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GeezerVison is showing en.wikipedia.org β€” Multani script - Wikipedia

Multani
π‘Š π‘Š‚π‘Š£π‘Š–π‘Š€π‘Ššπ‘Š
The Multani alphabet chart divided into 4 vowels (π‘Š₯π‘Š€π‘Š’), 33 consonants (π‘Š€π‘ŠŒπ‘Ššπ‘ŠŒπ‘Šš), 1 punctuation mark, 10 numerals identical to Gurumukhi (π‘Š¦π‘Šπ‘Ššπ‘Š˜π‘Š₯π‘Šƒ) and the last two rows of Indic fraction signs
Script type
Abugida
Period
c. 18th–20th century CE
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
Related scripts
Parent systems
Egyptian hieroglyphs
  • Proto-Sinaitic
    • Phoenician
      • Aramaic
        • BrāhmΔ«
          • Gupta
            • Sharada
              • Landa
                • Multani
Sister systems
  • Gurmukhi
  • Khudabadi
  • Khojki
  • Mahajani
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Mult (323), ​Multani
Unicode
Unicode alias
Multani
Unicode range
U+11280–U+112AF
Final Accepted Script Proposal

Multani (π‘Š π‘Š‚π‘Š£π‘Š–π‘Š€π‘Ššπ‘Š, romanized: MultānΔ«), also known as Karikki and as Sarai, is an obsolete Northern Brahmic script. It is an abugida script and was mainly used for routine writing and commercial activities. It was one of four Landa scripts whose usage extended beyond the mercantile domain and was also formalized for literary activity and printing; the others being Gurmukhi, Khojki, and Khudabadi.[1][2] It was historically used from the 18th to early 20th century.

Background and origin

The script is of Brahmic origin. The script is part of the Laṇḍā scripts, which derive from the Sharada script. It shares similarities with other Landa scripts such as Khojki and Khudawadi.[3]

Usage

An excerpt of printed Multani, 1880.

The script was used for routine writing and commercial activities. In the early 19th century it was adapted for literary usage when the Baptist Missionary Press produced metal fonts for the script in order to print Christian literature. The first book printed in the Multani script was the New Testament (1819). In the latter half of the 19th century, the British administration introduced the Arabic script as the standard for the languages of Sindh, which led to the demise of the Landa scripts of the region. The Multani script is no longer used and Punjabi is now written using Shahmukhi in Pakistan and Gurmukhi in India.[4]

Characters

The word 'Multani' in modern Multani typeface. The word is rendered without any dependent vowels as they are not yet part of the Unicode chart for Multani.

Two different styles are observed over the course of the 19th century, with the later style representing a simplified version of the original style. Some consonants begin to represent their aspirated and implosive forms. The script also functions more as an abjad than as an abugida, as vowels are not marked unless the word is monosyllabic and as there are no dependent vowel signs, only independent ones that can appear at the beginning of a word, as with other Indic scripts. There is no virama, and consonant clusters are written with independent consonants. There is one section mark punctuation that has been identified. The independent vowels, of which there are only four, represent both short and long forms of the independent vowels in addition to phonological variations, and 'i' sometimes represents 'ya'. Ultimately, many consonants represent multiple sounds, and the digits largely represent those found in Gurmukhi, with the exception of 6 and 7, which resemble Devanagari more closely.

Vowels
π‘Š€β€Ž
a
π‘Šβ€Ž
i
π‘Š‚β€Ž
u
π‘Šƒβ€Ž
e
Consonants
π‘Š„β€Ž
ka
π‘Š…β€Ž
kha
π‘Š†β€Ž
ga
π‘Šˆβ€Ž
gha
π‘ŠŠβ€Ž
ca
π‘Š‹β€Ž
cha
π‘ŠŒβ€Ž
ja
π‘Šβ€Ž
jja
π‘Šβ€Ž
nya
π‘Šβ€Ž
tta
π‘Š‘β€Ž
ttha
π‘Š’β€Ž
dda
π‘Š“β€Ž
ddda
π‘Š”β€Ž
ddha
π‘Š•β€Ž
nna
π‘Š–β€Ž
ta
π‘Š—β€Ž
tha
π‘Š˜β€Ž
da
π‘Š™β€Ž
dha
π‘Ššβ€Ž
na
π‘Š›β€Ž
pa
π‘Šœβ€Ž
pha
π‘Šβ€Ž
ba
π‘ŠŸβ€Ž
bha
π‘Š β€Ž
ma
π‘Š‘β€Ž
ya
π‘Š’β€Ž
ra
π‘Š£β€Ž
la
π‘Š€β€Ž
va
π‘Š₯β€Ž
sa
π‘Š¦β€Ž
ha
π‘Š§β€Ž
rra
π‘Š¨β€Ž
rha
Punctuation
π‘Š©β€Žβ€Ž
section mark

Unicode

Main article: Multani (Unicode block)

Multani script was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2015 with the release of version 8.0.

The Unicode block for Multani is U+11280–U+112AF:

Multani[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1128x π‘Š€β€Ž π‘Šβ€Ž π‘Š‚β€Ž π‘Šƒβ€Ž π‘Š„β€Ž π‘Š…β€Ž π‘Š†β€Ž π‘Šˆβ€Ž π‘ŠŠβ€Ž π‘Š‹β€Ž π‘ŠŒβ€Ž π‘Šβ€Ž π‘Šβ€Ž
U+1129x π‘Šβ€Ž π‘Š‘β€Ž π‘Š’β€Ž π‘Š“β€Ž π‘Š”β€Ž π‘Š•β€Ž π‘Š–β€Ž π‘Š—β€Ž π‘Š˜β€Ž π‘Š™β€Ž π‘Ššβ€Ž π‘Š›β€Ž π‘Šœβ€Ž π‘Šβ€Ž π‘ŠŸβ€Ž
U+112Ax π‘Š β€Ž π‘Š‘β€Ž π‘Š’β€Ž π‘Š£β€Ž π‘Š€β€Ž π‘Š₯β€Ž π‘Š¦β€Ž π‘Š§β€Ž π‘Š¨β€Ž π‘Š©β€Ž
Notes
1.^As of Unicode version 18.0
2.^Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

References

  1. ↑ Frawley, William (May 2003). International Encyclopedia of Linguistics: 4-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-513977-8.
  2. ↑ Pandey, Anshuman (2012-09-25). "N4159: Proposal to Encode the Multani Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF). Working Group Document, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.
  3. ↑ Grierson, George A. 1919. The Linguistic Survey of India. Vol. VIII. Indo-Aryan Family. North-Western Group. Part III. SindhΔ« and Lahndā. Calcutta: Office of the Superintendent of Government Printing, India.
  4. ↑ Serampore Missionaries. 1819. The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments translated from the originals into the Mooltani Language. Vol II – Containing the New Testament. Serampore: Mission Press
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Multani_script&oldid=1381569669"
Categories:
  • Abugida writing systems
  • Brahmic scripts
  • Obsolete writing systems
  • Punjabi language
  • Sarada scripts
  • Saraiki language
  • Writing systems introduced in the 18th century
  • Writing systems of South Asia
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