Visarga ( sa, विसर्गः, translit=visargaḥ) means "sending forth, discharge". In Sanskrit

phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...

('' ''), ' (also called, equivalently, ' by earlier grammarians) is the name of a phone

voiceless glottal fricative The voiceless glottal fricative, sometimes called voiceless glottal transition, and sometimes called the aspirate, is a type of sound used in some spoken languages that patterns like a fricative or approximant consonant '' phonologically'', b ...

, , written as: Visarga is an

allophone In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in '' ...

of and in pausa (at the end of an

utterance In spoken language analysis, an utterance is a continuous piece of speech, often beginning and ending with a clear pause. In the case of oral languages, it is generally, but not always, bounded by silence. Utterances do not exist in written lang ...

). Since is a common inflectional suffix (of nominative singular, second person singular, etc.), visarga appears frequently in Sanskrit texts. In the traditional order of Sanskrit sounds, visarga and

anusvāra Anusvara (Sanskrit: ') is a symbol used in many Indic scripts to mark a type of nasal sound, typically transliterated . Depending on its location in the word and the language for which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary. In the context ...

appear between vowels and stop consonants. The precise pronunciation of visarga in Vedic texts may vary between Śākhās. Some pronounce a slight echo of the preceding vowel after the aspiration: will be pronounced , and will be pronounced . Visarga is not to be confused with colon.

Types

The visarga is commonly found in writing, resembling the punctuation mark of colon or as two tiny circles one above the other. This form is retained by most Indian scripts. According to Sanskrit phonologists, the visarga has two optional

s, namely (''jihvāmūlīya'' or the guttural visarga) and (''upadhmānīya'' or the fricative visarga). The former may be pronounced before , , and the latter before , and , as in (''tava pitāmahaḥ kaḥ?'', 'who is your grandfather?'), (''pakṣiṇaḥ khe uḍḍayante'', 'birds fly in the sky'), (''bhoḥ pāhi'', 'sir, save me'), and (''tapaḥphalam'', 'result of penances'). They were written with various symbols, e.g. X-like symbol vs sideways 3-like symbol above flipped sideways one, or both as two crescent-shaped semi-circles one above the other, facing the top and bottom respectively.The Unicode Standard, version 10.0 - Vedic Extensions
/ref> Distinct signs for ''jihavamulīya'' and ''upadhmanīya'' exists in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

, Tibetan, Sharada,

Brahmi Brahmi (; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system of ancient South Asia. "Until the late nineteenth century, the script of the Aśokan (non-Kharosthi) inscriptions and its immediate derivatives was referred to by various names such as 'lath' ...

and Lantsa scripts.

Other Brahmic scripts

Burmese

In the

Burmese script Burmese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Myanmar, a country in Southeast Asia * Burmese people * Burmese language * Burmese alphabet * Burmese cuisine * Burmese culture Animals * Burmese cat * Burmese chicken * Burmese ( ...

, the visarga (variously called ''shay ga pauk'', ''wizza nalone pauk'', or ''shay zi'' and represented with two dots to the right of the letter as ), when used with joined to a letter, creates the

high tone Tone is the use of pitch in language to distinguish lexical or grammatical meaning – that is, to distinguish or to inflect words. All verbal languages use pitch to express emotional and other paralinguistic information and to convey emph ...

Japanese

Motoori Norinaga was a Japanese scholar of ''Kokugaku'' active during the Edo period. He is conventionally ranked as one of the Four Great Men of Kokugaku (nativist) studies. Life Norinaga was born in what is now Matsusaka in Ise Province (now part of Mie ...

invented a mark for visarga which he used in a book about Indian orthography.

Javanese

In the Javanese script, the visarga (known as the ''wignyan'' ()) is represented by a two curls to the right of a syllable as : the first curl is short and circular, and the second curl is long. It adds a / -h/ after a vowel.

Kannada

In the Kannada script, the visarga (which is called visarga) is represented with two small circles to the right of a letter ಃ. It brings an "''aḥ''" sound to the end of the letter.

Khmer

In the

Khmer script Khmer script ( km, អក្សរខ្មែរ, )Huffman, Franklin. 1970. ''Cambodian System of Writing and Beginning Reader''. Yale University Press. . is an abugida (alphasyllabary) script used to write the Khmer language, the official la ...

, the visarga (known as the ''reăhmŭkh'' (; "shining face")) indicates an aspirated sound added after a syllable. It is represented with two small circles at the right of a letter as , and it should not be confused with the similar-looking ''yŭkôlpĭntŭ'' (; "pair of dots"), which indicates a short vowel followed by a glottal stop like their equivalent visarga marks in the Thai and Lao scripts.

Lao

In the Lao script, the visarga is represented with two small curled circles to the right of a letter as . As in the neighboring related

Thai script The Thai script ( th, อักษรไทย, ) is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai alphabet itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols ( th, พยัญชน� ...

, it indicates a glottal stop after the vowel.

Odia

In the

Odia script The Odia script ( or, ଓଡ଼ିଆ ଅକ୍ଷର, Odiā akṣara, translit-std=ISO) is a Brahmic script used to write primarily Odia language and others including Sanskrit and other regional languages. The script has developed over mor ...

, the visarga is represented with a vertical infinity sign to the right of a letter as . It indicates the post-vocalic voiceless glottal fricative ''aḥ'' sound after the letter.

Tamil

In the

Tamil script The Tamil script ( , ) is an abugida script that is used by Tamils and Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and elsewhere to write the Tamil language. Certain minority languages such as Saurashtra, Badaga, ...

, similar to visarga (which is called ''āyutha eḻuttu'' (), ''āytam'' (), ''muppaal pulli'', ''thaninilai'', ''aghenam''), is represented with three small circles to the right of a letter as . Its used to transcribe an archaic or sound that has either become silent, or pronounced as , or in careful speech. Like Sanskrit, it cannot add on to any letter and add aspiration to them. It should be always placed between a single short vowel(, , , , ) and a hard consonant (, , , , , ) for example (aqthu), (eqgu).

Telugu

In the

Telugu script Telugu script ( te, తెలుగు లిపి, Telugu lipi), an abugida from the Brahmic family of scripts, is used to write the Telugu language, a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and ...

, the visarga (which is called visarga) is represented with two small circles to the right of a letter . It brings an "ah" sound to the end of the letter.

Thai

In the

, the visarga (known as the ''visanchani'' () or ''nom nang thangkhu'' ()) is represented with two small curled circles to the right of a letter as . It represents a glottal stop that follows the affected vowel.

References

{{Navbox diacritical marks Vyakarana Brahmic diacritics