The Assamese alphabetThe name ăcãmăkṣara first appears in Ahom coins and copperplates where the name denoted the Ahom script () is a writing system of the Assamese language and is a part of the Bengali-Assamese script. This script was also used in Assam and nearby regions for Sanskrit as well as other languages such as Bodo (now Devanagari), Khasi (now Roman), Mising (now Roman), Jaintia (now Roman) etc. The current Assaamese alphabet is a result of the replacement of the traditional Assamese script by the Bengali script that happened during the 19th and 20th centuries. As a result of which, the traditional Assamese script is mostly unintelligible to those trained in the current Bengali-Assamese script.: In the early nineteenth century, Christian missionaries began to use the Bengali script used in Srirampur to print the Assamese Bible for mechanical convenience. There were many differences between the ancient Bengali script and the Assamese script, mainly in the consonants. The first printed book in the Assamese language, the Bible, published in 1813, used exactly the Bengali script. However, in the Bible published in 1833, the consonants were cut in the ancient Assamese script. However, later they abandoned this model and adopted the entire Bengali script. Therefore, even a person who is proficient in modern script cannot or find it difficult to read books written in old Assamese script.: The script that was used at that time [during the time of Sankardeva], was called the Kaitheli script... But it's very unfortunate that this Kaitheli script is only intelligible for 3/4th of today's population. That too is limited only to villages and sattras. People who can read this script are rare in urban areas. Because of the usage of the Bengali script in the printing press, nobody is concerned about the old Kaitheli script. The traditional Assamese script is a continuous development from the 5th-century Umachal/Nagajari-Khanikargaon rock inscriptions written in an eastern variety of the Gupta script, adopting significant traits from the Siddhaṃ script in the 7th century. By the 17th century three styles of the traditional Assamese script could be identified (bamuniya, kaitheli and garhgaya) that converged to a single style following typesetting required for printing. The present standard Assamese alphabet is identical to the Bengali alphabet except for two letters, (ro) and (vo); and the letter (khya) has evolved into an individual consonant by itself with its own phonetic quality whereas in the Bengali alphabet it is an original conjunct of two letters ( + ). The ৰ and ৱ historically existed in the Bengali script also.
In the 14th century Madhava Kandali under the patronage of the Kachari Varaha king Mahamanikya used the traditional Assamese script to compose the famous Saptakanda Ramayana, which is the Assamese translation of Valmiki's Sanskrit Ramayana. Similarly, poets like Hema Saraswati and Harivara Vipra used the script for compositions like the Prahlada Charita, Hara-Gauri-Sambad, Babrubahanar Yuddha, etc under the patronage of the Kamata king Durlabhnarayan. Later, Sankardev used it in the late 15th and 16th centuries to compose his oeuvre in Assamese and Brajavali dialect, the literary language of the bhakti poems (borgeets) and dramas. The Buranjis were written during the Ahom period in the Assamese language using the traditional Assamese script.
The first king in medieval Assam to issue an Assamese coin was the Kachari king Vira-vijayanarayana in 1520 AD. The Ahom king Supangmung (1663–1670) was the first Ahom ruler who started issuing Assamese coins for his kingdom. Some similar scripts with minor differences are used to write Maithili, Bengali, Meithei and Sylheti.
History
The Umachal rock inscription of the 5th century evidences one of the earliest use of the script in the region. The script was very similar to the one used in Samudragupta's Allahabad Pillar inscription. Rock and copper plate inscriptions from then onwards, and Xaansi bark manuscripts right up to the 18th–19th centuries show a steady development of the Assamese alphabet. The script could be said to develop proto-Assamese shapes by the 13th century as evidenced by earlier inscriptions such as the Kanai Baraxiboa inscription (1206 CE) and the Nilachal inscription (c. 1090 CE), which display transitional features between late Kamarupi and early Assamese forms.
Evidence for the use of the script between the 14th and 16th centuries is found in inscriptions and artefacts associated with the Kachari and Chutia kingdom. Notable examples from the Kachari domain include stone inscriptions from Gachtal, Davaka (1362 CE), and Lanka (1352 CE), as well as a victory coin dated to 1520 CE. From the Chutia polity, surviving records comprise six copperplate grants(1392-1522 CE), one stone inscription(1442 CE), and several brick inscriptions.
In the 18th and 19th century, the Assamese script could be divided into three varieties: Kaitheli (also called Lakhari in Kamrup region, used by non-Brahmins), Bamuniya (used by Brahmins, for Sanskrit) and Garhgaya (used by state officials of the Ahom kingdom)—among which the Kaitheli style was the most popular, with medieval books (like the Hastir-vidyrnava) and sattras using this style. In the early part of the 19th century, Atmaram Sarmah designed the first Assamese script for printing in Serampore, and the Bengali and Assamese lithography converged to the present standard that is used today.
Letters
Vowels The script presently has a total of 11 vowel letters, used to represent the eight main vowel sounds of Assamese, along with a number of vowel diphthongs. All of these are used in both Assamese and Bengali, the two main languages using the script. In addition to the vowel system in the Bengali alphabet the Assamese alphabet has an additional "matra" (ʼ) that is used to represent the phonemes and . Some of the vowel letters have different sounds depending on the word, and a number of vowel distinctions preserved in the writing system are not pronounced as such in modern spoken Assamese or Bengali. For example, the Assamese script has two symbols for the vowel sound and two symbols for the vowel sound . This redundancy stems from the time when this script was used to write Sanskrit, a language that had a short and a long , and a short and a long . These letters are preserved in the Assamese script with their traditional names of hôrswô i (lit. 'short i') and dirghô i (lit. 'long i'), etc., despite the fact that they are no longer pronounced differently in ordinary speech.
Vowel signs can be used in conjunction with consonants to modify the pronunciation of the consonant (here exemplified by , kô). When no vowel is written, the vowel (ô or o) is often assumed. To specifically denote the absence of a vowel, () may be written underneath the consonant.
+ Vowels Letter Name of letter Vowel sign with () Name of vowel sign Transliteration IPA o (none) (none) ko or ó (none) or urdho-comma kó a akar ka hroswo i hôrswôikar ki dirgho i dirghoikar ki hroswo u hroswoukar ku dirgho u dirghoukar ku ri rikar kri e ekar kê and ke and oi ôikar koi ü ükar kü ou oukar kou
Consonants
The names of the consonant letters in Assamese are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel ô. Since the inherent vowel is assumed and not written, most letters' names look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter is itself ghô). Some letters that have lost their distinctive pronunciation in Modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written , , or (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called no; instead, they are called dontyo no ("dental n"), murdhoinnyo no ("retroflex n"), and inyo. Similarly, the phoneme can be written as taloibbyo xo ("palatal x"), murdhoinnyo xo ("retroflex x"), or dontyo xo ("dental x"), the phoneme can be written using prothom sô ("first s") or dwitio so ("second s"), and the phoneme can be written using borgio zo ("row z" = "the z included in the five rows of stop consonants") or ontohstho zo ("z situated between" = "the z that comes between the five rows of stop consonants and the row of sibilants"), depending on the standard spelling of the particular word.
+ Consonants Letter Name of Letter Transliteration IPA ko k kho kh go g gho gh uŋo ng prothom so s dwitio so s borgiyo zo z zho zh inyo y , murdhoinyo to t murdhoinyo tho th murdhoinyo do d murdhoinyo dho dh murdhoinyo no n dontyo to t dontyo tho th dontyo do d dontyo dho dh dontyo no n po p pho ph and f ~ bo b bho bh and v ~ mo m ontohstho zo z ro r lo l wo w ~ taloibyo xo x and s ~ murdhoinyo xo x and s ~ dontyo xo x and s ~ ho h ~ khyo khy, kkh dore ro r dhore ro rh ontohstho yô y
Assamese or Asamiya consonants include thirty three pure consonant letters in Assamese alphabet and each letter represents a single sound with an inherent vowel, the short vowel /a /.
The first twenty-five consonants letters are called sporxo borno. These sporxo bornos are again divided into five borgos. Therefore, these twenty-five letters are also called borgio borno.
The Assamese consonants are typically just the consonant's main pronunciation plus the inherent vowel o. The inherent vowel is assumed and not written, thus, names of most letters look identical to the letter itself (e.g. the name of the letter ঘ is itself ঘ gho).
Some letters have lost their distinctive pronunciation in modern Assamese are called by a more elaborate name. For example, since the consonant phoneme /n/ can be written ন, ণ, or ঞ (depending on the spelling of the particular word), these letters are not simply called no; instead, they are called ন dointo no ("dental n"), ণ murdhoinyo no ("cerebral n"), and ঞ nio.
Similarly, the phoneme /x/ can be written as শ taloibyo xo ("palatal x"), ষ murdhonno xo ("cerebral x"), or স dointo xo ("dental x"), the phoneme /s/ can be written using চ prothom so ("first s") or ছ dwitio so ("second s"), and the phoneme /z/ can be written using জ borgio zo ("row z" = "the z included in the five rows of stop consonants") or য ontohstho zo ("z situated between" = "the z that comes between the five rows of stop consonants and the row of sibilants"), depending on the standard spelling of the particular word.
The consonants can be arranged in following groups:
Group: 1 – Gutturals Consonants Phonetics ক kô খ khô গ gô ঘ ghô ঙ ṅgô
Group: 2 – Palatals
Consonants Phonetics চ prôthôm sô ছ dwitiyô sô জ bôrgiyo jô ঝ jhô ঞ iñyô
Group: 3 – Cerebrals or Retroflex
Consonants Phonetics ট murdhôinyo ṭa ঠ murdhôinyo ṭha ড murdhôinyo ḍa ড় daré ṛa ঢ murdhôinyo ḍha ঢ় dharé ṛha ণ murdhôinyo ṇa
Group: 4 – Dentals Consonants Phonetics ত dôntyo ta ৎ khanda ṯ থ dôntyo tha দ dôntyo da ধ dôntyo dha ন dôntyo na
Group: 5 – Labials Consonants Phonetics প pa ফ pha ব ba ভ bha ম ma
Group: 6 – Semivowels Consonants Phonetics য ôntôhsthô zô য় ôntôhsthô ẏô ৰ ra ল la ৱ wa
Group: 7 – Sibilants Consonants Phonetics শ talôibyo xô ষ mudhôinnya xô স dôntyo xô
Group: 8 – Aspirate Consonants Phonetics হ haক্ষ khyô
Group: 9 – Anuxāra Consonants Phonetics ং ṃ anuxar
Group: 9 – Bixarga Consonants Phonetics ঃ ḥ bixarga
Group: 10 – Chandrabindu (anunāsika) Consonants Phonetics ঁ n̐, m̐ candrabindu
The letters শ (talôibyo xô), ষ (murdhôinyo xô), স (dôntyo xô) and হ (hô) are called usma barna The letters য (za), ৰ (ra), ল (la) and ৱ (wa) are called ôntôhsthô barna The letters ড় (daré ṛa) and ঢ় (dharé ṛha) are phonetically similar to /ra/ The letter য (ôntôhsthô zô) is articulated like 'ôntôhsthô yô' in the word medial and final position. To denote the ôntôhsthô ẏô, the letter য় (ôntôhsthô ẏô) is used in Assamese ৎ (khanda ṯ or hôsôntô t) means the consonant letter Tö (dôntyo ta) without the inherent vowel
Halant