This page brings together basic information about the Newa (or Pracalit) script and its use for the Newar language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Newar using Unicode.
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Newa (also known as Prachalit or Nepaalalipi) is a Brahmi-derived script used principally to write the Tibeto-Burman language Newar (also known as Nepal Bhasa). The language is spoken by around 800,000 people, predominantly in the Kathmandu valley (the 5th most spoken language in Nepal), plus 14,000 in Sikkim, where it is recognised as a state language. The Newar language is mostly written in Devanagari, but there is a movement to promote more use of the Newa script.
It has also been used to write Sanskrit, Bengali, Maithili, and Hindi.
𑐣𑐾𑐰𑐵𑑅 𑐨𑐵𑐫𑑂newaː bʱajNewa (Newar)
𑐣𑐾𑐥𑐵𑐮 𑐨𑐵𑐲𑐵nepal bʱasaNewar (Nepalese)
The script emerged in the 10th century and was actively used until Gorkha rule ended the reign of Newar dynasties in 1769, after which the use began to decline. The use of the Newa script and Newar language was banned by the Rana government in 1905, with harsh treatment of proponents. When Rana rule ended in 1951, the ban was lifted, but the effects are still felt.
A revival initiative gained momentum in the 1980s, and a standard was created by the Nepal Lipi Guthi with the help of leading scholars in 1989
Newa is one of at least 6 scripts used for writing Nepali languages, which include Ranjana, Bhujimol, Kutila, Golmol, and Litumol.
The Newa 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 for the modern Newar orthography.
A unusual feature of Newa orthography is that vowel signs with a wavy horizontal line replace the flat headstroke of the base consonant. Newa also has consonant-vowel ligatures. ❯ shaping
Newa runs left to right in horizontal lines.
Words are separated by spaces.
The 29 consonant letters used for Newar include precomposed characters for 4 out of 6 murmured consonants. ❯ consonants
Consonant clusters are normally rendered using fused forms. A visible virama may be used. Initial RA is rendered as a reph over the top right of the following consonant. ❯ clusters
Vowels have short and long lengths, and are regularly nasalised. Additional symbols are used to express length and nasalisation.
There are no composite vowels, as such, however vowel signs can be combined with the visarga, candrabindu and anusvara to indicate vowel length and nasalisation. ❯ length_nasalisation
There are no composite vowels, as such, however vowel signs can be combined with the visarga, candrabindu and anusvara to indicate vowel length and nasalisation.
There is a set of 4 vocalics, each with vowel sign and independent forms, but only 1 is used, and not in modern Newa.
For a mapping of sounds to graphemes see vowel_mappings.
Inherent vowel
a following a consonant is not written, but is seen as an inherent part of the consonant letter, so ka is written by simply using the consonant letter.
Newar 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. This also applies for the 5 circumgraphs, where a single code point produces glyphs on more than one side of the consonant base.
An orthography that uses vowel signs is different from one that uses simple diacritics or letters for vowels, in that the vowel signs are generally attached to an orthographic syllable, rather than just applied to the letter of the immediately preceding consonant. In other words, pre-base vowel sign components are rendered before a whole consonant cluster if that cluster is rendered as a conjunct (see prebase_vowels for an example).
Five vowel signs are spacing marks, meaning that they consume horizontal space when added to a base consonant.
Newar uses the following dedicated combining marks for vowels. They may be used on their own, or in combination with other characters (see composite_vowels).
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 𑐧𑑂𑐬𑐶jkhi sti bri
Circumgraphs
Another idiosyncracy of Newa orthography is that 5 vowel signs change shape when attached to the base consonants that don't have a headstroke. Four of those vowel signs are so-called 'wavy-headed', and when combined with the 7 headless consonants they are rendered as circumgraphs.p,6
The following table shows the various forms, combined with both KA (has headstroke) and GA (headless). The last 4 vowel signs combined with the headless GA produce the circumgraphs.
No special encoding is needed to create these circumgraph forms. The shape change should be effected automatically by the font. Also, and usefully, unlike some other Indic scripts, it is not possible to incorrectly compose these circumgraph forms by combining other Newa characters, since the shapes don't exist in the character set.
Vowel length and nasalisation
It is common to see Newar vowels described in a chart which shows long and nasalised forms.
From left to right, short, long, nasalised, and long nasalised forms of kæ, respectively.
The following matrix shows these various forms for the vowel signs. The same rules apply to the standalone vowel letters. Note that long, nasalised ĩː and ũː vowels use the short form of the vowel sign.m,5-6
Short
Long
Short nasal
Long nasal
a
inherent
𑑅
𑑃
𑑄
æ
𑐵
𑐵𑑅
𑐵𑑃
𑐵𑑄
i
𑐶
𑐷
𑐶𑑃
𑐶𑑄
u
𑐸
𑐹
𑐸𑑃
𑐸𑑄
e
𑐾
𑐾𑑅
𑐾𑑃
𑐾𑑄
o
𑑀
𑑀𑑅
𑑀𑑃
𑑀𑑄
əi
-
𑐿
-
𑐿𑑄
əu
-
𑑁
-
𑑁𑑄
Composite vowels
The composite vowels in Newa are described in length_nasalisation, just above.
Consonants with no following vowel
Newa uses 𑑂 [U+11442 NEWA SIGN VIRAMA] (the Newa equivalent of the Sanskrit virama) to indicate that there is no inherent vowel after a consonant, eg. the following explicitly represents just the sound k.𑐎𑑂
A word that ends in a consonant shows a virama. This is commonly seen in vowels that end with j, such as at the end of this word: 𑐧𑐶𑐮𑐫𑑂bily͓
Consonant clusters also use this character, but if the cluster forms a conjunct then the virama is not rendered visibly (see clusters).
Standalone vowels
Newa represents standalone vowels using a set of independent vowel letters. The set includes a character to represent the inherent vowel sound, a.
𑐂␣𑐃␣𑐄␣𑐅␣𑐊␣𑐌␣𑐀␣𑐁␣ ␣𑐋␣𑐍
Nasalisation and length are marked in the same way as for vowel signs.
In Sanskrit texts, elision of an initial a due to sandhi is indicated using 𑑇 [U+11447 NEWA SIGN AVAGRAHA].
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.
Newa has a set of vocalic letters and vowel signs, but they are used for other languages, such as Sanskrit, and not for Newar.
Consonants
The 29 consonant letters used for Newar include precomposed characters for 4 out of 6 murmured consonants.
Consonant clusters are normally rendered using fused forms. A visible virama may be used. Initial RA is rendered as a reph over the top right of the following consonant.
This section distinguishes between letters representing sounds of the Kathmandu dialect of the Newar language (shown in the table just above), and letters used in other dialects, or other languages (such as Sanskrit). The latter letters are grouped in boxes labelled 'Other languages/dialects'.
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.
𑐪␣𑐤␣𑐙␣𑐓␣𑐴𑑂𑐰␣𑐭␣𑐯␣𑐴𑑂𑐫
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.
Newa has 𑑆 [U+11446 NEWA SIGN NUKTA] that can be used to represent foreign sounds, but it doesn't appear to be used for Newar.
Final consonants
Word-final consonant sounds with no following consonant are represented by ordinary consonant characters, followed by a visible 𑑂 [U+11442 NEWA SIGN VIRAMA] character.
Syllable-final consonants that are not word-final normally form conjuncts. See clusters.
Observation: Pandey says that 𑑅 [U+11445 NEWA SIGN VISARGA] 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.
Create a conjunct. There are a couple of possibilities here:
Ligation : Create a fusion of the letter shapes, where it is usually possible to spot the original components, but sometimes not.
An initial 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.
In Unicode, the conjunct formation is achieved by adding 𑑂 [U+11442 NEWA SIGN VIRAMA] between the consonants. The font hides the virama glyph automatically when a conjunct is formed.
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
Various different ways of merging consonant shapes to form conjuncts.
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
A trailing RA in a cluster is rendered as a subjoined glyph.
However, like many other Indian scripts, 𑐬 [U+1142C NEWA LETTER RA] 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
An initial RA in a cluster is rendered as a superscript over the following consonant.
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.
A consonant cluster displayed with a visible virama.
If the font automatically substitutes a conjunct, but you don't want it to you can use U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER 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
A conjunct composed of 3 consonants.
The following is a list of the more common triple conjuncts, according to a Noto Fonts issue on GitHub.g1203
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 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.
Visually, several of the standalone vowels and some vowel signs look as it they could be composed of smaller parts. This section gives guidance on which approach is best.
Newa is relatively resistant to incorrect coding techniques, but it is possible that someone may occasionally try to use 2 characters rather than the single character which is canonical. Doing so produces text that will not match correctly encoded text for search, spell-checking, and so on, and so should be avoided. The list below shows some examples.
Om.The symbol for the word Om is produced using 𑑉 [U+11449 NEWA OM].
Unclear usage
The following code points in the Unicode block need further investigation. Their usage and/or their relevance to writing modern Newar is not clear from the research done so far.
𑑆 [U+11446 NEWA SIGN NUKTA] Combined with a letter to represent sounds not native to the script, such as in loan words.
𑑊 [U+1144A NEWA SIDDHI] Represents the Sanskrit invocation सिद्धिरस्तुsiddhirastumay there be success. It is written at the beginning of a text, often with 𑑉 [U+11449 NEWA OM], eg. 𑑊𑑉. It corresponds to the sign ঀ [U+0980 BENGALI ANJI] in related scripts such as Bengali.p,11
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.
Newa text is not cursive (ie. joined up like Arabic), however there is a significant amount of interaction between glyphs, and some joining, around consonant clusters.
The orthography has no case distinction, and no special transforms are needed to convert between characters.
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
Headstrokes & headless consonants
The following 7 consonant letters have no headstroke. This leads to some special shaping for 5 vowel signs, including 4 that are changed into circumgraphs. See circumgraphs for details.
𑐐␣𑐠␣𑐢𑐛␣𑐱␣𑐞␣𑐘
Another idiosyncrasy of Newa is that consonant letters with headstrokes have that headstroke replaced by a wavy line by 4 of the same vowel signs. See headstroke_vowels.
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.
The character 𑐎 [U+1140E NEWA LETTER KA] with each of the wavy line vowel signs applied.
Alternative shapes for u
The sound u is produced by the letter 𑐸 [U+11438 NEWA VOWEL SIGN U], 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
The normal shape (left) for BHA (top) and HA (bottom), and the alternate shape used with the U and UU vowels, or any of the vocalic vowel signs.
Additional contextual shaping for consonants carrying a u-related vowel sign can be seen in u_shape.
Explicit shaping controls
U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER (ZWNJ) can be used to force the production of a visible virama, rather than a conjunct form.
Font styling & weight
tbd
Observation:Panels of text in a Tamil newspaper that uses oblique fonts, but all the body text of the panel uses that font. Other fonts used for the body text in other articles tended to also have a slight lean, though not as much. The verticals in headings tend to be upright.
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.
Segmentation of the word 𑐢𑐵𑐬𑑂𑐩𑐶𑐎 as it should be (left), and how it would be if grapheme clusters are used as the maximal unit (right).
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.
Punctuation & inline features
Word boundaries
Word units are separated by spaces.
Phrase & section boundaries
,␣𑑍␣:␣;␣?␣!␣𑑋␣𑑚␣𑑌
Newa uses a mixture of ASCII and native punctuation marks.
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.
Emphasis
tbd
Abbreviation, ellipsis & repetition
tbd
Inline notes & annotations
tbd
Other punctuation
tbd
Other inline text decoration
tbd
Line & paragraph layout
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.
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
Newar uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
Counters, lists, etc.
tbd
Styling initials
tbd
Page & book layout
This section is for any features that are specific to Newa and that relate to the following topics:
general page layout & progression;
grids & tables;
notes, footnotes, etc;
forms & user interaction;
page numbering, running headers, etc.
