| Char: | Hindi: ः |
| Visarga | |
Visarga (Sanskrit: विसर्ग|visarga|sending forth, discharge|translit-std=IAST), in Sanskrit phonology (śikṣā), is the name of the voiceless glottal fricative, pronounced as /[h]/, written as 'Hindi: ः'. It was also called, equivalently, by earlier grammarians.
| Transliteration | Symbol | |
|---|---|---|
| ISO 15919 / IAST | ||
| Harvard-Kyoto | (H) |
Visarga is an allophone of pronounced as //r// and pronounced as //s// in pausa (at the end of an utterance). Since pronounced as //-s// 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 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 pronounced as /[ɐhᵄ]/, and will be pronounced pronounced as /[ihⁱ]/. Visarga is not to be confused with colon.
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 allophones, namely Sanskrit: जिह्वामूलीय (jihvāmūlīya or the guttural visarga) and Sanskrit: उपध्मानीय (upadhmānīya or the fricative visarga). The former may be pronounced before (क), (ख), and the latter before (प), and (फ), as in Sanskrit: तव पितामहः कः (tava pitāmahaḥ kaḥ?, 'who is your grandfather?'), Sanskrit: पक्षिणः खे उड्डयन्ते (pakṣiṇaḥ khe uḍḍayante, 'birds fly in the sky'), Sanskrit: भोः पाहि (bhoḥ pāhi, 'sir, save me'), and Sanskrit: तपःफलम् (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.[1] Distinct signs for jihavamulīya and upadhmanīya exists in Kannada, Tibetan, Sharada, Brahmi and Lantsa scripts.
In the Burmese script, 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 Burmese: း), when joined to a letter, creates the high tone.
See also: Siddhaṃ script. Motoori Norinaga invented a mark for visarga which he used in a book about Indian orthography.
In the Javanese script, the visarga (known as the wignyan (Javanese: ꦮꦶꦒ꧀ꦚꦤ꧀)) 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.
In the Kannada script, the visarga (which is called visarga) is represented with two small circles to the right of a letter ಃ. It adds an aḥ sound to the end of the letter.
This script also has separate symbols for ardhavisarga absent in most other scripts, jihvamuliya, Kannada: ೱ, and upadhmaniya, Kannada: ೲ.
In the Khmer script, the visarga (known as the reăhmŭkh (Central Khmer: រះមុខ; "shining face")) indicates an aspirated pronounced as //ʰ// sound added after a syllable. It is represented with two small circles at the right of a letter as Central Khmer: ះ, and it should not be confused with the similar-looking yŭkôlpĭntŭ (Central Khmer: យុគលពិន្ទុ; "pair of dots"), which indicates a short vowel followed by a glottal stop like their equivalent visarga marks in the Thai and Lao scripts.
In the Lao script, the visarga is represented with two small curled circles to the right of a letter as Lao: ◌ະ. As in the neighboring related Thai script, it indicates a glottal stop after the vowel.
In the Odia script, the visarga is represented with a vertical infinity sign to the right of a letter as Oriya: ଃ. It indicates the post-vocalic voiceless glottal fricative aḥ [h] sound after the letter.
In the Sinhala script, visarga is represented with two small circle to the right of a letter as ඃ.
In the Tamil script, similar to visarga (which is called āyutha eḻuttu (Tamil: ஆயுத எழுத்து), āytam (Tamil: ஆய்தம்), muppaal pulli, thaninilai, aghenam), is represented with three small circles to the right of a letter as Tamil: ஃ. Its used to transcribe an archaic pronounced as //q// or pronounced as //h// sound that has either become silent, or pronounced as pronounced as /link/, pronounced as //(a)k-// or pronounced as //-ka// 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(Tamil: அ, Tamil: இ, Tamil: உ, Tamil: எ, Tamil: ஒ) and a hard consonant (Tamil: க், Tamil: ச், Tamil: ட், Tamil: த், Tamil: ப், Tamil: ற்) for example Tamil: அஃது (aqthu), Tamil: [[:ta:எஃகு|எஃகு]] (eqgu).
In the Telugu script, the visarga (which is called visarga) is represented with two small circles to the right of a letter Telugu: ః. It brings an "ah" sound to the end of the letter.
In the Thai script, the visarga (known as the visanchani (Thai: วิสรรชนีย์) or nom nang thangkhu (Thai: นมนางทั้งคู่)) is represented with two small curled circles to the right of a letter as Thai: ◌ะ. It represents a glottal stop that follows the affected vowel.