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Kayasthi (kaithi) signboard at Purbi Gumti Arrah along with Urdu alphabet (on right side) and Roman Script (above). "Lock no. 11" is written on the board in various languages or scripts.
This table sets out the handwritten form of the vowels and consonants of the Kaithi script, as of the middle of the 19th century.
Bhojpuri story written in Kaithi script by Babu Rama Smaran Lal in 1898
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 British 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.[citation needed]
History
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A printed form of the Kaithi script, as of the mid-19th century
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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.
In the late 19th century, John Nesfield in Oudh, George Campbell of Inverneill in Bihar and a committee in Bengal all advocated for the use of Kaithi script in education.[6] Many legal documents were written in Kaithi, and from 1950 to 1954 it was the official legal script of Bihar district courts. However, it was opposed by Brahmin elites and phased out. Present day Bihar courts struggle to read old Kaithi documents.[7]
Classes
On the basis of local variants Kaithi can be divided into three classes viz. Bhojpuri, Magahi and Trihuti.[8][9]
Bhojpuri
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Signboard in Bhojpuri Kaithi 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.
This was used in Bhojpuri speaking regions and was considered as most legible style of Kaithi.[8]
Magahi
Native to Magah or Magadh it lies between Bhojpuri and Trihuti.[8]
Tirhuti
It was used in Maithili speaking regions and was considered as most elegant style.[8]
A nuqta is used to extend letters to represent non-native sounds. For example, ๐ja + nuqta = ๐๐บ, which represents Arabic zayin.[3]
Punctuation
Kaithi has several script-specific punctuation marks:
Sign
Description
๐ป
The abbreviation sign is one method of representing abbreviations in Kaithi.[3] For example, ๐ช๐ฑ๐๐ฑ๐๐ง can be abbreviated as ๐ช๐ฒ๐ป.[3]
๐ฝ
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, ๐ฝเฅงเฅจเฅฉ.
๐ผ
The enumeration sign is a spacing version of the number sign.[10] It always appears before a digit or sequence of digits (never above or below).
๐พ
The section sign indicates the end of a sentence.[10]
๐ฟ
The double section sign indicates the end of a larger section of text, such as a paragraph.[10]
kaithi, other, uses, disambiguation, ๐, ๐, also, called, kayathi, ๐๐จ๐, kayasthi, ๐, ๐จ๐ฎ, ๐, historical, brahmic, script, that, used, widely, parts, northern, eastern, india, primarily, present, states, uttar, pradesh, jharkhand, bihar, particular, used, writing. For other uses see Kaithi disambiguation Kaithi ๐ ๐ also called Kayathi ๐๐จ๐ or Kayasthi ๐ ๐จ๐ฎ ๐ is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of Northern and Eastern 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 Bajjika Awadhi Bhojpuri Hindustani Magahi Maithili and Nagpuri KaithiKayathi Kayasthi ๐ ๐ Script typeAbugidaTime periodc 16th mid 20th centuryDirectionleft to right LanguagesAngika Awadhi Bhojpuri Hindustani Magahi Maithili NagpuriRelated scriptsParent systemsProto Sinaitic alphabet a Phoenician alphabet a Aramaic alphabet a BrahmiGuptaSiddhaแนNagariKaithiSister systemsDevanagari Nandinagari Gujarati ModiISO 15924ISO 15924Kthi 317 KaithiUnicodeUnicode aliasKaithiUnicode rangeU 11080 U 110CF a The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is debated This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet IPA For an introductory guide on IPA symbols see Help IPA For the distinction between and see IPA Brackets and transcription delimiters You may need rendering support to display the uncommon Unicode characters in this article correctly Kayasthi kaithi signboard at Purbi Gumti Arrah along with Urdu alphabet on right side and Roman Script above Lock no 11 is written on the board in various languages or scripts This table sets out the handwritten form of the vowels and consonants of the Kaithi script as of the middle of the 19th century Bhojpuri story written in Kaithi script by Babu Rama Smaran Lal in 1898 Contents 1 Etymology 2 History 3 Classes 3 1 Bhojpuri 3 2 Magahi 3 3 Tirhuti 4 Consonants 5 Vowels 6 Diacritics 7 Punctuation 8 Digits 9 Unicode 10 See also 11 ReferencesEtymology EditKaithi 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 British 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 citation needed History Edit 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 In the late 19th century John Nesfield in Oudh George Campbell of Inverneill in Bihar and a committee in Bengal all advocated for the use of Kaithi script in education 6 Many legal documents were written in Kaithi and from 1950 to 1954 it was the official legal script of Bihar district courts However it was opposed by Brahmin elites and phased out Present day Bihar courts struggle to read old Kaithi documents 7 Classes EditOn the basis of local variants Kaithi can be divided into three classes viz Bhojpuri Magahi and Trihuti 8 9 Bhojpuri Edit Signboard in Bhojpuri Kaithi 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 This was used in Bhojpuri speaking regions and was considered as most legible style of Kaithi 8 Magahi Edit Native to Magah or Magadh it lies between Bhojpuri and Trihuti 8 Tirhuti Edit It was used in Maithili speaking regions and was considered as most elegant style 8 Consonants EditAll Kaithi consonants have an inherent a vowel Occlusives VOICELESS PLOSIVES VOICED PLOSIVES NASALSUnaspirated Aspirated Unaspirated AspiratedLetter Trans IPA Letter Trans Letter Trans IPA Letter Trans Letter Trans IPAVelar ๐ k k ๐ kh ๐ g ษก ๐ gh ๐ แน ล Palatal ๐ c c ๐ ch ๐ j ษ ๐ jh ๐ n ษฒ Retroflex ๐ แนญ ส ๐ แนญh ๐ แธ ษ ๐ แธh ๐ แน ษณ ๐ แน ษฝ ๐ แนhDental ๐ t t ๐ th ๐ d d ๐ก dh ๐ข n n Labial ๐ฃ p p ๐ค ph ๐ฅ b b ๐ฆ bh ๐ง m m Sonorants and fricatives Palatal Retroflex Dental LabialLetter Trans IPA Letter Trans IPA Letter Trans IPA Letter Trans IPASonorants ๐จ y j ๐ฉ r r ๐ช l l ๐ซ v ส Sibilants ๐ฌ s ษ ๐ญ แนฃ ส ๐ฎ s s Other๐ฏ h h Vowels EditKaithi vowels have independent initial and dependent diacritic forms Vowels Trans Letter Diacritic Shown with k Trans Letter Diacritic Shown with kGuttural a ๐ ๐ a ๐ ๐ Palatal i ๐ ๐ i ๐ ๐ Rounded u ๐ ๐ u ๐ ๐ Palatoguttural e ๐ ๐ ai ๐ ๐ Labioguttural o ๐ ๐ au ๐ ๐ Diacritics EditSeveral diacritics are employed to change the meaning of letters Diacritic Name Function chandrabindu A chandrabindu denotes nasalisation although it is not normally used with Kaithi 3 anusvara An anusvara in Kaithi represents true vowel nasalisation 3 For example ๐ kaแน visarga Visarga is a Sanskrit holdover originally representing h For example ๐ kaแธฅ 3 halanta A virama removes a consonant s inherent a and in some cases forms consonant clusters Compare ๐ง๐ฅ maba with ๐ง ๐ฅ mba 10 nuqta A nuqta is used to extend letters to represent non native sounds For example ๐ ja nuqta ๐ which represents Arabic zayin 3 Punctuation EditKaithi has several script specific punctuation marks Sign Description The abbreviation sign is one method of representing abbreviations in Kaithi 3 For example ๐ช ๐ ๐๐ง can be abbreviated as ๐ช 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 เฅงเฅจเฅฉ The enumeration sign is a spacing version of the number sign 10 It always appears before a digit or sequence of digits never above or below The section sign indicates the end of a sentence 10 The double section sign indicates the end of a larger section of text such as a paragraph 10 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 EditKaithi uses stylistic variants of Devangari digits It also uses common Indic number signs for fractions and unit marks 10 Unicode EditMain 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 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E FU 1108x ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐U 1109x ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐ ๐U 110Ax ๐ ๐ก ๐ข ๐ฃ ๐ค ๐ฅ ๐ฆ ๐ง ๐จ ๐ฉ ๐ช ๐ซ ๐ฌ ๐ญ ๐ฎ ๐ฏU 110Bx U 110Cx Notes 1 As of Unicode version 15 0 2 Grey areas indicate non assigned code pointsSee also EditDevanagari Sylheti Nagari Gujarati script Modi scriptReferences Edit King Christopher R 1995 One Language Two Scripts The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India New York Oxford University Press Grierson George A 1899 A Handbook to the Kaithi Character Calcutta Thacker Spink amp Co a b c d e f g h i Pandey Anshuman 6 May 2008 L2 08 194 Proposal to Encode the Kaithi Script in ISO IEC 10646 PDF Rai Alok Hindi Nationalism p 13 General Report on Public Instruction in the Bengal Presidency p 103 Rai Alok 2007 Hindi Nationalism Reprint ed London Sangam Books p 51 ISBN 978 81 250 1979 4 เคเคน เคชเคจ เคจ เคฎ เคฆเคซเคจ เคจ เคน เค เค เค เคฅ inextlive in Hindi 19 March 2012 Retrieved 2 September 2020 a b c d Grierson G A 1881 A Handbook to the Kayathi Character Calcutta Thacar Spink and Co p 4 Grierson G A 1902 Linguistic Survey of India Vol V Part II a b c d e The Unicode Standard Chapter 15 2 Kaithi PDF Unicode Consortium March 2020 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Kaithi amp oldid 1112997469, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,
