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Au (Indic)

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Au
Au
Example glyphs
Bengali–AssameseAu
TamilAu
Malayalam
Sinhala
Ashoka Brahmi
𑀒
DevanagariAu
Cognates
Hebrewו
GreekϜ (Ϛ), Υ (Ȣ)
LatinF, V, U, W, Y, Ⅎ
CyrillicЅ, У (Ꙋ), Ѵ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation/ɐːʊ/ /ou/ /ɔː/
IAST transliterationau Au
ISCII code pointB1 (177)

Au is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Au is derived from the middle "Kushana" Brahmi letter ng, and the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, Au comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Āryabhaṭa numeration

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Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The ौ sign was used to modify a consonant's value ×1016, but the vowel letter औ did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]

Historic Au

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There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Au was not found in the earliest forms of Brahmi, but was found in the more flowing forms the Kushana Au and Gupta Au. Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Au Au has an accompanying vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A. All other independent vowels, including Au are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi Au

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The Brahmi letter Au, is based on the letter O which was probably derived from the Aramaic Waw . That would make it related to the modern Latin F, V, U, W, Y and Greek Upsilon.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Au can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, but only being found in later styles, the reference form of Brahmi Au is back-formed from later styles to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Au historic forms
Ashoka
(3rd-1st c. BCE)
Girnar
(~150 BCE)
Kushana
(~150-250 CE)
Gujarat
(~250 CE)
Gupta
(~350 CE)

Tocharian Au

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The Tocharian letter Au is derived from the Brahmi Au. Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian consonants with Au vowel marks
Kau Khau Gau Ghau Cau Chau Jau Jhau Nyau Ṭau Ṭhau Ḍau Ḍhau Ṇau
Tau Thau Dau Dhau Nau Pau Phau Bau Bhau Mau Yau Rau Lau Vau
Śau Ṣau Sau Hau

Kharoṣṭhī Au

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The Kharoṣṭhī letter Au is indicated with the O vowel mark Au plus the vowel length mark . As an independent vowel, Au is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A A.

Devanagari Au

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Au vowel
Au vowel sign
Devanagari independent Au and Au vowel sign.

Au () is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, after having gone through the Gupta letter Au. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter 𑘍.

Devanagari Using Languages

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The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ओ is pronounced as [au]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Au

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Au vowel
Au vowel sign
Bengali independent Au and Au vowel sign.

Au () is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter Au, and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ओ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

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The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, ঔ is pronounced as [au]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Au

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Au vowel
Au vowel sign
Gujarati independent Au and Au vowel sign.

Au () is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Au au, and ultimately the Brahmi letter au.

Gujarati-using Languages

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The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઔ is pronounced as [au]. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Javanese Au

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Telugu Au

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Telugu independent vowel Au
Telugu vowel sign Au
Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au () is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au. It is closely related to the Kannada letter . Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Vowel signs in Telugu can interact with a base consonant in one of three ways: 1) the vowel sign touches or sits adjacent to the base consonant without modifying the shape of either 2) the vowel sign sits directly above the consonant, replacing its v-shaped headline, 3) the vowel sign and consonant interact, forming a ligature.

Telugu Au vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kau, Khau, Gau, Ghau and Ngau. Note that how the vowel sign interacts with the base consonant is dependent on the location of the headline, the absence of a headline, and the presence of a tail to attach to.

Malayalam Au

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Malayalam independent vowel Au
Malayalam vowel sign Au
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au () is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, via the Grantha letter Au au. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.

Odia Au

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Odia independent vowel Au
Odia vowel sign Au
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au () is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, via the Siddhaṃ letter Au au. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Kaithi Au

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Kaithi independent vowel Au
Kaithi vowel sign Au
Kaithi independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au (𑂌) is a vowel of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, via the Siddhaṃ letter Au Au. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Kaithi usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Kaithi.

Comparison of Au

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The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Au, are related as well.

Comparison of Au in different scripts
Aramaic
Au
Kharoṣṭhī
-
Ashoka Brahmi
𑀒
Kushana Brahmi[a]
Au
Tocharian[b]
-
Gupta Brahmi
Au
Pallava
Au
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
𑰍
Siddhaṃ
Au
Grantha
𑌔
Cham
Sinhala
Pyu /
Old Mon[c]
-
Tibetan
-
Newa
𑐍
Ahom
-
Malayalam
Telugu
Burmese
Lepcha
-
Ranjana
Au
Saurashtra
Dives Akuru
-
Kannada
Kayah Li
-
Limbu
Soyombo[d]
-
Khmer
ឳ / ៅ
Tamil
Au
Chakma
𑄯
Tai Tham
-
Meitei Mayek
Gaudi
-
Thai
-
Lao
-
Tai Le
Marchen
-
Tirhuta
𑒎
New Tai Lue
-
Tai Viet
Aksara Kawi
-
'Phags-pa
-
Odia
Sharada
𑆐
Rejang
Batak
-
Buginese
-
Zanabazar Square
𑨈
Bengali-Assamese
Au
Takri
𑚉
Javanese
-
Balinese
Makasar
-
Hangul[e]
-
Northern Nagari
-
Dogri
𑠉
Laṇḍā
-
Sundanese
-
Baybayin
-
Modi
𑘍
Gujarati
Khojki
𑈇
Khudabadi
𑊹
Mahajani
-
Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
Au
Nandinagari
𑦭
Kaithi
Au
Gurmukhi
Multani
-
Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics[f]
-
Soyombo[g]
-
Sylheti Nagari
-
Gunjala Gondi
𑵫
Masaram Gondi[h]
𑴋
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.


Character encodings of Au

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Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Au in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Au from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information
Preview
Unicode name DEVANAGARI LETTER AU BENGALI LETTER AU TAMIL LETTER AU TELUGU LETTER AU ORIYA LETTER AU KANNADA LETTER AU MALAYALAM LETTER AU GUJARATI LETTER AU GURMUKHI LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 2324 U+0914 2452 U+0994 2964 U+0B94 3092 U+0C14 2836 U+0B14 3220 U+0C94 3348 U+0D14 2708 U+0A94 2580 U+0A14
UTF-8 224 164 148 E0 A4 94 224 166 148 E0 A6 94 224 174 148 E0 AE 94 224 176 148 E0 B0 94 224 172 148 E0 AC 94 224 178 148 E0 B2 94 224 180 148 E0 B4 94 224 170 148 E0 AA 94 224 168 148 E0 A8 94
Numeric character reference औ औ ঔ ঔ ஔ ஔ ఔ ఔ ଔ ଔ ಔ ಔ ഔ ഔ ઔ ઔ ਔ ਔ
ISCII 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1 177 B1


Character information
Preview
Ashoka𑀒
Kushana
Gupta
𑌔
Unicode name BRAHMI LETTER AU SIDDHAM LETTER AU GRANTHA LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 69650 U+11012 71053 U+1158D 70420 U+11314
UTF-8 240 145 128 146 F0 91 80 92 240 145 150 141 F0 91 96 8D 240 145 140 148 F0 91 8C 94
UTF-16 55300 56338 D804 DC12 55301 56717 D805 DD8D 55300 57108 D804 DF14
Numeric character reference 𑀒 𑀒 𑖍 𑖍 𑌔 𑌔


Character information
Preview 𑐍 𑰍 𑆐
Unicode name NEWA LETTER AU BHAIKSUKI LETTER AU SHARADA LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 70669 U+1140D 72717 U+11C0D 70032 U+11190
UTF-8 240 145 144 141 F0 91 90 8D 240 145 176 141 F0 91 B0 8D 240 145 134 144 F0 91 86 90
UTF-16 55301 56333 D805 DC0D 55303 56333 D807 DC0D 55300 56720 D804 DD90
Numeric character reference 𑐍 𑐍 𑰍 𑰍 𑆐 𑆐


Character information
Preview
Unicode name MYANMAR LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 4138 U+102A
UTF-8 225 128 170 E1 80 AA
Numeric character reference ဪ ဪ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL QAU TAI VIET VOWEL AUE
Encodings decimal hex dec hex
Unicode 6067 U+17B3 43707 U+AABB
UTF-8 225 158 179 E1 9E B3 234 170 187 EA AA BB
Numeric character reference ឳ ឳ ꪻ ꪻ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name SINHALA LETTER AUYANNA TAI LE LETTER AUE SAURASHTRA LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 3478 U+0D96 6508 U+196C 43153 U+A891
UTF-8 224 182 150 E0 B6 96 225 165 172 E1 A5 AC 234 162 145 EA A2 91
Numeric character reference ඖ ඖ ᥬ ᥬ ꢑ ꢑ


Character information
Preview 𑘍 𑦭 𑵫
Unicode name MODI LETTER AU NANDINAGARI LETTER AU GUNJALA GONDI LETTER AU KAITHI LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 71181 U+1160D 72109 U+119AD 73067 U+11D6B 69772 U+1108C
UTF-8 240 145 152 141 F0 91 98 8D 240 145 166 173 F0 91 A6 AD 240 145 181 171 F0 91 B5 AB 240 145 130 140 F0 91 82 8C
UTF-16 55301 56845 D805 DE0D 55302 56749 D806 DDAD 55303 56683 D807 DD6B 55300 56460 D804 DC8C
Numeric character reference 𑘍 𑘍 𑦭 𑦭 𑵫 𑵫 𑂌 𑂌


Character information
Preview 𑒎
Unicode name TIRHUTA LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 70798 U+1148E
UTF-8 240 145 146 142 F0 91 92 8E
UTF-16 55301 56462 D805 DC8E
Numeric character reference 𑒎 𑒎


Character information
Preview 𑚉 𑠉 𑈇 𑊹
Unicode name TAKRI LETTER AU DOGRA LETTER AU KHOJKI LETTER AU KHUDAWADI LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 71305 U+11689 71689 U+11809 70151 U+11207 70329 U+112B9
UTF-8 240 145 154 137 F0 91 9A 89 240 145 160 137 F0 91 A0 89 240 145 136 135 F0 91 88 87 240 145 138 185 F0 91 8A B9
UTF-16 55301 56969 D805 DE89 55302 56329 D806 DC09 55300 56839 D804 DE07 55300 57017 D804 DEB9
Numeric character reference 𑚉 𑚉 𑠉 𑠉 𑈇 𑈇 𑊹 𑊹


Character information
Preview
Unicode name BALINESE LETTER OKARA TEDUNG
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 6930 U+1B12
UTF-8 225 172 146 E1 AC 92
Numeric character reference ᬒ ᬒ


Character information
Preview 𑴋
Unicode name MASARAM GONDI LETTER AU
Encodings decimal hex
Unicode 72971 U+11D0B
UTF-8 240 145 180 139 F0 91 B4 8B
UTF-16 55303 56587 D807 DD0B
Numeric character reference 𑴋 𑴋



References

[edit]
  1. ^ Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  2. ^ Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. ^ Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838 [1]