Chandrabindu

Candrabindu
Candrabindu
Example glyphs
Bengali–Assamese
ঁ
Tibetan
ྃ
Malayalam
ഁ
Ashoka Brahmi
𑀀
Devanagari
ँ
Properties
Phonemic representation/-/
IAST transliterationm̐ M̐
ISCII code pointA1 (161)
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Chandrabindu (Sanskrit: चन्द्रबिन्दु; IAST: candrabindu, lit. 'moon dot') is a diacritic sign with the form of a dot inside the lower half of a circle. It is used in the Devanagari (ँ), Bengali-Assamese (ঁ), Gujarati (ઁ), Odia (ଁ), Tamil (◌𑌁 Extension used from Grantha), Telugu (ఁ), Kannada (◌ಁ), Malayalam (◌ഁ), Sinhala (◌ඁ), Javanese ( ꦀ) and other scripts.

It usually means that the previous vowel is nasalized.

In Hindi, it is replaced in writing by anusvara when it is written above a consonant that carries a vowel symbol that extends above the top line.

In Classical Sanskrit, it seems to occur only over a lla, yya, or vva conjunct consonant, to show that it is pronounced as a nasalized double l, y, or v which occurs if they have become assimilated in sandhi.

In Vedic Sanskrit, it is used instead of anusvara to represent the sound anunasika when the next word starts with a vowel. It usually occurs where in earlier times a word ended in -ans.

Glyph comparison

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Comparison of candrabindu in different scripts
Aramaic
-
Kharoṣṭhī
-		Ashoka Brahmi
𑀀		Kushana Brahmi
𑀀		Tocharian
-
Gupta Brahmi
𑀀		Pallava
-
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
𑰼		Siddhaṃ
𑖼		Grantha
𑌁 / 𑍞 / 𑍟		Cham
-
Sinhala
-		Pyu /
Old Mon
-
Tibetan
ྃ / ྂ		Newa
𑑃 / 𑑟		Ahom
-		Malayalam
ഁ / ഄ
Telugu
ఁ / ఀ		Burmese
-
Lepcha
ᰴ / ᰵ		Ranjana
-		Saurashtra
ꣅ		Dives Akuru
𑤼
Kannada
ಁ / ಀ		Kayah Li
-
Limbu
-		Soyombo
-		Khmer
-		Tamil
-
Chakma
𑄀		Tai Tham
-
Meitei Mayek
-		Gaudi
-		Thai
-		Lao
-
Tai Le
-
Marchen
𑲶		Tirhuta
𑒿		New Tai Lue
-		Tai Viet
-		Aksara Kawi
𑼀
'Phags-pa
ꡳ		Odia
ଁ		Sharada
𑇏		Rejang
-		Batak
-		Buginese
-
Zanabazar Square
𑨵 / 𑨶 / 𑨷		Bengali–Assamese
ঁ / ৼ		Takri
-		Javanese
ꦀ		Balinese
ᬁ / ᬀ		Makasar
-
Hangul
-		Northern Nagari
-		Dogri
-		Laṇḍā
-		Sundanese
-		Baybayin
-
Modi
-		Gujarati
ઁ		Khojki
-		Khudabadi
-		Mahajani
-		Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
ँ / ऀ / ꣲ / ꣳ / ꣴ		Nandinagari
-		Kaithi
𑂀		Gurmukhi
ਁ / ੰ		Multani
-		Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics
-		Soyombo
-		Sylheti Nagari
-		Gunjala Gondi
-		Masaram Gondi
-		Hanuno'o
-
Notes
  1. ↑ The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms.
  2. ↑ Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession.
  3. ↑ Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
  4. ↑ May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
  5. ↑ The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida.
  6. ↑ Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas.
  7. ↑ May also be derived from Ranjana (see above)
  8. ↑ Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Unicode

Unicode encodes chandrabindu and chandrabindu-like characters for a variety of scripts:


See also

References

  1. ↑ "Unicode Data 13.0.0". Retrieved 2020-03-15.