Odia alphabet
| Odia |
|
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Languages | Odia |
|
Time period
|
c. 1060–present |
|
Parent systems
|
|
| Direction | Left-to-right |
| ISO 15924 | Orya, 327 |
|
Unicode alias
|
Oriya |
| U+0B00–U+0B7F | |
The Odia script (Odia: ), also known as Oriya script, is used to write the Odia language.
The Odia script is developed from the Kalinga alphabet, one of the many descendants of the Brahmi script of ancient India. The earliest known inscription in the Odia language, in the Kalinga script, dates from 1051. The script has undergone several phases. They are broadly:
The script in the Edicts of Ashoka at Dhauli and Jaugada and the Minor Inscriptions of Kharavela in the Udayagiri and Khandagiri Caves give the first glimpse of possible origin of the Odia language. From a linguistic perspective, the Hati Gumpha inscriptions are similar to modern Odia and essentially different from the language of the Ashokan edicts. The question has also been raised as to whether Pali was the prevalent language in Odisha during this period. The Hati Gumpha inscriptions, which are in Pali, are perhaps the only evidence of stone inscriptions in Pali. This may be the reason why the famous German linguist Professor Oldenburg mentioned that Pali was the original language of Odisha.
There are noticeable similarities between the Odia and Thai alphabets, which provides clues about the Sadhabas, Kalinga traders who traveled to south Asian countries and ruled there, leaving evidence of the Odia script on the Thai script, along with a cultural impact.
The curved appearance of the Odia script is a result of the practice of writing on palm leaves, which has a tendency to tear the leaves when many straight lines are written.
Odia is a syllabic alphabet or an abugida wherein all consonants have an inherent vowel embedded within. Diacritics (which can appear above, below, before, or after the consonant they belong to) are used to change the form of the inherent vowel. When vowels appear at the beginning of a syllable, they are written as independent letters. Also, when certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used to combine the essential parts of each consonant symbol.
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Wikipedia