Nuqta

"Nukta" redirects here. For the fish species, seeSchismatorhynchos nukta.

Not to be confused withAnusvara.

़
Nuqta

Thenuqta(Hindi:नुक़्ता,Urdu:نقطہ,romanized:nuqtā;sometimes also spellednukta), is adiacriticmark that was introduced inDevanagariand some otherIndic scriptsto represent sounds not present in the original scripts.It takes the form of adotplaced below acharacter.This idea is inspired from theArabic script;for example, there are some letters in Urdu that share the same basic shape but differ in the placement of dots(s) or nuqta(s) in thePerso-Arabic script:the letter عayn,with the addition of a nuqta on top, becomes the letter غ g͟hayn.

Use in Devanagari

Perso-Arabic consonants

The termnuqtā(नुक़्ता) is itself an example of the use of the nuqta (making itautological.) Other examples includeक़िला(Urdu:قلعہ),qilā,'fortress'; andआग़ा ख़ान (Urdu:آغا خان),Āġā K͟hān,a combination of aTürko-Mongolic(āġā) and a (k͟hān) honorific.

Nuqta usage in writing Perso-Arabic consonants

Letter	With nuqta	IPA	Example
क,ka	क़,qa	q	क़ज़ाक़,qazāq,'Kazakh'
ख,kha	ख़,k͟ha,xa	x	ख़ान,k͟hān,'Khan'
ग,ga	ग़,ġa	ɣ	काग़ज़,kāġaz,'paper'
ज,ja	ज़,za	z	अङ्ग्रेज़ी,aṅgrēzī,'English'
झ,jha	झ़,ža,zha	ʒ	अझ़दहा,aždahā,'dragon'
ड,ḍa	ड़,ṛa	ɽ	बड़ा,baṛā,'big'
ढ,ḍha	ढ़,ṛha	ɽʰ	पढ़ना,paṛhnā,'to read'
फ,pha	फ़,fa	f	साफ़,sāf,'clean'

The nuqta, and the phonological distinction it represents, is sometimes ignored in practice; e.g.,क़िलाqilābeing simply spelled asकिलाkilā.In the textDialect Accent Features for Establishing Speaker Identity,Manisha Kulshreshtha and Ramkumar Mathur write, "A few sounds, borrowed from the other languages likePersianandArabic,are written with a dot (bindu or nuqtā). Many people who speakHindias a second language, especially those who come from rural backgrounds and do not speak conventionalHindi(also calledKhaṛībōlī), or speak in one of its dialects, pronounce these sounds as their nearest equivalents. "For example, these rural speakers will assimilate the soundɣ(Devanagari:ग़;Nastaliq:غ) asɡ(Devanagari:ग;Nastaliq:گ).

With a renewedHindi–Urdulanguage contact, manyUrduwriters now publish their worksin Devanagari editions.Since the Perso-Arabic orthography is preserved inNastaʿlīq scriptUrdu orthography, these writers use the nuqta in Devanagari when transcribing these consonants.

Dravidian consonants

Devanagari also includes coverage for theDravidianconsonantsऴ,ḻa/ɻ/;ऱ,ṟa/r/ andऩ,ṉa/n/. (Respectively, these letters modifyळ,ḷa/ɭ/;र,ra/ɾ/ andन,na/n̪/). An example isतमिऴ्/t̪amiɻ/ (Tamil:தமிழ்),tamiḻ.

Dardic consonants

For example, the lettersच़andछ़are used in Devanagari to write theKashmirialveolar affricatesژ/t͡s/andژھ/t͡sʰ/respectively.

Eastern Indo-Aryan letters

To represent theEastern Nagariletterয়representing /e̯ɔ/, the consonantय़,ẏais used in Devanagari.

InMaithili,there are four non-syllabic vowels: i̯, u̯, e̯, o̯ written in Devanagari as य़, व़, य़ॆ, व़ॊ. But colloquially, these are written without nuqta.

TheBengali-Assamese scripthas ড় ঢ় য়, which are variations of ড ঢ য; however, ব and র are completely different in nature.

Similar diacritics

Sindhi's andSaraiki'simplosivesare accommodated in Devanagari with a line attached below—a diacritical bar:ॻ[ɠə],ॼ[ʄə],ॾ[ɗə],ॿ[ɓə].

InTamil script,the special characterஃ(ஆய்த எழுத்து,āyda eḻuttu) is used like nuqta torepresent non-native consonants.

InThaanascript ofMaldives,one or many nuqtas are added to their native consonants to represent Perso-Arabic consonants, and each phoneme is encoded as a whole in the Unicode block (instead of a separate codepoint for the diacritic).

See also

• Hindustani phonology
• Hindi-Urdu transliteration
• Hunterian transliteration

References

Bibliography

• Vajpeyi, K. D. (Kishorī Dās Vājpayī; किशोरीदास वाजपेयी),Hindī shabdanushāsanहिन्दी शब्दनुशासन (1957, 1958, 1973, 1976, 1988).

External links

• Nuqte ka funda | नुक़्ते का फ़ंडा | نقطے کا فنڈا(inHindi/Urdu)
• An Introduction to Indic scriptsArchived2009-07-15 at theWayback Machine
• SCRIPT GRAMMAR FOR HINDI LANGUAGE