Ṭa (Indic) Explained

Letname:Ṭa
Bengcp:099F
Bengimg:Bengali Letter Tta.svg
Tibtcp:0F4A
Tamlcp:0B9F
Tamlimg:Tamil-alphabet-டட.svg
Thaicp:0E0E
Mlymcp:0D1F
Sinhcp:0DA7
Brahcp:1101D
Ashokaimg:Brahmi tt.svg
Devacp:091F
Devaimg:Devanagari ट.svg
Hbchar:ט
Grchar:Θ
Cychar:Ѳ
Ipa:ʈ
Iast:ṭa
Iscii:BD
Ipa2:ɗ
Ipa3:t
Ipa3note:for final value in Khmer

Ṭa is a consonant of Indic abugidas. It is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter . As with the other retroflex consonants, ṭa is absent from most scripts not used for a language of India.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of ट are:[1]

Historic Tta

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Tta as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Tta did not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form. The third form of tta, in Kharoshthi (15px|Tta) was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Tta

The Brahmi letter, Tta, is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Teth, and is thus related to the modern Greek Theta. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Tta can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[2] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka 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 Tta

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi, but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.

Kharoṣṭhī Tta

The Kharoṣṭhī letter 15px|Tta is generally accepted as being derived from the altered Aramaic Teth, and is thus related to Theta, in addition to the Brahmi Tta.

Devanagari script

Ṭa () is the eleventh consonant of the Devanagari abugida. [3] It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter, after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter .

Devanagari-using Languages

In many languages, ट is pronounced as in Hindi pronounced as /ʈə/ or pronounced as /link/ when appropriate. In Marathi, ट is sometimes pronounced as in Marathi pronounced as /tə/ or pronounced as /link/ in addition to in Hindi pronounced as /ʈə/ or pronounced as /link/. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Conjuncts with ट

Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. Lacking a vertical stem to drop for making a half form, Ṭa either forms a stacked conjunct/ligature, or uses its full form with Virama. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular avoiding their use where other languages would use them.[4]

Ligature conjuncts of ट

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.

Stacked conjuncts of ट

Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.

Bengali script

The Bengali script ট is derived from the Siddhaṃ, and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, ट. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter ট will sometimes be transliterated as "tto" instead of "tta". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /t̳o/.Like all Indic consonants, ট can be modified by marks to indicate another (or no) vowel than its inherent "a".

ট in Bengali-using languages

ট is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.

Conjuncts with ট

Bengali ট exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, and commonly shows both stacked and linear (horizontal) ligatures.[5]

Gujarati Ṭa

Ṭa () is the eleventh consonant of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ṭa with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed, and ultimately the Brahmi letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ટ is pronounced as in Gujarati pronounced as /ʈə/ or pronounced as /link/ when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Conjuncts with ટ

Gujarati ટ exhibits conjunct ligatures, much like its parent Devanagari Script. While most Gujarati conjuncts can only be formed by reducing the letter shape to create a "half form" that fits tightly to following letter, Ṭa does not have a half form. A few conjunct clusters can be represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters, and vertically stacked conjuncts can also be found in Gujarati, although much less commonly than in Devanagari. Lacking a half form, Ṭa will normally use an explicit virama when forming conjuncts without a true ligature.True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Gujarati are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra.

Burmese script

Ta T'lin Cheik (ဋ) is the eleventh letter of the Burmese script.

Thai script

Do Chada (ฎ) and To Patak (ฏ) are the fourteenth and fifteenth letters of the Thai script. As with ta and pa, the Indic letter has been split into two letters to distinguish the originally preglottalised (and now voiced) sound from the voiceless sound.

thumb|50px|Do Chada

Do chada

Do chada falls under the middle class of Thai consonants. In IPA, do chada is pronounced as [d] at the beginning of a syllable and as [t̚] at the end of a syllable. The 20th letter of the alphabet, do dek (ด), is also named do and falls under the middle class of Thai consonants. Thai consonants do not form conjunct ligatures, and may use the pinthuan explicit virama with a dot shape—to indicate bare consonants. In the acrophony of the Thai script, chada (ชฎา) means 'headdress'. Do chada and to patak both correspond to the Devanagari character 'ट'.

thumb|60px|To Patak

To patak

To patak falls under the middle class of Thai consonants. In IPA, to patak is pronounced as [t] at the beginning of a syllable and may not be used to close a syllable. The 21st letter of the alphabet, to tao (ต), is also named to and falls under the middle class of Thai consonants. Thai consonants do not form conjunct ligatures, and may use the pinthuan explicit virama with a dot shape—to indicate bare consonants. In the acrophony of the Thai script, patak (ปฏัก) means '(cattle) goad'. Do chada and to patak both correspond to the Devanagari character 'ट'.

Javanese script

See main article: Tha (Javanese).

Telugu Ṭa

Ṭa () is a consonant of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter . Since it lacks the v-shaped headstroke common to most Telugu letters, X remains unaltered by most vowel matras, and its subjoined form is simply a smaller version of the normal letter shape.Telugu conjuncts are created by reducing trailing letters to a subjoined form that appears below the initial consonant of the conjunct. Many subjoined forms are created by dropping their headline, with many extending the end of the stroke of the main letter body to form an extended tail reaching up to the right of the preceding consonant. This subjoining of trailing letters to create conjuncts is in contrast to the leading half forms of Devanagari and Bengali letters. Ligature conjuncts are not a feature in Telugu, with the only non-standard construction being an alternate subjoined form of Ṣa (borrowed from Kannada) in the KṢa conjunct.

Malayalam Ṭa

Ṭa () is a consonant of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter, via the Grantha letter Tta. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of ട

As is common in Indic scripts, Malayalam joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. There are several ways in which conjuncts are formed in Malayalam texts: using a post-base form of a trailing consonant placed under the initial consonant of a conjunct, a combined ligature of two or more consonants joined together, a conjoining form that appears as a combining mark on the rest of the conjunct, the use of an explicit candrakkala mark to suppress the inherent "a" vowel, or a special consonant form called a "chillu" letter, representing a bare consonant without the inherent "a" vowel. Texts written with the modern reformed Malayalam orthography, put̪iya lipi, may favor more regular conjunct forms than older texts in paḻaya lipi, due to changes undertaken in the 1970s by the Government of Kerala.

Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Te

, , and are the base characters "Te", "Ti", "To" and "Ta" in the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. The bare consonant (T) is a small version of the A-series letter ᑕ, although the Western Cree letter ᐟ, derived from Pitman shorthand was the original bare consonant symbol for T. The character ᑌ is derived from a handwritten form of the Devanagari letter ट, without the headline or vertical stem, and the forms for different vowels are derived by rotation.[6] [7] Unlike most writing systems without legacy computer encodings, complex Canadian syllabic letters are represented in Unicode with pre-composed characters, rather than with base characters and diacritical marks.

VariantE-seriesI-seriesO-seriesA-seriesOther
T + vowel
Te Ti To Ta Tay
Small- -
- Ojibway T - T Cree T
T with long vowels-
- CreeTāi
T + W-vowels-
Twe Cree Twe Twi Cree Twi Two Cree Two Twa Cree Twa -
T + long W-vowels- -
- Twī Cree Twī Twō Cree Twō Twā Naskapi TwāCree Twā -
Tt + vowel-
Tte Tti Tto Tta
Ty + vowel-
Tye Tyi Tyo Tya
Tth + vowel-
Tthe Tthi Ttho Ttha
Tth other- -
Tthwe - Tthoo Tthaa

Odia Ṭa

Ṭa () is a consonant of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter, via the Siddhaṃ letter Tta. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of ଟ

As is common in Indic scripts, Odia joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a small subjoined form of trailing consonants. Most consonants' subjoined forms are identical to the full form, just reduced in size, although a few drop the curved headline or have a subjoined form not directly related to the full form of the consonant. The second type of conjunct formation is through pure ligatures, where the constituent consonants are written together in a single graphic form. This ligature may be recognizable as being a combination of two characters or it can have a conjunct ligature unrelated to its constituent characters.

Kaithi Ṭa

Ṭa (') is a consonant of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter, via the Siddhaṃ letter Tta. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Conjuncts of

As is common in Indic scripts, Kaithi joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a half form of preceding consonants, although several consonants use an explicit virama. Most half forms are derived from the full form by removing the vertical stem. As is common in most Indic scripts, conjucts of ra are indicated with a repha or rakar mark attached to the rest of the consonant cluster. In addition, there are a few vertical conjuncts that can be found in Kaithi writing, but true ligatures are not used in the modern Kaithi script.

Comparison of Ṭa

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

Character encodings of Ṭa

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Ṭa in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Ṭa from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

References

Conjuncts are identified by IAST transliteration, except aspirated consonants are indicated with a superscript "h" to distinguish from an unaspirated cononant + Ha, and the use of the IPA "ŋ" and "ʃ" instead of the less dinstinctive "ṅ" and "ś".

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Book: Ifrah, Georges. The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. 2000. John Wiley & Sons. New York. 0-471-39340-1. 447–450.
  2. [:File:Brahmi script consonants according to James Prinsep March 1838.jpg|Evolutionary chart]
  3. Book: Bahri, Harder . Hindi-Angrezi Shabdkosh . 2004 . xiii.
  4. Web site: Pall . Peeter . Microsoft Word - kblhi2 . Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed . Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed . 19 June 2020.
  5. Web site: The Bengali Alphabet. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20130928021705/http://tesseractindic.googlecode.com/files/wb069conjuncts.pdf. 2013-09-28.
  6. Web site: Zui . Writing in North America — Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics . The Language Closet . 2 April 2023.
  7. Andrew Dalby (2004:139) Dictionary of Languages