Newar

Newa orthography notes

Letters

Combining marks

Numbers

Punctuation

Symbols

Other

Vowel sounds

All of the vowels and diphthongs can be nasalised (see length_nasalisation).

o, oː and u can also be pronounced ɔ, ɔː, and ʊ.wl,#Vowels

The sound ɑ, or something close to it, is used in the Dolakhar Newa dialect, used outside Kathmandu.wl,#Vowels

Consonant sounds

	labial	alveolar	post- alveolar	retroflex	palatal	velar	glottal
stops	p b	t d		ʈ ɖ		k ɡ
aspirated	pʰ bʱ	tʰ dʱ		ʈʰ ɖʱ		kʰ ɡʱ
affricates			t͡ɕ d͡ʑ
aspirated			t͡ɕʰ d͡ʑʱ
fricatives		s					h
nasals	m	n				ŋ
aspirated	mʱ	nʱ
approximants	w	l			j
aspirated	wʱ	lʱ			jʱ
trills/flaps		ɾ		ɽ
aspirated		ɾʱ		ɽʱ

The retroflex sounds only occur in the small Dolakha Newar dialect, located to the West of Kathmandhu.wl,#Consonants

Tap consonants ɾ and ɾʱ can occur as word-medial alternates of t, d, dʱ, or (in Dolakha) ɖ.wl,#Consonants

ŋ occurs only in word-final position in the Kathmandu dialect.wl,#Consonants

Vowel summary table

The following table summarises the main vowel to character assigments.

ⓘ represents the inherent vowel. Diacritics are added to the vowels to indicate nasalisation (only shown here for the dependent vowels).

For additional details see vowel_mappings.

This is the full set of characters needed to represent the Newar language vowels.

Inherent vowel

𑐎 kə U+1140E NEWA LETTER KA

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.

𑐎𑐮

Wiktionary transcriptions indicate that the inherent vowel after 𑐰 is pronounced ɔ

𑐰𑐔𑐸

𑐧𑑂𑐰𑐴

The inherent vowel can be lengthened and nasalised. This is indicated in the same way as for other vowels, except that there is no vowel sign involved.

𑐳𑑃𑐎𑑂𑐰𑑅

𑐀𑑄𑐐𑑅

Post-consonant vowels

Other than the inherent vowel, vowels following a consonant are mostly written using dedicated combining marks called vowel signs. The vowel signs are combined with other diacritics to indicate the various combinations of vowel length and nasalisation. See basicV for a summary.

The vowels ɛː and æː in Katmandhu Newar are written using the letter 𑐫𑑂, which always retains its visible virama, even if word-medial.

Newar vowel signs are involved in a number of unusual, context-dependent shaping behaviours, including alternate shapes for vowel signs, integration of vowel signs into the consonant's headstroke, and the formation of circumgraphs for certain consonant-vowel combinations.

Vowel length and nasalisation

𑑅␣𑑃␣𑑄

It is common to see Newar vowels described in a chart which shows long and nasalised forms.

Vowel length is indicated by using a dedicated character in the case of 11437 and 11439, but otherwise by adding 11445.

Nasalisation is indicated using 11443 for a short vowel, and 11444 for a long vowel.

Long, nasalised ĩː and ũː vowels use the short form of the vowel sign.m,5-6

The following matrix shows these various forms for the vowel signs. The same rules apply to the standalone vowel letters.

	Short	Long	Short nasal	Long nasal
i	𑐶	𑐷	𑐶𑑃	𑐶𑑄
u	𑐸	𑐹	𑐸𑑃	𑐸𑑄
e	𑐾	𑐾𑑅	𑐾𑑃	𑐾𑑄
o	𑑀	𑑀𑑅	𑑀𑑃	𑑀𑑄
æ	𑐵	𑐵𑑅	𑐵𑑃	𑐵𑑄
a	inherent	𑑅	𑑃	𑑄
əi	-	𑐿	-	𑐿𑑄
əu	-	𑑁	-	𑑁𑑄

Pre-base vowel sign

𑐎𑐶 ki U+1140E NEWA LETTER KA + U+11436 NEWA VOWEL SIGN I

𑐶

The short i sound is written using 11436, which appears to the left of the base consonant letter or cluster.

This combining mark is always typed and stored after the base consonant. The font places the glyph before the base consonant.

When an orthographic syllable begins with a consonant cluster that is rendered as a conjunct, the vowel sign is rendered before the start of the orthographic syllable, eg. here are 3 sets of consonant clusters, each followed by i when spoken, but the vowel sign appears to the left of each cluster.𑐗𑑂𑐏𑐶 𑐳𑑂𑐟𑐶 𑐧𑑂𑐬𑐶 jkhi sti bri

Standalone vowels

Newa represents standalone vowels using a set of independent vowel letters. The set includes a character to represent initial ə, the inherent vowel sound. There are separate letters for short and long versions of i and u, but diacritics are used to lengthen the remaining letters (see nasalisation).

𑐀𑐥𑐵

𑐃𑐮𑐔𑑄

𑐳𑐮𑐵𑐂

As mentioned earlier, a number of words also use 𑐫𑑂 as a standalone vowel, when word-medial or word-final. For example:

𑐩𑐾𑐫𑑂

𑐥𑐸𑐮𑐶𑐎𑑂𑐰𑑃𑐫𑑂

In Sanskrit texts, elision of an initial a due to sandhi is indicated using 11447.

Consonants with no following vowel

Newa uses 11442 (the Newa equivalent of the Sanskrit virama) to indicate that there is no inherent vowel after a consonant. For example, compare the following.

𑐫𑐾𑐟𑑂

𑐨𑐵𑐬𑐟

All syllable codas are written with a following virama.

Other consonant clusters also involve typing and storing this character after the consonant(s) with no following vowel, but if the cluster forms a conjunct then the virama is not rendered visibly (see clusters).

𑐎𑐳𑑂𑐟𑐶

(The virama is also frequently found as part of the vowel 𑐫𑑂, where it has a different function.)

𑐟𑑃𑐫𑑂

Vowel sounds to characters

This section maps Newar vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Newa orthography, where vs indicates a vowel sign, and s a standalone vowel. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.

Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.

Consonant summary table

The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.

For additional details see vowel_mappings.

Basic consonants

This section lists letters representing sounds of the Kathmandu dialect of the Newar language (shown in the table just above). See the next section for letters used in other dialects, or other languages (such as Sanskrit).

Whereas the table just above takes you from sounds to letters, the following simply lists the basic consonant letters (however, since the orthography is highly phonetic there is little difference in ordering).

Foreign sounds

The following letters are used in other dialects, or other languages (such as Sanskrit).

'Breathy' consonants

A feature of Newar is the number of consonants, besides the plosives, that are pronounced with accompanying breathiness. The following list shows these sounds and the way they are written.

Unicode provides single characters for most of these.

Observation: Sources indicate that wʰ and jʰ are also part of the Newar phonetic repertoire, and are represented by these conjunct forms, but Unicode doesn't provide precomposed characters for them. They therefore have to be composed as consonant clusters.

Observation: One source stated that when these sounds are used for transcriptions of Sanskrit, they should all be written as consonant clusters, rather than using the precomposed characters.

Contextual shaping

Quite a lot of Newa consonants participate in context-sensitive shaping. See headstrokes, headstroke_assimilation and bha_ha.

Repertoire extension using nukta

Newa has 11446 that can be used to represent foreign sounds, but it doesn't appear to be used for Newar currently.

Onsets

Clusters of consonant letters at the beginning of an orthographic syllable occur in Newa, and they are handled as described in the section clusters.

Special behaviours include handling of RA at the beginning of an orthographic syllable (see preceding_ra).

Finals

Word-final consonant sounds with no following consonant are represented by ordinary consonant characters, followed by a visible 11442 character.

The commonly found combination 𑐫𑑂 represents a vowel sound when it occurs at the end of a syllable.

𑐦𑐫𑑂

𑐎𑑂𑐰𑑃𑐫𑑂

𑐟𑐥𑐵𑐫𑑂

Syllable-final consonants that are not word-final normally form conjuncts. See clusters.

Observation: Pandey says that 11445 can represent syllable-final aspiration, but it's not clear whether that occurs in Newar as well as in Sanskrit.

Consonant clusters

The absence of a vowel sound between two or more consonants is visually indicated in one of the following ways.

1. Create a conjunct. There are a couple of possibilities here:
   1. Ligation : Create a fusion of the letter shapes, where it is usually possible to spot the original components, but sometimes not.
   2. An initial letter ra has its own idiosyncratic way of combining with other consonants, whether it precedes or follows them.
2. Show a visible virama below the non-final consonants in the cluster.
3. Use the anusvara.

Ligated forms

Conjuncts are normally formed by fusing glyphs for the component characters, so that they fit within the normal character height. One or both of the original letters may be unrecognisable, but generally the parts, though simplified, are recognisable.

It is most common for glyphs to merge vertically, although there are also many that merge diagonally. A few merge horizontally. See a list of combinations.

pla

pkʰa

spa

kpa

For a detailed analysis of conjunct composition see Pandey, pages 7–10.

Initial RA in clusters

A trailing RA has a fairly regular appearance as a subjoined glyph below the preceding consonant, though on the left side.

kra

However, like many other Indian scripts, 𑐬 at the beginning of a cluster is represented idiosyncratically, and appears as a small, superscript glyph over the top right of the following syllable.

rka

Visible virama

In some circumstances a cluster doesn't give rise to a conjunct. In that case, the virama is displayed below the initial consonant. fig_conjunct_virama shows an example spotted in a newspaper.

If the font automatically substitutes a conjunct, but you don't want it to you can use 200C immediately after the virama to prevent the fusion of the characters. (If there is no consonant following, as in the case at the end of the line, this formatting character isn't needed.)

Triple-consonant clusters

Newa has a few clusters involving 3 consonants. fig_conjunct_ndr gives an example.

ndra

The following is a list of the more common triple conjuncts, according to a Noto Fonts issue on GitHub.g1203

𑐩𑑂𑐥𑑂𑐫␣𑐣𑑂𑐴𑑂𑐫␣𑐩𑑂𑐴𑑂𑐫␣𑐮𑑂𑐴𑑂𑐫␣𑐣𑑂𑐢𑑂𑐫␣𑐣𑑂𑐡𑑂𑐬␣𑐣𑑂𑐟𑑂𑐬␣𑐣𑑂𑐟𑑂𑐫␣𑐏𑑂𑐟𑑂𑐫␣𑐣𑑂𑐳𑑂𑐚␣𑐣𑑂𑐴𑑂𑐰␣𑐮𑑂𑐴𑑂𑐰␣𑐣𑑂𑐟𑑂𑐬␣𑐘𑑂𑐖𑑂𑐫␣𑐣𑑂𑐢𑑂𑐰␣𑐩𑑂𑐥𑑂𑐫␣𑐐𑑂𑐟𑑂𑐫␣𑐳𑑂𑐠𑑂𑐫␣𑐐𑑂𑐦𑑂𑐬␣𑐣𑑂𑐳𑑂𑐟␣𑐣𑑂𑐳𑑂𑐎␣𑐩𑑂𑐴𑑂𑐰␣𑐐𑑂𑐦𑑂𑐬𑐾␣𑐲𑑂𑐚𑑂𑐬

Observation: The list just above raises 2 questions: (a) why sequences such as nh don't use the precomposed code point, (b) which of these are used for Newar, as opposed to Sanskrit or another language?

Consonant length

Gemination and consonant lengthening are handled using the normal approach to consonant clusters (see clusters).

Consonant sounds to characters

This section maps Newar consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Newa orthography. Click on a grapheme to find other mentions on this page (links appear at the bottom of the page). Click on the character name to see examples and for detailed descriptions of the character(s) shown.

Sounds listed as 'infrequent' are allophones, or sounds used for foreign words, etc.

Digits

Newa has a set of native digits.

Pandey describes variant shapes for 3, 4, and 5, which are to be managed by font.p,10

Context-based shaping & positioning

Headstrokes & headlines. Pandey writes: The headstrokes of Newar letters do not connect to preceding or following letters. Connection of headstrokes of characters that form a syllable may occur, such as in the combination of a consonant letter and a dependent vowel sign. The majority of Newar manuscripts attest this behavior. However, there is no particular rule that describes the joining properties of headstrokes. Variations in the writing of headstrokes are to be attributed to scribal preferences. In modern digitized typefaces the headstrokes of glyphs connect, but this feature may be an influence of modern Devanagari typography.p,13

Headstroke assimilation

A rather unusual feature of Newa orthography is that vowel signs with a wavy horizontal line replace the flat headstroke of the base consonant.

This includes vowels written with the following vowel signs: 1143E, 11440, 1143F, and 11441.p,6

Alternative shapes for u

The sound u is produced by the letter 11438, but that letter can have a different shape when attached to different consonant letters. The vowel sign used to represent the long uː sound also has contextual variations, though not as many as the short vowel. All of these orthographic variants are produced automatically by the font; there is no need to use different characters.

The short sound is rendered as a curved shape with the following 4 consonant letters:p,7

𑐐␣𑐟␣𑐨␣𑐱

The alternative shape is shown in fig_u_shape.

Both short and long sounds are also written as ligatures with the consonant letters 𑐖 and 𑐬, as shown in fig_u_ligatures.

The consonants 𑐨 and 𑐴 also take on special shapes when followed by a u-vowel (see bha_ha).

Special shapes for BHA & HA

𑐨 and 𑐴 have special shapes when combined with the 11438 or 11439, or any of the vocalic vowel signs.p,7

Additional contextual shaping for consonants carrying a u-related vowel sign can be seen in u_shape.

Explicit shaping controls

200C (ZWNJ) can be used to force the production of a visible virama, rather than a conjunct form.

Word boundaries

Word units are separated by spaces.

Graphemes

Grapheme clusters

Usually a typographic character unit correlates with the Unicode concept of grapheme clusters, but not in the case of conjuncts (in common with several other Indic scripts).

Conjuncts

Conjuncts and any dependent combining characters should never be split.

This creates a problem when dealing with Unicode grapheme clusters, because they stop after reaching a virama. So conjuncts usually contain multiple grapheme clusters. This produces incorrect segmentation as seen on the right in fig_grapheme_conjunct. Applications need to tailor the grapheme cluster rules to avoid splitting conjuncts.

Unfortunately, this is harder than it seems, because whether a conjunct is formed or not usually depends on the capabilities of the font – it cannot be determined solely by looking at the code points in memory. If a font doesn't contain the glyphs to create a conjunct it will render the consonant cluster with a visible virama. In that case, the grapheme cluster approach is appropriate.

Phrase & section boundaries

Newa uses a mixture of ASCII and native punctuation marks.

Observation: The Lipi Pau newspaper in 2009 used spaces before and after the newa danda.

Quotations & citations

Newar texts use quotation marks around quotations. 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.

Line breaking & hyphenation

Lines are mostly broken at inter-word spaces.

Like most writing systems, certain characters are expected not to start or end a line. For example, periods and commas shouldn't start a line, and opening parentheses shouldn't end a line.

Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the Newar language.

Baselines, line height, etc.

tbd

Newar uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.