This page brings together basic information about the Ol Chiki script and its use for the Santali language. It aims to provide a brief, descriptive summary of the modern, printed orthography and typographic features, and to advise how to write Santali using Unicode.
The Ol Chiki script was invented by Pandi Raghunath Murmu in the 1920s to provide Santali, spoken by around 6 million people, with a dedicated script, instead of the Latin, Bengali, Devanagari, and Odia that had been and still are used. Ol Chiki is primarily used for the southern dialect of Santali, and has received some official recognition. It has been used for other Munda languages.
The Ol Chiki script is an alphabet. Both consonants and vowels are indicated by letters. See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the Santali language.
Ol Chiki is mostly a simple and small orthography. There are no combining characters, and no symbols. The script has no case distinction.
Ol Chiki runs left to right in horizontal lines. Words are separated by spaces.
Ol Chiki has a unique way of handling syllable-final consonants. Four of the voiced stops are typically pronounced unreleased, and unvoiced if they don't appear before a vowel. Where the full value of the letter should be retained, this can be indicated using a modifier called ahad. Another hyphen-like modifier, phaarkaa, applies the reduction before a vowel, when needed (for example for certain verb forms).
There are no special forms for consonant clusters in Santali.
This orthography is an alphabet. Vowels are written using 6 basic vowel letters and 3 digraphs, where an existing vowel letter is followed by a dot. All vowels can be nasalised and lengthened by modifier letters. There are no combining marks.
The following is the set of characters needed to write vowels, as described in this section, grouped by general category.
ᱚ␣ᱟ␣ᱢ␣ᱤ␣ᱦ␣ᱩ␣ᱫ␣ᱬ␣ᱮ␣ᱰ␣ᱳ␣ᱵ␣ᱸ␣ᱹ␣ᱺ␣ᱻ
Post-consonant vowels
Vowels are written using 6 basic vowel letters and 3 digraphs, where an existing vowel letter is followed by a dot. All vowels can be nasalised and lengthened by modifier letters. There are no combining marks.
Basic vowels
The standard vowel sounds for Santali are written as follows.
ᱤ␣ᱩ␣ᱮ␣ᱳ␣ᱚ␣ᱟ
Additional vowels
ᱹ
Three additional vowel sounds are represented using ᱹ,
ᱮᱹ␣ᱚᱹ␣ᱟᱹ
ᱚᱹ is rarely used, and the phonetic difference between it and ᱚ is not clearly defined, but the ALA-LOC transcription page says that it has a lower pitch. The phonemic difference between the two may be only marginal.rp,9
Long vowels
ᱻ
To indicate a prolonged vowel sound, ᱻ is used,rp,9.
ᱢᱚᱹᱬᱮᱻ ᱢᱚᱸᱻᱦᱟ
ᱡᱭᱻᱭᱤ
Nasalisation
ᱸ␣ᱺ
Nasalisation of vowels is indicated using ᱸ,rp,9 eg. ᱦᱟᱸᱰᱮ
When the letter is followed by ᱹ a separate Unicode character is used, rather than adding the two characters. That character is ᱺ,rp,9 eg. ᱵᱮᱺᱫᱤ
Vowel sounds to characters
This section maps Santali vowel sounds to common graphemes in the Ol Chicki 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.
i
ᱤ
ᱤᱵᱤᱞ
ĩ
ᱤᱸ
ᱥᱤᱸᱜᱮ ᱢᱟᱦᱟᱸ
u
ᱩ
ᱢᱩᱡ
ũ
ᱩᱸ
e
ᱮ
ᱢᱮᱫ
ẽ
ᱮᱸ
ᱦᱮᱸᱫᱮ
o
ᱳ
ᱜᱳᱫ
õ
ᱳᱸ
ə
ᱟᱹ
ᱤᱨᱟᱹᱞ
ə̃
ᱟᱺ
ɛ
ᱮᱹ
ᱦᱮᱺᱫᱮᱹ
ɛ̃
ᱮᱺ
ᱷᱮᱺᱰᱮᱹᱡ
ɔ
ᱚ
ᱢᱚᱬᱮ
ᱚᱹ
ᱢᱚᱹᱬᱮᱻ ᱢᱚᱸᱻᱦᱟ
ɔ̃
ᱚᱸ
ᱠᱚᱸᱦ
ᱚᱺ
a
ᱟ
ᱟᱨᱮ
ã
ᱟᱸ
ᱢᱟᱦᱟᱸ
Consonants
Consonant summary table
The following table summarises the main consonant to character assigments.
Aspirated consonant sounds are indicated using ᱷ after the consonant,fp,2 eg. ᱡᱷᱚᱛᱚᱛᱷᱚᱲᱟ
Finals
ᱽ␣ᱼ
Four voiced stops are pronounced unvoiced and unreleased when they are not followed by a vowel, especially in word-final position.
ᱵ
b
→
p̚
eg. ᱩᱵ
ᱫ
d
→
t̚
eg. ᱢᱮᱫ
ᱡ
ɟ
→
c̚
eg. ᱢᱩᱡ
ᱜ
ɡ
→
k̚
eg. ᱫᱚᱜ
Where the voicing needs to be maintained, ᱽ is added, eg.
ᱨᱚᱡᱽ
cf. ᱨᱚᱡᱚ
ᱫᱟᱜᱽ
cf. ᱫᱟᱜᱤ
In the opposite situation, where a voiced consonant is used before a vowel but you want to allow the devoicing, put ᱼ before the vowel.rp,10 For example, see this verb form: ᱢᱮᱱᱟᱜᱼᱟ
Consonant sounds to characters
This section maps Santali consonant sounds to common graphemes in the Ol Chiki 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.
p
ᱯ
ᱟᱯᱟ
-p̚
ᱵ when not followed by a vowel.
ᱩᱵ
pʰ
ᱯᱷ
ᱠᱚᱯᱷᱤ
b
ᱵ
ᱵᱤᱨ
-b
ᱵᱽ when word-final.
ᱩᱵᱽ
bʰ
ᱵᱷ
ᱵᱷᱟᱥᱟ
t
ᱛ
ᱛᱩᱨᱩᱭ
tʰ
ᱛᱷ
ᱛᱷᱚᱲᱟ
t̚
ᱫ when not followed by a vowel.
ᱢᱮᱫ
d
ᱫ
ᱜᱤᱫᱤ
-d
ᱫᱽ when word-final.
dʰ
ᱫᱷ
ᱫᱷᱟᱹᱨᱛᱤ
ʈ
ᱴ
ᱮᱴᱟᱜ
ɖ
ᱰ
ᱱᱚᱰᱮ
c
ᱪ
ᱪᱮᱬᱮ
c̚
ᱡ when word-final.
ᱢᱩᱡ
cʰ
ᱪᱷ
ɟ
ᱡ
ᱡᱤᱞᱤᱧ
-ɟ
ᱡᱽ when word-final.
ᱨᱚᱡᱽ
ɟʰ
ᱡᱷ
ᱡᱷᱚᱛᱚ
k
ᱠ
ᱠᱚᱲᱟ
k̚
ᱜ
ᱫᱚᱜ
kʰ
ᱠᱷ
ᱮᱞᱠᱷᱟ
ɡ
ᱜ
ᱜᱤᱫᱽᱨᱟ
-ɡ
ᱜᱽ when word-final.
ᱫᱟᱜᱽ
ɡʰ
ᱜᱷ
ʔ
ᱦ may occur when word-final.
s
ᱥ
ᱥᱮᱛᱟ
h
ᱦ
ᱦᱮᱸᱫᱮ
m
ᱢ
ᱢᱚᱬᱮ
n
ᱱ
ᱱᱚᱰᱮ
ɳ
ᱬ
ᱪᱮᱬᱮ
ɲ
ᱧ
ᱡᱤᱞᱤᱧ
ŋ
ᱝ
ᱮᱝᱜᱚ
w
ᱣ
ᱱᱚᱣᱟ
w̃
ᱶ
ᱡᱟᱶᱟᱭ
r
ᱨ
ᱨᱚᱡᱚ
ɽ
ᱲ
ᱠᱩᱲᱤ
l
ᱞ
ᱡᱤᱞᱤᱧ
j
ᱭ
ᱮᱭᱟᱭ
Numbers
Digits
Ol Chiki has a set of native digits
᱐␣᱑␣᱒␣᱓␣᱔␣᱕␣᱖␣᱗␣᱘␣᱙
Text direction
Santali text runs left to right in horizontal lines.
Santali letters don't interact, so no special shaping is needed.
And there are no combining mark, so context-based positioning of glyphs is also not necessary.
Typographic units
Word boundaries
Word units are separated by spaces.
Paired words may be separated by ᱼ, eg.
ᱥᱩᱡᱷᱼᱵᱩᱡᱷsujʰ-bujʰ
Graphemes
Since there are no combining marks or decompositions, grapheme clusters correspond to individual characters.
Question: Should nasalisation or vowel extension dots be handled like combining characters, ie. form a grapheme with the preceding character?
Grapheme clusters
Base
Each base letter is a grapheme cluster, and there are no combining marks to extend them. Other following markers, being letters, are also treated as grapheme clusters, separately from the thing they modify. This includes ᱸ, ᱹ, ᱻ, etc.
Click on the text version of this word to see more detail about the composition.
ᱨᱚᱡᱚ
ᱢᱚᱹᱬᱮᱻ ᱢᱚᱸᱻᱦᱟ
ᱢᱮᱱᱟᱜᱼᱟ
Punctuation & inline features
Phrase & section boundaries
,␣;␣:␣᱾␣?␣!␣᱿
Santali uses mostly ASCII punctuation, but also some Indic punctuation from the Santali block.
phrase
,
;
:
sentence
᱾
?
!
section
᱿
The ASCII full stop is not used, since it creates confusion with other dots in the orthography, therefore ᱾ is the main sentence delimiter.rp,11
᱿ is used at the end of a paragraph or some other block of text.
Example of mucaad and double mucaad in Santali text.fp,6
Observation: Samples in the Unicode proposals suggest that the mucaad and double mucaad punctuation is preceded by a space.
Bracketed text
(␣)
Santali commonly uses ASCII parentheses to insert parenthetical information into text.
start
end
standard
(
)
Quotations & citations
“␣”␣‘␣’
Santali texts use quotation marks around quotations. Of course, due to keyboard design, quotations may also be surrounded by ASCII double and single quote marks.
start
end
initial
“
”
nested
‘
’
Line & paragraph layout
Line breaking & hyphenation
tbd
Observation: Lines appear to be broken at word boundaries.
Line-edge rules
As in almost all writing systems, certain punctuation characters should not appear at the end or the start of a line. The Unicode line-break properties help applications decide whether a character should appear at the start or end of a line.
The following list gives examples of typical behaviours for some of the characters used in Ol Chiki. Context may affect the behaviour of some of these and other characters.
Click/tap on the characters to show what they are.
“ ‘ ( should not be the last character on a line.
” ’ ) . , ; ! ? । ॥ % should not begin a new line.
ᱹ ᱸ ᱺ ᱻ ᱼ do not create line-break opportunities when surrounded by other letters.
Line breaking should not move a danda or double danda to the beginning of a new line even if they are preceded by a space character.
Text alignment & justification
Observation: All but one of the samples in the Unicode submission document are fully justified. Mostly, the justification is achieved by stretching inter-word spacing, however some words also have the space between characters stretched.
Example of full justification, with the word at the end of the 3rd line from the bottom also showing signs of being stretched.fp,7
Baselines, line height, etc.
Santali uses the so-called 'alphabetic' baseline, which is the same as for Latin and many other scripts.
The height of Ol Chiki letters is very uniform, and there are no combining marks to increase the extension. Nor are there any descenders.
To give an approximate idea, fig_baselines compares Latin and Santali glyphs from the Noto font. The basic height of Santali letters is set to the Latin cap-height. The Santali glyphs don't extend past the Latin glyphs.
Font metrics for Latin text compared with Santali glyphs in the Noto Sans Santali font.
Latin font metrics compared with Santali glyphs in the Nirmala UI font.
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.
Santali Wikipedia pages use numeric styles.
Numeric
The numeric style is decimal-based and uses these digits.
᱑␣᱒␣᱓␣᱔␣᱕␣᱖␣᱗␣᱘␣᱙␣᱐
Examples:
᱑␣᱒␣᱓␣᱔␣᱑᱑␣᱒᱒␣᱓᱓␣᱔᱔␣᱑᱑᱑␣᱒᱒᱒␣᱓᱓᱓␣᱔᱔᱔
Prefixes and suffixes
A range of prefixes and/or suffixes is used in Wikipedia. They include a simple period, parentheses on both sides, and no mark.
Separators for Santali list counters in Wikipedia.
