Bhumij Onal

Ol Onal script
‘Bhumij’ written in the Ol Onal script.
Script type	Alphabet
Creator	Mahendra Nath Sardar
Time period	1981 to current
Direction	Left to Right
Region	Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal (India)
Language	Bhumij language
Related scripts
Sister systems	Ol Chiki, Mundari Bani and Warang Citi
Unicode
Unicode alias	Template:ISO 15924 alias
Unicode range	U+1E5D0–U+1E5FF

The Ol Onal script, also known as Bhumij Onal, and sometimes as the Bhumij alphabet is an alphabet-based writing system specifically designed for the Bhumij language. It was created by Ol Guru Mahendra Nath Sardar over the course of a decade, from 1981 to 1992. The Ol Onal script finds its application in writing the Bhumij language and is predominantly utilized in various regions spanning West Bengal, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Assam.

History

Between 1981 and 1992, Mahendra Nath Sardar undertook the creation of the Ol Onal script for the Bhumij language. Prior to this development, the Bhumij people lacked a written form of their language, relying on oral transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next. To document the Bhumij language, researchers had resorted to the use of scripts like Latin, Devanagari, Bengali and Odia. However, the Bhumijs did not possess their own script until Sardar's invention of the Ol Onal script.

File:Mahendra Nath Sardar.jpg

Ol Guru Mahendra Nath Sardar, creator of Ol Onal script.

Prior to the creation of the Ol Onal script, the Bhumij language found expression in various scripts, including Bengali, Devanagari, Odia, and Latin. It's worth noting that Bhumij, as a language distinct from the Indo-Aryan family, presented unique challenges when attempting to represent its phonemes using Indic scripts. Notably, Indic scripts lacked the requisite characters for Bhumij's complete set of phonemes, particularly its stop consonants and vowels. This limitation made it arduous to accurately transcribe the nuances of the language within an unmodified Indic script.

Sardar's pioneering work in devising the Ol Onal script was a significant enrichment of the cultural identity of the Bhumij tribe. He authored numerous textbooks employing the Ol Onal script, which further facilitated the preservation and dissemination of their language and heritage.

Language

Bhumij stands as a prominent member of the Munda subfamily within the Austroasiatic language family, sharing its linguistic roots with Ho, Mundari and Santali. This language is predominantly spoken in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, and West Bengal, boasting a speaker base of approximately 100,000 individuals across these regions. As part of the rich tapestry of India's linguistic diversity, Bhumij plays an essential role in the cultural and social identity of the communities in the aforementioned states. Its preservation and continued use are crucial for maintaining the heritage and communication of this significant population.

Letters

Ol Onal script by Mahendra Nath Sardar

Other marks

The script employs three distinct signs known as ṭiḍaḥ to represent nasalization, prolongation, and glottalization.

Mark	Name	Description
Template:Huge	mu	The sign mu (MU*) is the nasalization sign of Ol Onal. It is a dot positioned above vowels. While written evidence places the sign on top of base characters, existing fonts always put the dot in the top right position.
Template:Huge	ikir	The sign ikir (IKIR) is a long phoneme (prolongation) sign. It is a dot positioned below letter A only. The script currently does not distinguish lengths of any other vowels, but encoding long A atomatically would create barriers for such development in the future. While written evidence places the sign at the bottom of base characters, existing fonts always put the dot in the bottom right position.
Template:Huge	hoddond	The sign hoddond (HODDOND) is a glottalizational sign. It can only follow the letters AB and UJ. The hoddond mark is visually similar to U+0B03 ORIA SIGN VISARGA ଃ, however it is distinct in function. This character is proposed as a separate, uncased letter.

Certain published materials exhibit the "mu" sign on non-vowels, specifically AW, ONG, and UK. However, these instances are considered authoring errors. Similarly, some published materials display the "ikir" sign on IN, which is also regarded as an authoring error. It's worth noting that due to non-Unicode fonts mapping this sign to a full stop, some materials utilize it in lieu of a full stop for various purposes. Additionally, a few published materials reveal the presence of the "hoddond" sign on EH and OM, although these, too, are recognized as authoring errors. Non-Unicode fonts map this sign to a colon, leading to its occasional use as a substitute for a colon in certain materials.

Digits

Ol Onal has its own set of digits:

Digit	0	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
Ol Onal
Bengali	০	১	২	৩	৪	৫	৬	৭	৮	৯
Devanagari	०	१	२	३	४	५	६	७	८	९
Odia	୦	୧	୨	୩	୪	୫	୬	୭	୮	୯

In its initial iteration, the digits featured a distinct design. However, when the first digital fonts were made in 2013, certain technical challenges arose in accurately representing these original shapes. Consequently, modifications were made to the digit shapes to ensure their effective representation in the digital format.

Punctuations

Some Western-style punctuation marks are used with Ol Onal: the comma (,), question mark (?), quotation marks (“ and ”), dashes (—), colons (: and ;) , parentheses ( ), slashes (/), backsplashes (\), percent signs (%), and basic mathematical operators. Furthermore, words within the script are separated by spaces, facilitating readability and comprehension.

The period (.) is not used, because it is visually confusible with the ikir mark (ᱹ); therefore, instead of periods, the script uses single danda (|), marks as a break. No double danda (||) is used.

See also

• Bhumij people
• Bhumij language

External links

• Ol Onal Alphabet