The Devanagari script: its history, structure and the languages that use it

The Hindi version of this article is written in the Devanagari script. Many languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi and Nepali, are written in it, and hundreds of millions of people use it every day. Remember that a language and a script are different things — a language is what we speak, and a script is the system of signs used to write it down. Here are Devanagari's history and its special features.

From Brahmi to Devanagari

Most of India's scripts go back to the ancient Brahmi script, whose most famous examples are found in the inscriptions of Emperor Ashoka from the 3rd century BCE. Over time Brahmi gave rise to the Gupta script, and then to the Siddhamatrika and Nagari scripts. By around the 10th–11th century, Devanagari looked much as it does today. The word "Nagari" is linked with "nagara" (city), and with "Deva" added it became "Devanagari". The Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam scripts of south India also come from the Brahmi family.

How Devanagari is built

• Left to right: Devanagari is written from left to right.
• The headline: most letters have a horizontal line on top (the shirorekha), which joins the letters of a word.
• A hidden "a" in consonants: every consonant already carries the sound "a" — "क" is pronounced "k + a". That is why it is called an "abugida".
• Matras: other vowels are added with signs called matras — ki, kee, ku, koo, ke, kai, ko, kau.
• No capitals: unlike English, there are no capital and small letters.
• Read as written: most words are spoken almost exactly as they are written.

The scientific order of the alphabet

The letters of the Devanagari alphabet are not arranged at random but in the order of where they are made in the mouth — from the throat towards the lips:

Within each group the order is fixed too: first the hard sound, then its breathy (aspirated) form, then the soft sound, then its aspirated form, and last the nasal. In Hindi, 11 vowels and 33 basic consonants are usually taught.

Did you know? The digits 0 to 9 used across the world today were developed in India. Devanagari has its own digits — ०, १, २, ३, ४, ५, ६, ७, ८, ९ — but under Article 343 of the Constitution, official work uses "the international form of Indian numerals" (1, 2, 3…). Read the story of zero in Who invented zero.

Which languages use Devanagari?

In India, Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi, Konkani, Bodo, Dogri, Maithili and Nepali are mainly written in Devanagari; Sindhi in India is written in both Devanagari and the Perso-Arabic script. Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Rajasthani and many other dialects are also written in Devanagari. Outside India, Nepali, the official language of Nepal, is written in Devanagari too. Read about Hindi in Interesting facts about Hindi, and about Sanskrit in The Sanskrit language.

Devanagari on computers and phones

When the "Unicode" standard arrived in 1991, Devanagari got its own block in it, which is why it now displays correctly on websites, phones and computers everywhere. For typing, the Government of India's standard is the "InScript" keyboard, and phone keyboards that turn Roman letters into Devanagari are also popular. The "Nagari Pracharini Sabha", founded in Varanasi in 1893, played a historic part in promoting Devanagari and Hindi.

More articles: Interesting facts.