables comparing the Tirhuta and Devanagari scripts.

Unicode[edit]

Tirhuta script was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

The Unicode block for Tirhuta is U+11480–U+114DF:

Template:Unicode chart Tirhuta

References[edit]

↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named n4035

External links[edit]

Tirhuta at Omniglot

Template:Maithili language

[n4035-1] Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named n4035

[1]

@@ Line 26: / Line 26: @@
 {{brahmic}}
-The '''Tirhuta'''  or '''Maithili''' [[writing system|script]] is the primary historical script for the [[Maithili language]], as well as one of the historical scripts for [[Sanskrit]]. It is believed to be originated in the 10th century CE. It is very similar to [[Bengali–Assamese script]], with most consonants being effectively identical in appearance. For the most part, writing in Maithili has switched to the [[Devanagari script]], which is used to write neighboring Central Indic languages to the west and north such as [[Hindi language|Hindi]] and [[Nepali Language|Nepali]], and the number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped considerably in recent years.
+The '''Tirhuta'''  or '''Maithili''' [[writing system|script]] is the primary historical script for the [[Maithili language]], as well as one of the historical scripts for [[Sanskrit]]. It is believed to have originated in the 10th century CE. It is very similar to [[Bengali–Assamese script]], with most consonants being effectively identical in appearance. For the most part, writing in Maithili has switched to the [[Devanagari script]], which is used to write neighboring Central Indic languages to the west and north such as [[Hindi language|Hindi]] and [[Nepali Language|Nepali]], and the number of people with a working knowledge of Tirhuta has dropped considerably in recent years.
 [[File:12th century Stone Inscription from Simroungarh in Tirhuta script.jpg|thumb|12th Century Stone inscription from Simroungarh showing early Tirhuta writing ]]
@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 | style="font-size: x-large;" class="Unicode" | {{Script|Tirh|𑒐}}
 | kha
-| /kʱə/
+| /kʰə/
 |-
 | [[File:Тірхутська буква GА. Tirhuta letter GA.png|19px]]
@@ Line 79: / Line 79: @@
 | style="font-size: x-large;" class="Unicode" | {{Script|Tirh|𑒕}}
 | cha
-| /t͡ʃʱə/
+| /t͡ʃʰə/
 |-
 | [[File:Тірхутська буква JА. Tirhuta letter JA.png|22px]]
@@ Line 104: / Line 104: @@
 | style="font-size: x-large;" class="Unicode" | {{Script|Tirh|𑒚}}
 | ṭha
-| /ʈʱə/
+| /ʈʰə/
 |-
 | [[File:Тірхутська буква DDА. Tirhuta letter DDA.png|22px]]
@@ Line 129: / Line 129: @@
 | style="font-size: x-large;" class="Unicode" | {{Script|Tirh|𑒟}}
 | tha
-| /t̪ʱə/
+| /t̪ʰə/
 |-
 | [[File:Тірхутська буква DА. Tirhuta letter DA.png|20px]]
@@ Line 154: / Line 154: @@
 | style="font-size: x-large;" class="Unicode" | {{Script|Tirh|𑒤}}
 | pha
-| /pʱə/
+| /pʰə/
 |-
 | [[File:Тірхутська буква BА. Tirhuta letter BA.png|19px]]
@@ Line 344: / Line 344: @@
 | [[File:Тірхутський знак чандрабінду. Tirhuta sign candrabindu.png|17px]]
 | style="font-size: x-large;" class="Unicode" | {{Script|Tirh|&nbsp;&#x114bf;}}
-| style="text-align:left" | [[Chandrabindu|candrabindu]]
+| style="text-align:left" | [[chandrabindu]]
 | style="text-align:left" | marks the [[nasalization]] of a vowel
 |-
@@ Line 458: / Line 458: @@
 [[Category:Culture of Mithila]]
 [[Category:Maithili language]]
+[[Category:Writing systems of Nepal]]