This page brings together basic information about the Gujarati script and its use for the Gujarati language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Gujarati using Unicode.
Sample
Select part of this sample text to show a list of characters, with links to more details. Source
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અનુચ્છેદ ૧:
પ્રતિષ્ઠા અને અધિકારોની દૃષ્ટિએ સર્વ માનવો જન્મથી સ્વતંત્ર અને સમાન હોય છે. તેમનામાં વિચારશક્તિ અને અંતઃકરણ હોય છે અને તેમણે પરસ્પર બંધુત્વની ભાવનાથી વર્તવું જોઇએ.
અનુચ્છેદ ૨:
દરેક વ્યક્તિને જાતિ, રંગ, લિંગ, ભાષા, ધર્મે, રાજકીય અથવા બીજા અભિપ્રાય, રાષ્ટ્રીય અથવા સામાજિક ઉદ્ભવસ્થાન, મિલકત, જન્મ અથવા મોભા જેવા કોઇપણ જાતના ભેદભાવ વગર આ ધોષણામાં રજૂ કરવામાં આવેલા સધળા અધિકારો અને સ્વતંત્રતા ભોગવવાનો હક્ક છે.
વધુમાં કોઇપણ વ્યક્તિ તે સ્વતંત્ર, ટ્રસ્ટ હેઠળના સ્વશાસન હેઠળ ન હોય તેવા અથવા સાર્વભામત્વની બીજી કોઇપણ મર્યાદા હેઠળ આવેલા દેશ અથવા પ્રદેશની હોય તો પણ રાજકીય, હફમવવિષયક અથવા આંતરરાષ્ટ્રીય મોભાના ધોરણે તેની સાથે કોઇપણ ભેદભાવ રાખવામાં આવશે નહિ.
Usage & history
The Gujarati script is used for writing the Gujarati and Chodri languages, together spoken by almost 47 million people, as well as use alongside Devanagari for languages of the Bhil people, one of India's largest indigenous groups. Until the mid-19th century it was used primarily for bookkeeping and personal correspondence, but since printing facilities became widely available to Gujarati speakers the script has been used in schools, for printing books and newspapers, in government offices and public signage, and is one of the official scripts of India.
ગુજરાતી લિપિgujǎrātī lipiGujarati script
The Gujarati script was adapted from the Devanagari script to write the Gujarati language from the 10th century. Since then it has gone through 3 distinct phases. The third phase, begun in the 17th century, saw the abandonment of the shiroreka (topline), part of an adaptation to enable ease and speed of writing. The Devanagari script was used for literature and academic writings until the modern widespread use of the script developed.
The script is an abugida. Consonants carry an inherent vowel which can be modified by appending vowel signs to the consonant. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features of the modern Gujarati orthography.
Gujarati text runs left to right in horizontal lines.
Words are separated by spaces.
Gujarati uses 34 consonant letters. The repertoire can be extended by applying the nukta diacritic to characters, or with additional characters, but these are used for Arabic and Avestan transliterations, rather than current Gujarati text. Gujarati doesn't use a shiroreka (top line) like its close relative Devanagari. ❯ consonants
Final consonant sounds may be represented by 2 dedicated combining marks (anusvara & visarga), but are generally ordinary consonants that are not marked by a virama. ❯ finals
The Gujarati orthography has an inherent vowel, and represents other vowels using 11 vowel signs, including 1 pre-base vowel and no circumgraphs. All vowel signs are combining marks, and are stored after the base character. ❯ vowels
There are 12 independent vowels, one for each vowel sound, including the inherent vowel, and these are used to write all standalone vowel sounds. Some vowel signs can be visually analysed into subcomponents, but Unicode usage involves only one combining character per consonant. ❯ standalone
Vowels may be nasalised, using the anusvara diacritic.
The absence of the inherent vowel is not always indicated. It is generally not pronounced at the end of a word, but also it is sometimes elided without indications within a word. Consonant clusters can be indicated using the virama between consonants and include half-forms, stacked consonants, and ligated glyphs. Occasionally, a visible virama is used. In addition, participating consonants may just be moved together. Gujarati is also unusual in that components in clusters sometimes used Devanagari glyphs for one or more Gujarati characters. ❯ novowel
Two vocalics are used in current text. Others were used historically. ❯ vocalics
Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones. Source Wikipedia.
Vowel sounds
Plain vowels
Diphthongs
Consonant sounds
labial
dental
alveolar
post-
alveolar
retroflex
palatal
velar
glottal
stops
pb
td
ʈɖ
kɡ
aspirated
pʰbʰ
tʰdʰ
ʈʰɖʰ
kʰɡʰ
affricates
t͡ʃd͡ʒ
aspirated
t͡ʃʰd͡ʒʰ
fricatives
f
sz
ʃ
ɦ
nasals
m
n
ɳ
approximants
ʋ
l
ɭ̆
j
trills/flaps
ɾ
Vowels
The Gujarati orthography has an inherent vowel, and represents other vowels using 11 vowel signs, including 1 pre-base vowel and no circumgraphs. All vowel signs are combining marks, and are stored after the base character.
There are 12 independent vowels, one for each vowel sound, including the inherent vowel, and these are used to write all standalone vowel sounds. Some vowel signs can be visually analysed into subcomponents, but Unicode usage involves only one combining character per consonant.
Vowels may be nasalised, using the anusvara diacritic.
The absence of the inherent vowel is not always indicated. It is generally not pronounced at the end of a word, but also it is sometimes elided without indications within a word. Consonant clusters can be indicated using the virama between consonants and include half-forms, stacked consonants, and ligated glyphs. Occasionally, a visible virama is used. In addition, participating consonants may just be moved together. Gujarati is also unusual in that components in clusters sometimes used Devanagari glyphs for one or more Gujarati characters.
Two vocalics are used in current text. Others were used historically.
Inherent vowel
ə following a consonant is not written, but is seen as an inherent part of the consonant letter, so kə is written by simply using the consonant letter. The sound is transcribed as a.
Gujarati vowel signs are all combining characters. All vowel signs are stored after the base consonant, and the rendering process puts them in the correct place for display.
About half of the vowel signs are are spacing marks, meaning that they consume horizontal space when added to a base consonant.
There are separate vowel signs for the historical short and long variants, but length is no longer distinctive in modern pronunciation. It is only found in metrical structures of verse.ws,#Overview
One vowel sign appears to the left of the base consonant letter or cluster.
This is a combining mark that is always typed and stored after the base consonant(s), ie. the codepoints follow the order in which the items are pronounced. The rendering process places the glyph before the base consonant without changing the code points.
It is actually placed before the start of an orthographic syllable. In fig_prebase the sequence of glyphs for the orthographic syllable is rendered VCC, whereas the pronunciation is CCV. In conjuncts with 3 consonants, it will still be rendered before the consonants.
A prebase vowel, pronounced after a consonant cluster, but rendered to the left of the conjunct.details
અસ્તિત્વ
However, if the cluster doesn't form a conjunct, this creates two syllables and the pre-base vowel sign appears before the last consonant in the cluster. The sequence of displayed glyphs is now CVC. If the conjunct contains 3 consonants, the displayed order will be CCVC.
Another pre-base vowel, but without the conjunct. The vowel is now rendered to the left of the last consonant in the cluster.details
The anusvara may also represent a nasal before a plosive.
Vowel sign placement
The following list shows where vowel signs are positioned around a base consonant to produce vowels, and how many instances of that pattern there are.
1 pre-base, eg. કિki
5 post-base, eg. કાkə
3 superscript, eg. કેke
2 subscript, eg. કુku
Vowel absence
The inherent vowel is not always pronounced, even if there is no visual indication of its absence.
For example, the inherent vowel is typically not pronounced at the end of a word, eg. ઘર The inherent vowel is still dropped when the root word is followed by suffixes or in compounds,ws,#Overview eg. ઘરપરઘરકામ
The inherent vowel may also be elided when combining morphemes, eg. the root પકડ઼ is written the same even when inflected as પકડ઼ે even though the pronunciation is pakṛe. ws,#Overview
In other cases, the inherent vowel is simply missing, eg. વરસાદ is pronounced varsaːd.ws,#Overview
Gujarati can also use ્ [U+0ACD GUJARATI SIGN VIRAMA] (called halant in Gujarati) to explicitly kill the inherent vowel after a consonant. The virama is rarely seen. Apart from the situations just mentioned, the virama is also usually hidden when part of a consonant cluster (see clusters).
The virama is visible, however, if it isn't followed by a consonant, eg. the following explicitly represents just the sound k. ક્k͓
Standalone vowels
Gujarati represents standalone vowels using a set of independent vowel letters. The set includes a character to represent the inherent vowel sound.
ઇ␣ઈ␣ઊ␣ઉ␣એ␣ઓ␣અ␣ઑ␣ઍ␣આ␣ઔ␣ઐ
Vocalics
In Gujarati, vocalics are available both as vowel signs and independent vowels. According to CLDR, only two of the vocalics are regularly used for the Gujarati language.
ઋ␣ૠ␣ૃ␣ૄ
The other vocalics in the Gujarati block are:
ઌ␣ૡ␣ૢ␣ૣ
Consonants
Gujarati uses 34 consonant letters. The repertoire can be extended by applying the nukta diacritic to characters, or with additional characters, but these are used for Arabic and Avestan transliterations, rather than current Gujarati text. Gujarati doesn't use a shiroreka (top line) like its close relative Devanagari.
Final consonant sounds may be represented by 2 dedicated combining marks (anusvara & visarga), but are generally ordinary consonants that are not marked by a virama.
The Unicode Gujarati block provides mechanisms for extending the basic set of consonants, in particular for the transcription of Arabic and Avestan.
A set of combining characters for the range 0AFA..0AFF was added to the block in Unicode v10 to allow representation of Arabic sounds. For more details, see the Unicode Standard.u,480
઼ [U+0ABC GUJARATI SIGN NUKTA] is used to transliterate sounds in Avestan found in the texts of the Zoroastrians, who fled to Gujarat from Persia and are known as Parsis. They include the following;
ત઼␣ંઘ઼␣જ઼␣ખ઼
The Gujarati block also has an additional consonant character to represent the letter ʒ in those transliterations.
The absence of a vowel sound between two or more consonants can be indicated visually in the following ways.
Create a conjunct. There are a number of possibilities here:
Half-forms : Reduce the shape of all consonants in the cluster except the last to a 'half-form'.
Stacking : Reduce a non-initial consonant in size and shape and position it below the first. Sometimes the subjoined character is attached to the bottom left corner.
Touching : Move the component consonants close together, so that they touch.
Special ligation : Create a ligature combining the two shapes (where it may be difficult to identify one or more of the parts).
The letter ra has its own idiosyncratic way of combining with other consonants, whether it precedes or follows them.
Show a visible virama below the non-final consonants in the cluster.
Use a final-consonant character before another consonant. See finals.
No indication, although there are usually generalised pronunciation rules that allow readers to spot these locations. See absence.
The font usually determines which visual method is used, although it is possible to influence this (see joiner).
One slightly unusual aspect of Gujarati is that it sometimes borrows Devanagari glyph shapes for one or more components of a conjunct (though the characters are still the normal Gujarati ones).
Click on the figures below to see which characters are being shown.
Half-forms
A half-form is typically created by removing the vertical line in the consonant shape, where there is one. (The vertical line is associated with the inherent vowel, and around two-thirds of Gujarati consonant shapes contain one.) There is often some additional tweaking of glyphs in order to join the components neatly.
ત્વ→ત્વણ્ઢ→ણ્ઢથ્થ→થ્થ
Examples of conjuncts formed by using half-forms.
Vertical combinations
Vertical combinations are particularly common for gemination.
ટ્ટ→ટ્ટઢ્ઢ→ઢ્ઢટ્ઠ→ટ્ઠ
Examples of conjuncts formed by subjoining non-initial consonants.
Some vertical combinations hang the subjoined second consonant from the bottom-left corner.
દ્ગ→દ્ઘદ્ધ→દ્ધદ્બ→દ્બ
Examples where subjoined consonants are attached to the bottom-left corner.
Using devanagari glyph shapes
Certain clusters use devanagari shapes for one or more of the consonants participating in the conjunct. This is a reminder that conjuncts are to a large extent a legacy of Sanskrit text.
હ્ય→હ્યઞ્જ→ઞ્જદ્બ→દ્બઙ્ક→ઙ્ક
Examples where part(s) of the conjunct use a Devanagari shape.
Ligated conjuncts
Other clusters combine components into special ligated forms, often in a way that makes it difficult to spot the component parts.
ત્ત→ત્તદ્પ→દ્યશ્ચ→શ્ચક્ષ→ક્ષ
Conjuncts formed by ligation.
Touching consonants in conjuncts
Other clusters, particularly where there is no vertical stroke in the preceding consonant, move the components closer together, without major shape changes, so that they touch.
ક્ક→ક્કક્ય→ક્યજ્જ→જ્જ
Consonants in a cluster that touch each other without substantial shape changes.
Conjuncts with ra
After a consonant.When ra follows another consonant, it is typically rendered as a small, diagonal line pointing downwards to the left, eg. ક્ર ગ્ર ભ્ર હ્ર શ્ર After 5 consonants, however, it is rendered as an upside-down v shape below, ie. ટ્ર ઠ્ર ડ્ર ઢ્ર દ્ર After ત it produces ત્ર
ગ્ર→ગ્રટ્ર→ટ્રત્ર→ત્ર
Conjuncts formed by a following ra.
Before a consonant.When ra precedes another consonant, it is rendered as a small hook above the following consonant, or a following vertical line in the cluster, eg. ર્કr͓kર્સr͓s Where it precedes a cluster, it is aligned with the vertical line of the trailing consonant, eg. ર્સ્પr͓s͓p However, if there is a spacing vowel sign with a vertical line to the right of the cluster, it aligns with that, eg. ર્કાr͓kəર્કીr͓kī (This illustrates that the basic units of the script are orthographic syllables.)
ર્કર્વાર્સ્પર્સ્પા
Examples of positioning of the hook for conjuncts formed by a preceding ra.
Visible virama
The ability to form conjuncts depends on the richness of the font. Where a font is not able to produce a half-form or ligature, etc., it will leave a visible virama glyph below the initial consonant(s) to indicate the missing vowel sound, eg. ટ્બʈ͓b
Encoding choices
Visually, several of the standalone vowels and some vowel signs look as it they could be composed of smaller parts. This section compares approaches and considers the relevance of Unicode Normalisation Form D (NFD) and Unicode Normalisation Form C (NFC) to give guidance on which approach is best.
Vowel signs
The approaches listed here are not equivalent when the text is normalised, and therefore produce different content which creates problems for search or other operations. In all cases, only the precomposed approach in the left column should be used.
The approaches listed here are also not equivalent when the text is normalised, and therefore only the precomposed approach in the left column should be used.
In addition to the consonants and vowel letters already mentioned, the Gujarati block contains the following letters, which CLDR lists as needed for writing the Gujarati language.
Gujarati has a set of native digits, used in the same way as Latin digits.
૦␣૧␣૨␣૩␣૪␣૫␣૬␣૭␣૮␣૯
Currency
The abbreviation for રૂપિયો 'Rupee' can be written using the dedicated character, ૱ [U+0AF1 GUJARATI RUPEE SIGN] or using the initial syllable followed by an abbreviation mark or a full stop, ie. રૂ૰રૂ.
Text direction
Gujarati text runs left to right in horizontal lines.
This section brings together information about the following topics:
writing styles;
cursive text;
context-based shaping;
context-based positioning;
baselines, line height, etc.;
font styles;
case & other character transforms.
U+200D ZERO WIDTH JOINER can be used to produce a half-form, such as સ્ચrather than શ્ચ It can also be used to produce standalone half-forms (for educational text) such as સ્
Font styling & weight
tbd
Graphemes
Grapheme clusters
tbd
Punctuation & inline features
Word boundaries
Words are separated by spaces.
Phrase & section boundaries
,␣:␣;␣.␣?␣!␣।␣॥
Gujarati generally uses ASCII punctuation, but may also use a couple of punctuation from the Devanagari block.
Gujarati texts typically use quotation marks. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.
Single quotation marks are used for quotations within quotations.
Emphasis
tbd
Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition
૰ [U+0AF0 GUJARATI ABBREVIATION SIGN] is a commonly-used character in Gujarati and appears in printed materials. It is used to write abbreviations of words in Gujarati, eg. ડોક્ટર can be abbreviated as ડો૰ The Latin full stop is used interchangeably with this character, eg. ડો.
Inline notes & annotations
tbd
Other punctuation
CLDR also lists the following non-ASCII characters.
§␣‐␣–␣—␣†␣‡␣…␣′␣″
Other inline text decoration
tbd
Line & paragraph layout
Line breaking & hyphenation
By default, Gujarati breaks lines on the spaces between words.
This section looks at ways in which spacing is applied between characters over and above that which is introduced during justification.
Baselines, line height, etc.
tbd
Gujarati uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
Counters, lists, etc.
You can experiment with counter styles using the Counter styles converter. Patterns for using these styles in CSS can be found in Ready-made Counter Styles, and we use the names of those patterns here to refer to the various styles.
The modern Gujarati orthography uses a native numeric style.
Numeric
The gujarati numeric style is decimal-based and uses these digits.rmcs
૧␣૨␣૩␣૪␣૫␣૬␣૭␣૮␣૯␣૦
Examples:
૧␣૨␣૩␣૪␣૧૧␣૨૨␣૩૩␣૪૪␣૧૧૧␣૨૨૨␣૩૩૩␣૪૪૪
Prefixes and suffixes
Gujarati commonly uses a full stop + space as a suffix.
Examples:
૧. ૨. ૩. ૪. ૫.
Separator for Gujarati list counters: full stop + space.
Styling initials
tbd
Page & book layout
This section is for any features that are specific to Gujarati and that relate to the following topics:
general page layout & progression;
grids & tables;
notes, footnotes, etc;
forms & user interaction;
page numbering, running headers, etc.
