Nuqta should not be confused with Anusvara.
| Char: | ़ |
The nuqta (Hindi: नुक़्ता, Urdu: {{nastaliq|نقطہ; sometimes also spelled nukta), is a diacritic mark that was introduced in Devanagari and some other Indic scripts to represent sounds not present in the original scripts.[1] It takes the form of a dot placed below a character. This idea is inspired from the Arabic script; for example, there are some letters in Urdu that share the same basic shape but differ in the placement of dots(s) or nuqta(s) in the Perso-Arabic script: the letter ع ayn, with the addition of a nuqta on top, becomes the letter غ g͟hayn.[2]
The term (Hindi: नुक़्ता) is itself an example of the use of the nuqta (making it autological.) Other examples include Hindi: [[:wikt:क़िला|क़िला]] ({{lang-ur|{{nastaliq|قلعہ; and Hindi: आग़ा ख़ान ({{lang-ur|{{nastaliq|آغا خان, a combination of a Türko-Mongolic (āġā) and a (k͟hān) honorific.
| Letter | With nuqta | IPA | Example | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hindi: क|ka|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: क़|qa|translit-std=ISO|label=none | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: '''क़'''ज़ाक़|qazāq|[[Kazakh language|Kazakh]]|label=none | |
| Hindi: ख|kha|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: ख़|k͟ha|translit-std=ISO|label=none, | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: '''ख़ा'''न|k͟hān|label=none|[[Khan]] | |
| Hindi: ग|ga|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: ग़|ġa|translit-std=ISO|label=none | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: का'''ग़'''ज़|kāġaz|label=none|paper | |
| Hindi: ज|ja|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: ज़|za|translit-std=ISO|label=none | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: अङ्ग्रे'''ज़ी'''|aṅgrēzī|[[English language|English]]|translit-std=ISO|label=none | |
| Hindi: झ|jha|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: झ़|ža|translit-std=ISO|label=none, | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: अ'''झ़'''दहा|aždahā|dragon|label=none | |
| Hindi: ड|ḍa|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: ड़|ṛa|translit-std=ISO|label=none | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: ब'''ड़ा'''|baṛā|big|translit-std=ISO|label=none | |
| Hindi: ढ|ḍha|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: ढ़|ṛha|translit-std=ISO|label=none | pronounced as /ɽ/pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: प'''ढ़'''ना|paṛhnā|to read|translit-std=ISO|label=none | |
| Hindi: फ|pha|translit-std=ISO|label=none | Hindi: फ़|fa|translit-std=ISO|label=none | pronounced as /link/ | Hindi: सा'''फ़'''|sāf|clean|label=none |
The nuqta, and the phonological distinction it represents, is sometimes ignored in practice; e.g., Hindi: [[:hi:किला|क़िला]] being simply spelled as Hindi: किला . In the text Dialect Accent Features for Establishing Speaker Identity, Manisha Kulshreshtha and Ramkumar Mathur write, "A few sounds, borrowed from the other languages like Persian and Arabic, are written with a dot (bindu or nuqtā). Many people who speak Hindi as a second language, especially those who come from rural backgrounds and do not speak conventional Hindi (also called Khaṛībōlī), or speak in one of its dialects, pronounce these sounds as their nearest equivalents." For example, these rural speakers will assimilate the sound ɣ (Devanagari: ग़; Nastaliq:) as ɡ (Devanagari: ग; Nastaliq:).[3]
With a renewed Hindi–Urdu language contact, many Urdu writers now publish their works in Devanagari editions. Since the Perso-Arabic orthography is preserved in Nastaʿlīq script Urdu orthography, these writers use the nuqta in Devanagari when transcribing these consonants.
Devanagari also includes coverage for the Dravidian consonants Hindi: ऴ|ḻa|translit-std=ISO|label=none /ɻ/; Hindi: ऱ|ṟa|translit-std=ISO|label=none /r/ and Hindi: ऩ|ṉa|translit-std=ISO|label=none /n/. (Respectively, these letters modify Hindi: ळ|ḷa|translit-std=ISO|label=none /ɭ/; Hindi: र|ra|translit-std=ISO|label=none /ɾ/ and Hindi: न|na|translit-std=ISO|label=none /n̪/). An example is Hindi: [[:wikt:तमिऴ्|तमिऴ्]] /t̪amiɻ/ ({{lang-ta|தமிழ்.
For example, the letters Hindi: च़ and Hindi: छ़ are used in Devanagari to write the Kashmiri alveolar affricates Kashmiri: {{uninastaliq|[[ژ]] pronounced as //t͡s// and pronounced as //t͡sʰ// respectively.
To represent the Eastern Nagari letter Bengali: {{lang|bn|য় representing /pronounced as /ink/ɔ/, the consonant Hindi: य़|ẏa|translit-std=ISO|label=none is used in Devanagari.
In Maithili, there are four non-syllabic vowels: i̯, u̯, e̯, o̯ written in Devanagari as य़, व़, य़ॆ, व़ॊ. But colloquially, these are written without nuqta.
The Bengali-Assamese script has ড় ঢ় য়, which are variations of ড ঢ য; however, ব and র are completely different in nature.
Sindhi's and Saraiki's implosives are accommodated in Devanagari with a line attached below—a diacritical bar:
Sindhi: [[Voiced velar implosive|ॻ]] pronounced as /[ɠə]/, Sindhi: [[Voiced palatal implosive|ॼ]] pronounced as /[ʄə]/, Sindhi: [[Voiced alveolar implosive|ॾ]] pronounced as /[ɗə]/, Sindhi: [[Voiced bilabial implosive|ॿ]] pronounced as /[ɓə]/.In Tamil script, the special character Tamil: ஃ (Tamil: ஆய்த எழுத்து,) is used like nuqta to represent non-native consonants.
In Thaana script of Maldives, one or many nuqtas are added to their native consonants to represent Perso-Arabic consonants, and each phoneme is encoded as a whole in the Unicode block (instead of a separate codepoint for the diacritic).