Kaithi

Kaithi, also called "Kayathi" or "Kayasthi", is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of northern India, primarily in the present-day states of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar. In particular, it was used for writing legal, administrative and private records.[1] It was used for a variety of Indo-Aryan languages, including Angika, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Hindustani, Magahi, Maithili, and Nagpuri.

Bhojpuri (kaithi) signboard at Purbi Gumti Arrah along with Persian Script (on right side) and Roman Script (above). "Lock no. 11" is written on the board in various languages or scripts.

For other uses, see Kaithi (disambiguation).
Kaithī
Kayathi, Kayasthi, 𑂍𑂶𑂟𑂲
Type
LanguagesAngika, Awadhi, Bhojpuri, Hindustani, Magahi, Maithili, Nagpuri
Time period
c. 16th–mid 20th century
Parent systems
Brahmi
Sister systems
Devanagari, Nandinagari, Sylheti Nagari, Gujarati, Modi
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924Kthi, 317
Unicode alias
Kaithi
Unicode range
U+11080–U+110CF

Etymology

Kaithi script derives its name from the word Kayastha, a social group of India that traditionally consists of administrators and accountants.[2] The Kayastha community was closely associated with the princely courts and colonial governments of North India and were employed by them to write and maintain records of revenue transactions, legal documents and title deeds; general correspondence and proceedings of the royal courts and related bodies.[3] The script used by them acquired the name Kaithi.

History
A printed form of the Kaithi script, as of the mid-19th century
Kaithi Script (left side bottom most line) on the Coins of Sher Shah Suri

Documents in Kaithi are traceable to at least the 16th century. The script was widely used during the Mughal period. In the 1880s, during the British Raj, the script was recognised as the official script of the law courts of Bihar. Kaithi was the most widely used script of North India west of Bengal. In 1854, 77,368 school primers were in Kaithi script, as compared to 25,151 in Devanagari and 24,302 in Mahajani.[4] Among the three scripts widely used in the 'Hindi Belt', Kaithi was widely perceived to be neutral, as it was used by both Hindus and Muslims alike for day-to-day correspondence, financial and administrative activities, while Devanagari was used by Hindus and Persian script by Muslims for religious literature and education. This made Kaithi increasingly unfavorable to the more conservative and religiously inclined members of society who insisted on Devanagari-based and Persian-based transcription of Hindi dialects. As a result of their influence and due to the wide availability of Devanagari type as opposed to the incredibly large variability of Kaithi, Devanagari was promoted, particularly in the Northwest Provinces, which covers present-day Uttar Pradesh.[5] Kaithi was also nicknamed "Shikasta Nagari" by analogy with Shikasta Nastaliq, because the relationship of Kaithi to Devanagari was perceived as akin to the relationship between the widely used dot-less Shikasta Nastaliq of the time and the more formal printed Nastaliq scripts, which used dotted letters and fuller, less abbreviated letter forms.

Consonants

All Kaithi consonants have an inherent a vowel:

Occlusives
VOICELESS PLOSIVESVOICED PLOSIVESNASALS
UnaspiratedAspiratedUnaspiratedAspirated
LetterTrans.IPALetterTrans.LetterTrans.IPALetterTrans.LetterTrans.IPA
Velar𑂍k/k/𑂎kh𑂏g/ɡ/𑂐gh𑂑ṅ/ŋ/
Palatal𑂒c/c/𑂓ch𑂔j/ɟ/𑂕jh𑂖ñ/ɲ/
Retroflex𑂗ṭ/ʈ/𑂘ṭh𑂙ḍ/ɖ/𑂛ḍh𑂝ṇ/ɳ/
𑂚ṛ/ɽ/𑂜ṛh
Dental𑂞t/t/𑂟th𑂠d/d/𑂡dh𑂢n/n/
Labial𑂣p/p/𑂤ph𑂥b/b/𑂦bh𑂧m/m/
Sonorants and fricatives
PalatalRetroflexDentalLabial
LetterTrans.IPALetterTrans.IPALetterTrans.IPALetterTrans.IPA
Sonorants𑂨y/j/𑂩r/r/𑂪l/l/𑂫v/ʋ/
Sibilants𑂬ś/ɕ/𑂭ṣ/ȿ/𑂮s/s/
Other
𑂯h/h/

Vowels

Kaithi vowels have independent (initial) and dependent (diacritic) forms:

Vowels
Trans.LetterDiacriticShown with kTrans.LetterDiacriticShown with k
Gutturala𑂃𑂍ā𑂄𑂰𑂍𑂰
Palatali𑂅 𑂱𑂍𑂱ī𑂆𑂲𑂍𑂲
Roundedu𑂇𑂳𑂍𑂳ū𑂈𑂴𑂍𑂴
Palatogutturale𑂉𑂵𑂍𑂵ai𑂊𑂶𑂍𑂶
Labiogutturalo𑂋𑂷𑂍𑂷au𑂌𑂸𑂍𑂸

Diacritics

Several diacritics are employed to change the meaning of letters:

DiacriticNameFunction
𑂀candrabinduA candrabindu denotes nasalisation although it is not normally used with Kaithi.[3]
𑂁anusvaraAn anusvara in Kaithi represents true vowel nasalisation.[3] For example, 𑂍𑂁, kaṃ.
𑂂visargaVisarga is a Sanskrit holdover originally representing /h/. For example, 𑂍𑂂 kaḥ.[3]
𑂹viramaA virama removes a consonant's inherent a and in some cases forms consonant clusters. Compare 𑂧𑂥 maba with 𑂧𑂹𑂥 mba.[6]
𑂺nuqtaA nuqta is used to extend letters to represent non-native sounds. For example, 𑂔 ja + nuqta = 𑂔𑂺, which represents Arabic zayin.[3]

Punctuation

Kaithi has several script-specific punctuation marks:

SignDescription
𑂻The abbreviation sign is one method of representing abbreviations in Kaithi.[3] For example, 𑂪𑂱𑂎𑂱𑂞𑂧 can be abbreviated as 𑂪𑂲𑂻.[3]
𑂽The number sign is used with digits for enumerated lists and numerical sequences.[3] It can appear above, below, or before a digit or sequence of digits.[3] For example, 𑂽१२३.
𑂼The enumeration sign is a spacing version of the number sign.[6] It always appears before a digit or sequence of digits (never above or below).
𑂾The section sign indicates the end of a sentence.[6]
𑂿The double section sign indicates the end of a larger section of text, such as a paragraph.[6]
𑃀Danda is a Kaithi-specific danda.
𑃁Double danda is a Kaithi-specific double danda.

General punctuation is also used with Kaithi:

  • + plus sign can be used to mark phrase boundaries
  • ‐ hyphen and - hyphen-minus can be used for hyphenation
  • ⸱ word separator middle dot can be used as a word boundary (as can a hyphen)

Digits

Kaithi uses stylistic variants of Devangari digits. It also uses common Indic number signs for fractions and unit marks.[6]

Unicode
Main article: Kaithi (Unicode block)

Kaithi script was added to the Unicode Standard in October 2009 with the release of version 5.2.

The Unicode block for Kaithi is U+11080–U+110CF:

Kaithi[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1108x 𑂀 𑂁 𑂂 𑂃 𑂄 𑂅 𑂆 𑂇 𑂈 𑂉 𑂊 𑂋 𑂌 𑂍 𑂎 𑂏
U+1109x 𑂐 𑂑 𑂒 𑂓 𑂔 𑂕 𑂖 𑂗 𑂘 𑂙 𑂚 𑂛 𑂜 𑂝 𑂞 𑂟
U+110Ax 𑂠 𑂡 𑂢 𑂣 𑂤 𑂥 𑂦 𑂧 𑂨 𑂩 𑂪 𑂫 𑂬 𑂭 𑂮 𑂯
U+110Bx 𑂰 𑂱 𑂲 𑂳 𑂴 𑂵 𑂶 𑂷 𑂸 𑂹 𑂺 𑂻 𑂼  𑂽  𑂾 𑂿
U+110Cx 𑃀 𑃁  𑃍 
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 13.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points
gollark: Maybe if you could do limited, slow automining, and there were big infrequent veins like in Gregtech we could actually get a cool transport network and stuff.
gollark: Mining is dull.
gollark: Normally I just make a magic quarrybox which produces ores from somewhere.
gollark: Crash into them *at high enough speed to die*.
gollark: What does happen a lot is that I crash into buildings, but it does work, ish.

See also

References
  1. King, Christopher R. 1995. One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India. New York: Oxford University Press.
  2. Grierson, George A. 1899. A Handbook to the Kaithi Character. Calcutta: Thacker, Spink & Co.
  3. Pandey, Anshuman (6 May 2008). "L2/08-194: Proposal to Encode the Kaithi Script in ISO/IEC 10646" (PDF).
  4. Rai, Alok. "Hindi Nationalism", p. 13
  5. General Report on Public Instruction in the Bengal Presidency, p. 103.
  6. "The Unicode Standard, Chapter 15.2: Kaithi" (PDF). Unicode Consortium. March 2020.
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