Warang Citi

Warang Citi (also written Varang Kshiti; Ho: 𑢹𑣗𑣁𑣜𑣊 𑣏𑣂𑣕𑣂,^[1] IPA: /wɐrɐŋ ʧɪt̪ɪ/) is an abugida invented by Lako Bodra, used in primary and adult education and in various publications. It is used to write Ho, a language used in the Indian states of Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Assam.^[2]

Community leader Bodra invented it as an alternative to the writing systems devised by Christian missionaries. He claims that the alphabet was invented in the 13th century by Deowan Turi, and that it was rediscovered in a shamanistic vision and modernized by Lako Bodra. The script begins with the letter Ong, the first sound for the creation of the universe and has 32 letters in total with capital and small letters. It is written from left to right in horizontal lines, and each consonant has an inherent vowel, usually /a/ but sometimes /o/ or /e/.

Warang Citi uses its own set of digits.^[1]

It has mainly gained acceptance among the easternmost group of speakers and is more prevalent among those who have been educated in it. Many other speakers prefer oral transmission of knowledge, Devanagari, or even Latin, but it holds prestige among many Ho speakers.

Characters

It is classified formally as an abugida, but it has many features of a proper alphabet. It follows capitalization rules as are done in English and follows English punctuation. Vowels are added after consonants like in alphabets, but consonants may have the inherent vowel that is present in most Indic languages, so it is ambiguous. There are few ligatures that combine to form new sounds, and there are conjunct consonants that are used as well by stacking in some cases.

Unicode

Warang Citi was added to the Unicode Standard in June 2014 with the release of version 7.0.

The Unicode block for Warang Citi is U+118A0–U+118FF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:

References