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Information About

Oriya Script




  type Abugida
  languages Oriya
  time 11th Century to the present
  region Orissa
  fam1 Proto-Sinaitic
  fam2 Phoenician
  fam3 Aramaic
  fam4 Brāhmī
  fam5 Kalinga iso15924=Orya


The Oriya script is used to write the Oriya Language , and can be used for several other Indian languages, for example, Sanskrit .


HISTORY

Many people believe that the modern Oriya script is derived from an old form of the Bengali Script . Prior to this, the early Brahmic Kalinga script was used to write the ancient Oriya language. Kalinga, the earliest writing system for the Oriya language, was discarded for reasons that are unknown, and a Bengali-derived script was adopted. Both alphabets are, however, very similar and are closely-related descendants of the Brahmi Script . A key feature of the Oriya script is the curved appearance of the letters. Though the cursive shape might appear to suggest influence from southern Brahmic scripts like Tamil or Malayalam , it is thought that this appearance was the result of the long-standing practice of writing manuscripts on palm leaves with a pointed stylus, which have a tendency to tear if too many straight lines are made on the surface.

Oriya is a syllabic alphabet 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 the diacritics appear at the beginning of a Syllable , vowels are written as independent letters. Also, when certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used which combine the essential parts of each consonant symbol.


ORIYA IN UNICODE


The Unicode range for Oriya is U+0B00 ... U+0B7F.


SEE ALSO




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