A is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, A is derived from the early "

Ashoka Ashoka, also known as Asoka or Aśoka ( ; , ; – 232 BCE), and popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was List of Mauryan emperors, Emperor of Magadha from until #Death, his death in 232 BCE, and the third ruler from the Mauryan dynast ...

" Brahmi letter after having gone through the

Gupta Gupta () is a common surname of Indian origin, meaning "guardian" or "protector". Origins and distribution The name is based on the Sanskrit word गोप्तृ ''goptṛ'', which means "guardian" or "protector". According to historian ...

letter

. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the "A" vowel inherently, and thus there is no modifier sign for "A" in Indic scripts.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata Aryabhata ( ISO: ) or Aryabhata I (476–550 CE) was the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. His works include the '' Āryabhaṭīya'' (which mentions that in 3600 ' ...

used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the

Greek numerals Greek numerals, also known as Ionic, Ionian, Milesian, or Alexandrian numerals, is a numeral system, system of writing numbers using the letters of the Greek alphabet. In modern Greece, they are still used for ordinal number (linguistics), ordi ...

, even after the invention of

Indian numerals Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peopl ...

. The letter अ was not used in the Aryabhata number system, and consonants with the inherent "a" vowel retained their base value.

Historic A

There are three different general early historic scripts -

Brahmi Brahmi ( ; ; ISO: ''Brāhmī'') is a writing system from ancient India. "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' or ...

and its variants,

Kharoṣṭhī Kharosthi script (), also known as the Gandhari script (), was an ancient script originally developed in the Gandhara, Gandhara Region of modern-day Pakistan, between the 5th and 3rd century BCE. used primarily by the people of Gandhara along ...

, and Tocharian, the so-called ''slanting Brahmi''. A as found in standard

, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . Like all Brahmic scripts, the Tocharian A is the inherent vowel for all consonant characters, apart from the alternate Fremdzeichen forms, which have the inherent vowel "Ä". In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A, with all other independent vowels built from vowel marks added to A.

Brahmi A

The Brahmi letter , A, is probably derived from the Aramaic

Alef Aleph (or alef or alif, transliterated ʾ) is the first letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician ''ʾālep'' 𐤀, Hebrew ''ʾālef'' , Aramaic ''ʾālap'' 𐡀, Syriac ''ʾālap̄'' ܐ, Arabic ''ʾalif'' , and North Arabian 𐪑 ...

, and is thus related to the modern Latin A and Greek

Alpha Alpha (uppercase , lowercase ) is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of one. Alpha is derived from the Phoenician letter ''aleph'' , whose name comes from the West Semitic word for ' ...

. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi A can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 183

/ref> As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the

Edicts of Ashoka The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of more than thirty inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, attributed to Emperor Ashoka of the Maurya Empire who ruled most of the Indian subcontinent from 268 BCE to 2 ...

and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Tocharian A

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi .

Kharoṣṭhī A

The Kharoṣṭhī letter A is the only independent vowel in Kharosthi. It is derived from the Aramaic

, and is thus related to A and

, as well as the Brahmi A.

Devanagari A

A (अ) is a vowel of the

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; in script: , , ) is an Indic script used in the Indian subcontinent. It is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental Writing systems#Segmental systems: alphabets, writing system), based on the ancient ''Brāhmī script, Brā ...

abugida An abugida (; from Geʽez: , )sometimes also called alphasyllabary, neosyllabary, or pseudo-alphabetis a segmental Writing systems#Segmental writing system, writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as units; each unit ...

. It ultimately arose from the

letter , after having gone through the

letter

. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter અ, and the Modi letter 𑘀.

Devanagari Using Languages

The Devanagari script is used to write the

Hindi language Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of the Government of India, alongside English, and is the ''li ...

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

and many other

Indo-Aryan languages The Indo-Aryan languages, or sometimes Indic languages, are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. As of 2024, there are more than 1.5 billion speakers, primarily concentrated east ...

. In most of these languages, अ is pronounced as . Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound. However, since /ə/ is the inherent vowel of all consonants, there is no need for an A vowel sign.

Bengali A

A (অ) is a vowel of the

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, अ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the

Bengali language Bengali, also known by its endonym and exonym, endonym Bangla (, , ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language belonging to the Indo-Iranian languages, Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. ...

and Assamese. In most languages, অ is pronounced as . Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound. However, Bengali A represents the /ɔ/ vowel inherent in all consonants, and is thus indicated by the lack of any modifying vowel sign.

Maithili A

Kamtapuri A

Gujarati A

A (અ) is a vowel of the Gujarati

. It is derived from the Devanagari A , and ultimately the

letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, અ is pronounced as . Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels usually come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent vowel. However, since A ''is'' the inherent vowel in unmarked consonants, there is no A vowel sign in Gujarati.

Javanese A

Telugu A

A (అ) is a vowel of the

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of South India ** Telugu literature, is the body of works written in the Telugu language. * Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Tel ...

. It ultimately arose from the

letter . It is closely related to the

Kannada Kannada () is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly in the state of Karnataka in southwestern India, and spoken by a minority of the population in all neighbouring states. It has 44 million native speakers, and is additionally a ...

letter ಅ. Like in other Indic scripts, "A" in Telugu is inherent in all consonants, and there is no vowel sign for the "A" vowel.

Malayalam A

A (അ) is a vowel of the

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...

. It ultimately arose from the

letter , via the Grantha letter ''a''. Like in other Indic scripts, "A" is the inherent vowel of Malayalam consonants, so there is no modifying vowel sign for A. As in most Indic scripts, independent Malayalam vowels do not decompose into A with a vowel sign attached, but rather are unique characters themselves. Independent vowel letters in Malayalam are used when a word begins with a vowel, rather than a consonant sound.

Odia A

A (ଅ) is a vowel of the Odia

. It ultimately arose from the

letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter ''a''. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants inherently contain the "a" vowel, so there is no modifying sign for indicating that vowel.

Thai script

O ang (อ) and Ho nokhuk (ฮ) are the forty-third and forty-fourth letters of the

Thai script The Thai script (, , ) is the abugida used to write Thai language, Thai, Southern Thai language, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself (as used to write Thai) has 44 consonant symbols (, ), 16 vowel s ...

. Unlike many Indic scripts, Thai consonants do not form conjunct ligatures, and use the pinthu''—''an explicit virama with a dot shape—to indicate bare consonants.

O ang

In IPA, O ang is pronounced as �at the beginning of a syllable and not be used to close a syllable. It falls under the

middle Middle or The Middle may refer to: * Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits. Places * Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man * Middle Bay (disambiguation) * Middle Brook (disambiguation) * Middle Creek ...

class of Thai consonants. In the

acrophony Acrophony (; + 'sound') is the naming of letters of an alphabetic writing system so that a letter's name begins with the letter itself. For example, Greek letter names are acrophonic: the names of the letters α, β, γ, δ, are spelled with t ...

of the Thai script, ang (อ่าง) means 'basin'. O ang corresponds to the Sanskrit character 'अ'.

Ho nokhuk

In IPA, Ho nokhuk is pronounced as at the beginning of a syllable and not be used to close a syllable. It falls under the

low Low or LOW or lows, may refer to: People * Low (surname), listing people surnamed Low Places * Low, Quebec, Canada * Low, Utah, United States * Lo Wu station (MTR code LOW), Hong Kong; a rail station * Salzburg Airport (ICAO airport code: LO ...

class of Thai consonants. In the acrophony of the Thai script, nokhuk (นกฮูก) means 'owl'.

Kaithi A

A (𑂃) is a vowel of the

Kaithi Kaithi (), also called Kayathi (), Kayasthi (), or Kayastani, is a Brahmic script historically used across parts of Northern and Eastern India. It was prevalent in regions corresponding to modern-day Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Jharkhand. The s ...

. It ultimately arose from the

letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter ''A''. Like in other Indic scripts, the Kaithi vowel A is an independent letter and lacks a vowel sign, as "a" is inherent to the consonant letters.

Comparison of A

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including A, are related as well.

Character encodings of A

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the

Unicode Standard Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 cha ...

, and as such the letter A in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. A from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as

ISCII Indian Standard Code for Information Interchange (ISCII) is a coding scheme for representing various writing systems of India. It encodes the main Indic scripts and a Roman transliteration. The supported scripts are: Eastern Nagari, Bengali–Ass ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:A (Indic) Indic letters