Devanagari

Also known as Deva, Deva Nagari Lipi, Hindi script, Nagari, Devanagari script, Devnagari

Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the ancient Brāhmī script. It is one of the official scripts of India and Nepal. It was developed in, and was in regular use by, the 8th century CE. It had achieved its modern form by 1000 CE. The Devanāgarī script, composed of 48 primary characters, including 14 vowels and 34 consonants, is the fourth most widely adopted writing system in the world, being used for over 120 languages, the most popular of which is Hindi ().

AI overview

Devanagari is an ancient writing system used across India and Nepal today, derived from an even older script and now used to write over 120 languages, most notably Hindi. It is one of the world's most widely used writing systems, with a structure that combines vowels and consonants in a distinctive way that has remained largely unchanged since around 1000 CE.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Writing system.languages: Apabhramsha, Angika, Awadhi, Bajjika, Bhili, Bhojpuri, Boro, Braj, Chhattisgarhi, Dogri, Fiji Hindi, Garhwali, Haryanvi, Hindi, Kashmiri, Khandeshi, Konkani, Kumaoni, Magahi, Maithili, Marathi, Marwari, Mundari, Nagpuri, Newari, Nepali, Pāli, Pahari, Prakrit, Rajasthani, Sanskrit, Santali, Sarnami, Sherpa, Sindhi, Surjapuri, and many more.
Writing system.time: 11th century to present
Writing system.fam1: Egyptian hieroglyphs
Writing system.fam2: Proto-Sinaitic
Writing system.fam3: Phoenician
Writing system.fam4: Aramaic
Writing system.fam5: Brāhmī
Writing system.fam6: Gupta
Writing system.fam7: Siddhaṃ
Writing system.fam8: Nāgarī
Writing system.sisters: NandināgarīKaithiGujarātīMoḍī
Writing system.unicode: U+0900–U+097F Devanagari,U+A8E0–U+A8FF Devanagari Extended,U+11B00–11B5F Devanagari Extended-A,U+1CD0–U+1CFF Vedic Extensions
Writing system.iso15924: Deva
Writing system.name: Devanāgarī
Writing system.sample: Devanagari letters.svg
Writing system.caption: Devanāgarī script (vowels top three rows, consonants below)
Writing system.type: Abugida

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Wikidata facts

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Commons category: Devanagari
Unicode range: U+11B00-11B5F
inception: 1100-00-00
native label: देवनागरी
name: Devanagari
P13311: Cristal Falls

Sources (10)

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~38 min read

Article

34 sections

Contents

Etymology
History
East Asia
Letters
Consonants
Vowel diacritics
Old forms
Conjunct consonants
Accent marks
Punctuation
Fonts
Numerals
Transliteration
Hunterian system
ISO 15919
IAST
Harvard-Kyoto
ITRANS
Velthuis
ALA-LC Romanisation
WX
Encodings
ISCII
Unicode
Devanāgari keyboard layouts
InScript layout
Typewriter
Phonetic
See also
References
Citations
General sources
Census and catalogues of manuscripts in Devanāgarī
External links

The orthography of this script reflects the pronunciation of the language. Unlike the Latin alphabet, the script has no concept of letter case, meaning the script is a unicameral alphabet. It is written from left to right, has a strong preference for symmetrical, rounded shapes within squared outlines, and is recognisable by a horizontal line, known as a , that runs along the top of full letters. In a cursory look, the Devanāgarī script appears different from other Indic scripts, such as Bengali-Assamese or Gurmukhi, but a closer examination reveals they are very similar, except for angles and structural emphasis.