Anusvara

Anusvara ( ; , , ), also known as Bindu ( ; ; Bengali: বিন্দু [bin.d̪u]), is a symbol used in many Indic scripts to mark a type of nasal sound, typically transliterated or in standards like ISO 15919 and IAST. Depending on its location in a word and the language for which it is used, its exact pronunciation can vary. In the context of ancient Sanskrit, anusvara is the name of the particular nasal sound itself, regardless of written representation.

Sanskrit In Vedic Sanskrit, the anusvāra () was an allophonic (derived) nasal sound.

The exact nature of the sound has been subject to debate. The material in the various ancient phonetic treatises points towards different phonetic interpretations, and these discrepancies have historically been attributed to either differences in the description of the same pronunciationWhitney, cited in or to dialectal or diachronic variation. In a 2013 reappraisal of the evidence, Cardona concludes that these reflect real dialectal differences.

The environments in which the anusvara could arise, however, were well defined. In the earliest Vedic Sanskrit, it was an allophone of /m/ at a morpheme boundary, or of /n/ within morphemes, when it was preceded by a vowel and followed by a fricative (). In later Sanskrit its use expanded to other contexts, first before /r/ under certain conditions, then, in Classical Sanskrit, before and .

Later still, Pāṇini gave anusvara as an alternative pronunciation as word-final sandhi, and later treatises also prescribed it at morpheme junctions and within morphemes. In the later written language, the diacritic used to represent anusvara was optionally used to indicate a nasal stop having the same place of articulation as a following plosive, which was written in some evolved scripts (e.g. in Bengali-Assamese) as an additional sandhi letter (no longer as a diacritic) for Vedic transcriptions of Sanskrit, to distinguish it with the anusvara diacritic that was used to transcribe other phonemes.

Languages using the Devanagari script In the Devanagari script, anusvāra is represented with a dot (bindu) above the letter (e.g. मं). In the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST), the corresponding symbol is ṃ (m with an underdot). Some transcriptions render notation of phonetic variants used in some Vedic shakhas with variant transcription (ṁ).

In writing Sanskrit, the anusvara is often used as an alternative representation of the nasal stop with the same place of articulation as the following plosive. For example, 'limb (of the body)' may be written with either a conjunct, अङ्ग aṅga, or with an anusvara, अंग aṃga. A variant of the anusvara, the anunāsika or 'chandrabindu', was used more explicitly for nasalized vowels, as in अँश aṃśa for 'portion'.William Bright, "The Devanagari Script", in Daniels & Bright, The World's Writing Systems, OUP, 1996.

Hindi In Standard Hindi, the anusvāra is traditionally defined as representing a nasal consonant homorganic to a following plosive, in contrast to the (), which indicates vowel nasalization. In practice, however, the two are often used interchangeably.

The precise phonetic value of the phoneme, whether it is represented by or , is dependent on the phonological environment.The following rules are from

Word-finally, it is realized as nasalization of the preceding vowel: , "a well". It results in vowel nasalization also medially between a short vowel and a non-obstruent ( "a youth", "a long-handled axe") and, in native words, between a long vowel and a voiceless plosive ( "tooth", "a snake", "tail").

It is pronounced as a homorganic nasal, with the preceding vowel becoming nasalized allophonically, in the following cases: between a long vowel and a voiced plosive ( "copper", "silver"), between a long vowel and a voiceless plosive in loanwords ( "repressed", "a bank", "cashier"), and between a short vowel and an obstruent ( "to support", "a chest").

The last rule has two sets of exceptions in which the results only in the nasalization of the preceding short vowel. Words from the first set are morphologically derived from words with a long nasalized vowel ( , "to be divided" from , "to divide"; , "irrigation" from , "to irrigate"). In such cases, the vowel is sometimes denasalized (, instead of , ). The second set is composed of a few words like ( , "to arrive" and , "to laugh"). lists five more such words: "to sink", "to be stuck", "a necklace", "a sickle" and "laughter".

Marathi In Marathi, the anusvāra is pronounced as a nasal that is homorganic to the following consonant (with the same place of articulation). For example, it is pronounced as the dental nasal न् before dental consonants, as the bilabial nasal म् before bilabial consonants, etc. Before the letter य (ya) it is pronounced as a nasalised voiced palatal approximant while before liquids and sibilants it is pronounced as a nasalised voiced labial-velar approximant . Unlike in other Indic languages, the same dot designating the anusvāra in Marathi is also used to mark a retention of the inherent vowel [ə] (It is inconsistently placed over a consonant after which the short central vowel (ə) is to be pronounced and not elided).

Nepali In Nepali, the candrabindu indicates vowel nasalization. Therefore, there is a great deal of variation regarding which occurs in any given position. Many words containing anusvara thus have alternative spellings with a chandrabindu instead of the anusvāra and vice versa. Anusvara is used when there is too little space for the chandrabindu. The anusvāra can represent a nasal vowel, a homoorganic nasal, or both.

Other languages using Indic scripts Anusvara is used in other languages using Indic scripts as well, usually to represent suprasegmental phones (such as phonation type or nasalization) or other nasal sounds.

Bengali

In the Bengali alphabet, the anusvara diacritic () is written as a circle above a slanted line (ং), and represents coda . It is used in the name of the Bengali language বাংলা and has merged in pronunciation with the letter ঙ ungô in Bengali.

Although the anusvara is a consonant in Bengali phonology, it is treated in the written system as a diacritic in that it is always directly adjacent to the preceding consonant, even when consonants are spaced apart in titles or banners: বাং-লা-দে-শ baṅ-la-de-ś, not বা-ং-লা-দে-শ ba-ṅ-la-de-ś for বাংলাদেশ Bangladesh. It is never pronounced with the inherent vowel 'ô' ( or ), and it cannot take a vowel sign (instead, the consonant ঙ uṅô is used before vowels).

Burmese In the Burmese alphabet, the anusvara ( auk myit (့) ) is represented as a dot under a nasalised final to indicate a creaky tone (with a shortened vowel).

Burmese also uses a dot above a letter to indicate the nasalized ending (called "Myanmar Sign Anusvara" in Unicode), called thay thay tin () (ံ)

Sinhala In the Sinhala script, the anusvara is not a nonspacing combining mark but a spacing combining mark. It has a circular shape and follows its base letter ( ං).See an example in It is called in Sinhala, which means "dot". The anusvara represents at the end of a syllable. It is used in the name of the Sinhala language සිංහල . It has merged in pronunciation with the letter ඞ ṅa in Sinhala.

Telugu The Telugu script has full-zero (sunna) ం, half-zero (arasunna) and visarga to convey various shades of nasal sounds. Anusvara is represented as a circle shape after a letter: క - ka and కం - kam.

Malayalam In the Malayalam script, the anusvāram (, ) or anusvara (ം) represents the consonant sound after a vowel, though this can assimilate to another consonant. It is defined as a special character that, unlike a normal consonant, is never followed by an inherent vowel. In ISO 15919, the Malayalam anusvara in the final position of a word is transliterated as m, without a dot.

Thai The equivalent of the anusvara in the Thai alphabet is the nikkhahit (◌ํ). Used in rendering Sanskrit and Pali texts, it is written as an open circle above the consonant (for example ). Its pronunciation depends on the following sound: if it is a consonant, the nikkhahit is pronounced as a homorganic nasal, and if it is at the end of a word, it is pronounced as a voiced velar nasal .

Anunasika Anunasika () is a form of vowel nasalization, often represented by an anusvara. It is a form of open-mouthed nasalization, akin to the nasalization of vowels followed by "n" or "m" in Parisian French. When "n" or "m" follows a vowel, the "n" or "m" becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasal (it is pronounced with the soft palate extended downward to allow part or all of the air to leave through the nostrils). Anunasika is sometimes called a subdot because of its IAST representation.

In Devanagari and related scripts, the anunasika is represented by the chandrabindu diacritic (example: माँ).

In Burmese, the anunasika, called () and represented as , creates the nasalized ending when it is attached as a dot above a letter. The anunasika represents the -m final in Pali. Glyph comparison

Unicode

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

+ South Asian scripts Script Sign Example Unicode Bengali  ংকং U+0982 Bengali (combining above)  𑷰ক𑷰 U+11DF0 Bengali Vedic ৼ U+09FC Bhaiksuki  𑰽𑰎𑰽 U+11C3D Brahmi  𑀁𑀓𑀁 U+11001 Chakma  𑄁𑄇𑄁 U+11101 Devanagari  ंकं U+0902Devanagari VedicꣳU+A8F3Devanagari Vedic DoubleꣴU+A8F4 Dhives Akuru  𑤻𑤌𑤻 U+1193B Dogra  𑠷𑠊𑠷 U+11837 Grantha  𑌂𑌕𑌂 U+11302 Grantha Vedic 𑍞 U+1135E Grantha Vedic (double) 𑍟 U+1135F Grantha (combining above)  𑌀𑌕𑌀 U+11300 Gujarati  ંકં U+0A82 Gunjala Gondi  𑶕𑵱𑶕 U+11D95 Gurmukhi  ਂਕਂ U+0A02 Gurung Khema  𖄭𖄁𖄭 U+1612D Kaithi  𑂁𑂍𑂁 U+11081 Kannada  ಂಕಂ U+0C82 Kannada (combining above right)  ೳಕೳ U+0CF3 Kharosthi  𐨎𐨐𐨎 U+10A0E Khojki  𑈴𑈈𑈴 U+11234 Khudabadi  𑋟𑊺𑋟 U+112DF Kirat Rai  𖵀 𖵛𖵣𖵀 U+16D40 Malayalam  ംകം U+0D02 Malayalam (combining above)  ഀകഀ U+0D00 Malayalam Vedic ഄ U+0D04 Marchen  𑲵𑱲𑲵 U+11CB5 Masaram Gondi  𑵀𑴌𑵀 U+11D40 Modi  𑘽𑘎𑘽 U+1163D Mongolian U+1880 Nandinagari  𑧞𑦮𑧞 U+119DE Odia  ଂକଂ U+0B02 Prachalit Nepal  𑑄𑐎𑑄 U+11444 Prachalit Nepal (Vedic) 𑑟 U+1145F Sharada  𑆁𑆑𑆁 U+11181 Saurashtra  ꢀꢒꢀ U+A880 Siddham  𑖽𑖎𑖽 U+115BD Sinhala  ංකං U+0D82 Soyombo  𑪖𑩜𑪖 U+11A96 Sylheti Nagari  ꠋꠇꠋ U+A80B Takri  𑚫𑚊𑚫 U+116AB Tamil  ◌ஂகஂ U+0B82 Telugu  ంకం U+0C02 Telugu (Prakrit) (combining above)  ఄకఄ U+0C04 Tibetan (rjes su nga ro)  ཾཀཾU+0F7E Tirhuta  𑓀𑒏𑓀 U+114C0 Zanabazar Square  𑨸𑨋𑨸 U+11A38+ Southeast Asian scripts Script Sign Example Unicode Balinese U+1B02 Burmese U+1036 Javanese U+A981 Kawi  𑼁 𑼒𑼁 U+11F01 Khmer U+17C6 Lao  ໍກໍ U+0ECD Sundanese U+1B80 Tai Tham (mai kang)  ᩴᨠᩴ U+1A74 Thai  ํกํ U+0E4D

See also Chandrabindu Tilde Ogonek

Notes

References

Bibliography