Odia script

In Eastern India, a derivative of Siddham script called Gaudi (10th-14th centuries) yielded a group of scripts that eventually (both 14th c) became the Bengali-Assamese scripts, the Odia script, with the latter turning the hook into a characteristic umbrella.[4] The earliest known example of Odia language, in the Kalinga script, dates from 1051.[5][6]

Sample of the Odia alphabet from a Buddhist text from around 1060 AD, written by Sarahapada

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.[7]

The curved appearance of the Odia script is a result of the practice of writing on palm leaves, which have a tendency to tear if you use too many straight lines.[8]

Overwhelmingly, the Odia script was used to write the Odia language. However, it has been used as a regional writing-system for Sanskrit. Furthermore, Grierson[9] in his famed Linguistic Survey of India mentioned that the Odia script is sometimes used for Chhattisgarhi, an Eastern Hindi language, in the eastern border regions of Chhattisgarh. However it appears to have been replaced with the Devanagari script.

Development of Odia scripts

Development of ancient numerals in Odia

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.

Clusters of two or more consonants form a ligature. Basically Odia has two types of such consonant ligatures. The "northern" type is formed by fusion of two or more consonants as in northern scripts like Devanāgarī (but to a lesser extent also in the Malayalam script in the south). In some instances the components can be easily identified, but sometimes completely new glyphs are formed. With the "southern" type the second component is reduced in size and put under the first as in the southern scripts used for Kannaḍa and Telugu (and to some extent also for Malayalam script). The following table lists all conjunct forms. (Different fonts may use different ligatures.)

The Odia alphabet exhibits quite a few ambiguities which add to the difficulties beginners encounter in learning it.

Some of the letters of the script may easily be confounded. In order to reduce ambiguities a small oblique stroke is added at the lower right end as a diacritic. It resembles Halanta (Virāma) but it is joined to the letter, whereas Halanta is not joined. When the consonant forms a vowel ligature by which the lower right end is affected, this stroke is shifted to another position. This applies also to consonant ligatures bearing the stroke (see table of consonant ligatures).

Some of the subjoined consonants, some other ligature components, and variants of vowel diacritics have changing functions:

Open top consonants get a subjoined variant of the vowel diacritic for ⟨i⟩ as in

This same little hook is used in some consonant ligatures to denote ⟨t⟩ as first component:

The subjoined form of ⟨ch⟩ is also used for subjoined ⟨th⟩:

The subjoined form of ⟨bh⟩ serves also as a diacritic for different purposes:

The subjoined forms of ⟨ṇ⟩ and ⟨tu⟩ are almost identical:

The sign for the nasal ⟨ṁ⟩ may be used as a diacritic too:

Many Odia signs with round shapes suggests a closer relation to the southern neighbor Telugu than to the other neighbors Bengali in the north and Devanagari in the west and north. The reason for the round shapes in Odia and Telugu (and also in Kannada and Malayalam) is the former method of writing using a stylus to scratch the signs into a palm leaf. These tools do not allow for horizontal strokes because that would damage the leaf.

Odia letters are mostly round shaped whereas in Devanagari and Bengali have horizontal lines. So in most cases the reader of Odia will find the distinctive parts of a letter only below the hoop.

Odia script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 1991 with the release of version 1.0.

The Unicode block for Odia is U+0B00–U+0B7F:

• Odia Braille

• The Unicode Standard: Chapter 9 – South and Southeast Asian Scripts (PDF)
• Odia alphabet – From Omniglot