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Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Brahmi
I have been learning the script called Brahmi. It is an elegant and functional script that is a parent of both Nagari and Grandhi but lacking the stylishness of either. The Grandhi and Nagari are the child systems that begat most of the scripts in modern India and South Asia. The brahmi script is first attested at 6th century B.C in both Srilanka and Tamizhnadu, and later in Bhattiprolu, and other Ashokan edicts. However we can still discern the in influence in quite a few letters when compared to the modern Indic languages.
What attracted me in the first place aside from its antiquity is the regularity of the script. The diacritical marks for vowels are limited to just two variants corresponding to horizontal and vertical orientation of the letter being marked. Some thing that most of the current Indic languages seem to have trouble with. A second important aspect is that it is the oldest script that has the characteristic phonetic presentation we have come to expect in all Indic languages.
If we consider the precise recording of sound as the goal of a writing system, it is easy to see that a script can be considered more advanced as it regularizes its usage, and abstracts common functions while preserving legibility. In fact this is what distinguishes abugidas like Indic scripts from the common alphabets like English and logographies like Chinese. The alphabets abstract out the phonemes into graphemes while abugidas abstract out the common vowels into diacritical marks.
Brahmi represented a significant improvement when compared to the scripts in existence during the time of its use - 6 B.C to 2 A.D approximately. The systems that it was in existence during that time - including Egyptian, Phoenician and Aramaic were just listing of letters with out any specific arrangement. None of them were true abugidas. (Abugidas represent the last stage of evolution of script where the vowel diacritic marks are abstracted out of the letters themselves). Thus Brahmi represents the epitome of orthography at that time.
However it seems like the progress came to a halt soon after the invention of Brahmi. The writing systems did not advance beyond what was achieved during this time. It is easily discernible when you compare the current Indic language scripts to Brahmi.There is not a single innovation in phonetic presentation or in writing in any of the modern Indic derived scripts when compared to this venerable old script. The additions and changes have all most all been related to just superficial style with nothing contributing towards either abstraction or towards phonetic presentation.
It is interesting to speculate what direction the scripting systems would have taken if the path of Brahmi and other abugidas were followed. We can discern a start in the way the letters are presented in the Indic systems.
for e.g the variations of a single letter Ka when pronounced using different strength and when adding nasal sound are arranged together
Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha, Nga
This may have been abstracted out as another kind of marks similar to the diacritical marks used for vowels. An interesting thought is to let the marks range from _ through \ , | , / etc so that there is a continuous gradation of sounds rather than a fixed list. In fact a related technique is used when we repeat the diacritical marks to give emphasis to vowels for e.g to represent a long running screeeeeeam.
That said, I think there is at least one nice effect for the innovation to have stopped at Brahmi - at least for south east asia. The Brahmi letters can easily represent almost all letters currently in vogue in all Indic scripts.
India always had the problem of having a multiplicity of languages and scripts. English and Nagari scripts are not really good enough to serve as a common communication medium. The former is not particularly suitable for Indian languages and the latter is not acceptable to a large majority of south indian people on account of the advantage it confers to the Hindi native population. It is here that Brahmi can play a role. Being the progenitor of most Indian scripts, it holds a very unique position that cannot be questioned by any other script system. It also avoids the problem of selective advantage to a section of the country because it is ancient enough that it bears almost equal similarity to all other Indic scripts. It is clean and regular and simple to learn. Thus Brahmi could at-least serve the position occupied by English currently where words or short sentences are useful say like in the directions in a road or the name of a place. It would get us quite a distance in achieving a common frame of reference.
What attracted me in the first place aside from its antiquity is the regularity of the script. The diacritical marks for vowels are limited to just two variants corresponding to horizontal and vertical orientation of the letter being marked. Some thing that most of the current Indic languages seem to have trouble with. A second important aspect is that it is the oldest script that has the characteristic phonetic presentation we have come to expect in all Indic languages.
If we consider the precise recording of sound as the goal of a writing system, it is easy to see that a script can be considered more advanced as it regularizes its usage, and abstracts common functions while preserving legibility. In fact this is what distinguishes abugidas like Indic scripts from the common alphabets like English and logographies like Chinese. The alphabets abstract out the phonemes into graphemes while abugidas abstract out the common vowels into diacritical marks.
Brahmi represented a significant improvement when compared to the scripts in existence during the time of its use - 6 B.C to 2 A.D approximately. The systems that it was in existence during that time - including Egyptian, Phoenician and Aramaic were just listing of letters with out any specific arrangement. None of them were true abugidas. (Abugidas represent the last stage of evolution of script where the vowel diacritic marks are abstracted out of the letters themselves). Thus Brahmi represents the epitome of orthography at that time.
However it seems like the progress came to a halt soon after the invention of Brahmi. The writing systems did not advance beyond what was achieved during this time. It is easily discernible when you compare the current Indic language scripts to Brahmi.There is not a single innovation in phonetic presentation or in writing in any of the modern Indic derived scripts when compared to this venerable old script. The additions and changes have all most all been related to just superficial style with nothing contributing towards either abstraction or towards phonetic presentation.
It is interesting to speculate what direction the scripting systems would have taken if the path of Brahmi and other abugidas were followed. We can discern a start in the way the letters are presented in the Indic systems.
for e.g the variations of a single letter Ka when pronounced using different strength and when adding nasal sound are arranged together
Ka, Kha, Ga, Gha, Nga
This may have been abstracted out as another kind of marks similar to the diacritical marks used for vowels. An interesting thought is to let the marks range from _ through \ , | , / etc so that there is a continuous gradation of sounds rather than a fixed list. In fact a related technique is used when we repeat the diacritical marks to give emphasis to vowels for e.g to represent a long running screeeeeeam.
That said, I think there is at least one nice effect for the innovation to have stopped at Brahmi - at least for south east asia. The Brahmi letters can easily represent almost all letters currently in vogue in all Indic scripts.
India always had the problem of having a multiplicity of languages and scripts. English and Nagari scripts are not really good enough to serve as a common communication medium. The former is not particularly suitable for Indian languages and the latter is not acceptable to a large majority of south indian people on account of the advantage it confers to the Hindi native population. It is here that Brahmi can play a role. Being the progenitor of most Indian scripts, it holds a very unique position that cannot be questioned by any other script system. It also avoids the problem of selective advantage to a section of the country because it is ancient enough that it bears almost equal similarity to all other Indic scripts. It is clean and regular and simple to learn. Thus Brahmi could at-least serve the position occupied by English currently where words or short sentences are useful say like in the directions in a road or the name of a place. It would get us quite a distance in achieving a common frame of reference.
Labels: brahmi writing systems indic
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