iorewfreaks.blogg.se - Odia script

In southern Odisha-where it is mixed with Telugu-Kannada round, cursive form.

In Northern Odisha-where the letters are written in Odia, mixed in with Siddham-derived Gaudi style(that is the right vertical part of the letter is slightly bent inwards).

The archaic and medieval forms of Odia are more influenced by the calligraphy of the scripts of neighbouring regions, such as, The periods of development are in the following order, Īs with all the Brahmic scripts in the region, the Odia script developed through four stages which can be seen from the stone inscriptions, copper-plates and the manuscripts. The curved appearance of the Odia script is a result of the practice of writing on palm leaves, which have a tendency to tear if you use too many straight lines. The absence of the inherent vowel in the consonant is marked by a virama or halanta sign below the consonant.ġ5th century copper plate grant of Gajapati emperor Purushottama Deva, showing the distinct formation of the shape of the modern Odia script This absence of schwa deletion which is also seen in Sanskrit, marks it from the rest of modern Indo-Aryan languages and their equivalent usage in related Brahmic scripts. Also, when certain consonants occur together, special conjunct symbols are used to combine the essential parts of each consonant symbol.Īn important feature of the Odia language seen in the script is the retention of inherent vowel in consonants, also known as schwa, at both medial and final positions. When vowels appear at the beginning of a syllable, they are written as independent letters. Diacritics (which can appear above, below, before, or after the consonant they belong to) are used to change the form of the inherent vowel. Odia is a syllabic alphabet or an abugida wherein all consonants have an inherent vowel embedded within. For the distinction between, / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). I hope the type community will join me in supporting him in his future efforts in type design.Įrin McLaughlin is a typeface designer and consultant who specializes in South Asian writing systems and co-organizes TypeWknd.The Semitic origin of the Brahmic scripts is not universally agreed upon. Das’ project documentation is filled with meaningful research and process work, providing clear evidence of the quality of type education offered at NID, and the incredible talent and dedication of Pratyush Das. Perhaps the best surprise was finding out that it started as an undergraduate project. The resulting design is very well-suited to text setting, offering a great deal of flexibility, and looks incredibly handsome at larger sizes. Das has chosen a novel approach of diagonal stress, moving weight away from the top crests and toward the sides, allowing the interior shapes to retain their clarity. Historically a monolinear script, Odia’s forms are prone to getting clogged when too much weight is applied uniformly. The curved crests have receded to a supporting role, and the design is loosely spaced, resulting in a beautiful interplay of positive and negative space.Īshoka is the first Odia typeface to offer a range of weights. The information-rich internal shapes occupy a greater portion of the space, so letters are easily discerned. Das has pushed back against these conventions, allowing his letters to return to more natural widths and proportions. This is why I was delighted when Pratyush Das’ Ashoka Odia was released. The result is a script whose letters, when typeset, look very similar, and can be difficult to differentiate when used at very small sizes or under poor printing conditions. Unique features are shrunken, while the less-important “crest” shape at the top of letters is emphasized. The natural, fluid forms found in manuscripts and handwriting are squished to fit inside uniformly narrow, Latin-proportioned glyph boxes. Centuries of Latin-centric typesetting technologies have had a clear influence on most Odia text typefaces.