Ma (Indic)

Ancient scripts
Bangla and Tibetan scripts
	Note: Korean Hangul is an alphabet, not an Indic abugida, but; appears to ultimately have some derivation from 'Phags-pa.
Sharada-based scripts
Nagaris and other Gupta-based scripts
Kawi scripts
Tai and Khmer scripts
Other Grantha-based scripts
Other Brahmic scripts
Canadian Syllabics
Devanagari	Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics
	Other Canadian Syllabic codepoints: U+14a3..U+14bb, U+14bd, U+18ba, U+18d8, U+18dc..U+18dd
Phonemic representation:	/m/
IAST transliteration:	m M
ISCII code point:	CC (204)

Ma is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ma is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of म are:[1]

म [mə] = 25 (२५)
मि [mɪ] = 2,500 (२ ५००)
मु [mʊ] = 250,000 (२ ५० ०००)
मृ [mri] = 25,000,000 (२ ५० ०० ०००)
मॢ [mlə] = 25×10⁸ (२५×१०^८)
मे [me] = 25×10¹⁰ (२५×१०^१०)
मै [mɛː] = 25×10¹² (२५×१०^१२)
मो [moː] = 25×10¹⁴ (२५×१०^१४)
मौ [mɔː] = 25×10¹⁶ (२५×१०^१६)

Historic Ma

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ma as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ma had an alterante Fremdzeichen form, . The third form of ma, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Ma

The Brahmi letter , Ma, is probably derived from the Aramaic Mem , and is thus related to the modern Latin M and Greek Mu.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ma can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[3] As the earliest and most geometric style of Brahmi, the letters found on the Edicts of Ashoka and other records from around that time are normally the reference form for Brahmi letters, with vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Ma historic forms
Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Ma

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Mä.

Tocharian Ma with vowel marks
Ma	Mā	Mi	Mī	Mu	Mū	Mr	Mr̄	Me	Mai	Mo	Mau	Mä	Fremdzeichen

Kharoṣṭhī Ma

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Mem , and is thus related to M and Mu, in addition to the Brahmi Ma.[2]

Devanagari Ma

Ma (म) is a consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter મ, and the Modi letter 𑘦.

Devanagari-using Languages

In all languages, म is pronounced as [mə] or [m] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Devanagari म with vowel marks
Ma	Mā	Mi	Mī	Mu	Mū	Mr	Mr̄	Ml	Ml̄	Me	Mai	Mo	Mau	M
म	मा	मि	मी	मु	मू	मृ	मॄ	मॢ	मॣ	मे	मै	मो	मौ	म्

Conjuncts with म

Half form of Ma.

Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular preferring the use of half forms where texts in other languages would show ligatures and vertical stacks.[4]

Ligature conjuncts of म

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.

Repha र্ (r) + म (ma) gives us the ligature rma: ^note

Eyelash र্ (r) + म (ma) gives us the ligature rma:

म্ (m) + न (na) gives us the ligature mna:

म্ (m) + rakar र (ra) gives us the ligature mra:

Stacked conjuncts of म

Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature. As a trailing letter in conjuncts, Ma stretches its shape to a much greater extent than other Devanagari letters.

छ্ (cʰ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature cʰma:

ढ্ (ḍʱ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature ḍʱma:

द্ (d) + ध্ (dʱ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature ddʱma:

ड্ (ḍ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature ḍma:

द্ (d) + म (ma) gives us the ligature dma:

ह্ (h) + म (ma) gives us the ligature hma:

म্ (m) + च (ca) gives us the ligature mca:

म্ (m) + ड (ḍa) gives us the ligature mḍa:

म্ (m) + ज (ja) gives us the ligature mja:

म্ (m) + ज্ (j) + ञ (ña) gives us the ligature mjña:

म্ (m) + ल (la) gives us the ligature mla:

म্ (m) + ङ (ŋa) gives us the ligature mŋa:

म্ (m) + ञ (ña) gives us the ligature mña:

ङ্ (ŋ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature ŋma:

ठ্ (ṭʰ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature ṭʰma:

ट্ (ṭ) + म (ma) gives us the ligature ṭma:

Bengali Ma

The Bengali script ম is derived from the Siddhaṃ , and is marked by a similar horizontal head line, but less geometric shape, than its Devanagari counterpart, म. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter ম will sometimes be transliterated as "mo" instead of "ma". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /mo/.

Like all Indic consonants, ম can be modified by marks to indicate another (or no) vowel than its inherent "a".

Bengali ম with vowel marks
ma	mā	mi	mī	mu	mū	mr	mr̄	me	mai	mo	mau	m
ম	মা	মি	মী	মু	মূ	মৃ	মৄ	মে	মৈ	মো	মৌ	ম্

ম in Bengali-using languages

ম is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.

Conjuncts with ম

Bengali ম exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, with a tendency towards stacked ligatures. Unlike most conjoined letters that stack, ম will retain a full vertical stem as a trailing consonant, connecting all the way to the head line to the right of leading consonants.[5]

ধ্ (dʱ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature dʱma:

দ্ (d) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature dma:

গ্ (g) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature gma:

ক্ (k) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature kma:

ক্ (k) + শ্ (ʃ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature kʃma:

ক্ (k) + শ্ (ʃ) + ম্ (m) + য (ya) gives us the ligature kʃmya, with the ya phala suffix:

ল্ (l) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature lma:

ম্ (m) + ভ (bʰa) gives us the ligature mbʰa:

ম্ (m) + ভ্ (bʰ) + র (ra) gives us the ligature mbʰra, with the ra phala suffix:

ম্ (m) + ল (la) gives us the ligature mla:

ম্ (m) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature mma:

ম্ (m) + ন (na) gives us the ligature mna:

ম্ (m) + প (pa) gives us the ligature mpa:

ম্ (m) + ফ (pʰa) gives us the ligature mpʰa:

ম্ (m) + প্ (p) + র (ra) gives us the ligature mpra, with the ra phala suffix:

ম্ (m) + র (ra) gives us the ligature mra, with the ra phala suffix:

ম্ (m) + ব (va) gives us the ligature mva, with the va phala suffix:

ম্ (m) + ব্ (v) + র (ra) gives us the ligature mvra, with the ra phala suffix:

ম্ (m) + য (ya) gives us the ligature mya, with the ya phala suffix:

ঙ্ (ŋ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature ŋma:

ন্ (n) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature nma:

ণ্ (ṇ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature ṇma:

র্ (r) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature rma, with the repha prefix:

র্ (r) + ম্ (m) + য (ya) gives us the ligature rmya, with the repha prefix and ya phala suffix:

শ্ (ʃ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature ʃma:

স্ (s) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature sma:

ষ্ (ṣ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature ṣma:

ত্ (t) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature tma:

ত্ (t) + ম্ (m) + য (ya) gives us the ligature tmya, with the ya phala suffix:

ট্ (ṭ) + ম (ma) gives us the ligature ṭma:

Gujarati Ma

Gujarati Ma.

Ma (મ) is the twenty-fifth consonant of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ma with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed, and ultimately the Brahmi letter .

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, મ is pronounced as [mə] or [m] when appropriate. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:

Ma	Mā	Mi	Mī	Mu	Mū	Mr	Ml	Mr̄	Ml̄	Mĕ	Me	Mai	Mŏ	Mo	Mau	M

Gujarati Ma syllables, with vowel marks in red.

Conjuncts with મ

Half form of Ma.

Gujarati મ exhibits conjunct ligatures, much like its parent Devanagari Script. Most Gujarati conjuncts can only be formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". A few conjunct clusters can be represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters, and vertically stacked conjuncts can also be found in Gujarati, although much less commonly than in Devanagari.

True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Gujarati are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra.

ર્ (r) + મ (ma) gives us the ligature RMa:

મ્ (m) + ર (ra) gives us the ligature MRa:

દ્ (d) + મ (ma) gives us the ligature DMa:

મ્ (m) + ન (na) gives us the ligature MNa:

Javanese Ma

Telugu Ma

Telugu independent and subjoined Ma.

Ma (మ) is a consonant of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಮ. Most Telugu consonants contain a v-shaped headstroke that is related to the horizontal headline found in other Indic scripts, although headstrokes do not connect adjacent letters in Telugu. The headstroke is normally lost when adding vowel matras.

Telugu conjuncts are created by reducing trailing letters to a subjoined form that appears below the initial consonant of the conjunct. Many subjoined forms are created by dropping their headline, with many extending the end of the stroke of the main letter body to form an extended tail reaching up to the right of the preceding consonant. This subjoining of trailing letters to create conjuncts is in contrast to the leading half forms of Devanagari and Bengali letters. Ligature conjuncts are not a feature in Telugu, with the only non-standard construction being an alternate subjoined form of Ṣa (borrowed from Kannada) in the KṢa conjunct.

Malayalam Ma

Malayalam letter Ma

Ma (മ) is a consonant of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter Ma. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Malayalam Ma matras: Ma, Mā, Mi, Mī, Mu, Mū, Mr̥, Mr̥̄, Ml̥, Ml̥̄, Me, Mē, Mai, Mo, Mō, Mau, and M.

Conjuncts of മ

Malayalam letter Chillu M

As is common in Indic scripts, Malayalam joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. There are several ways in which conjuncts are formed in Malayalam texts: using a post-base form of a trailing consonant placed under the initial consonant of a conjunct, a combined ligature of two or more consonants joined together, a conjoining form that appears as a combining mark on the rest of the conjunct, the use of an explicit candrakkala mark to suppress the inherent "a" vowel, or a special consonant form called a "chillu" letter, representing a bare consonant without the inherent "a" vowel. Texts written with the modern reformed Malayalam orthography, put̪iya lipi, may favor more regular conjunct forms than older texts in paḻaya lipi, due to changes undertaken in the 1970s by the Government of Kerala.

മ് (m) + പ (pa) gives us the ligature mpa:

ക് (k) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature kma:

ഗ് (g) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature gma:

ണ് (ṇ) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature ṇma:

ത് (t) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature tma:

ന് (n) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature nma:

മ് (m) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature mma:

ശ് (ʃ) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature ʃma:

ഷ് (ṣ) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature ṣma:

സ് (s) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature sma:

ഹ് (h) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature hma:

ക് (k) + ഷ് (ṣ) + മ (ma) gives us the ligature kṣma:

Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Me

ᒣ, ᒥ, ᒧ and ᒪ are the base characters "Me", "Mi", "Mo" and "Ma" in the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics. The bare consonant ᒻ (M) is a small version of the A-series letter ᒪ, although the Western Cree letter ᒼ, derived from Pitman shorthand was the original bare consonant symbol for M. The character ᒣ is derived from a handwritten form of the Devanagari letter म, without the headline or vertical stem, and the forms for different vowels are derived by mirroring.[6][7]

Unlike most writing systems without legacy computer encodings, complex Canadian syllabic letters are represented in Unicode with pre-composed characters, rather than with base characters and diacritical marks.

Variant	E-series		I-series		O-series		A-series			Other
M + vowel	ᒣ		ᒥ		ᒧ		ᒪ			ᢺ
M + vowel	Me		Mi		Mo		Ma			May
Small	-		ᣘ		ᒽ		ᒻ			ᒼ
Small	-		Ojibway M		Mh		M			Cree M
M with long vowels	-		ᒦ		ᒨ	ᒩ	ᒫ			ᒤ
M with long vowels	-		Mī		Mō	Cree Mō	Mā			Māi
M + W-vowels	ᒬ	ᒭ	ᒮ	ᒯ	ᒲ	ᒳ	ᒶ		ᒷ	-
M + W-vowels	Mwe	Cree Mwe	Mwi	Cree Mwi	Mwo	Cree Mwo	Mwa		Cree Mwa	-
M + long W-vowels	-		ᒰ	ᒱ	ᒴ	ᒵ	ᒸ	ᒺ	ᒹ	-
M + long W-vowels	-		Mwī	Cree Mwī	Mwō	Cree Mwō	Mwā	Naskapi Mwā	Cree Mwā	-

Odia Ma

Odia independent and subjoined letter Ma.

Ma (ମ) is a consonant of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Ma. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia consonants have the inherent vowel "a", and take one of several modifying vowel signs to represent syllables with another vowel or no vowel at all.

Odia Ma with vowel matras
Ma	Mā	Mi	Mī	Mu	Mū	Mr̥	Mr̥̄	Ml̥	Ml̥̄	Me	Mai	Mo	Mau	M
ମ	ମା	ମି	ମୀ	ମୁ	ମୂ	ମୃ	ମୄ	ମୢ	ମୣ	ମେ	ମୈ	ମୋ	ମୌ	ମ୍

Conjuncts of ମ

As is common in Indic scripts, Odia joins letters together to form conjunct consonant clusters. The most common conjunct formation is achieved by using a small subjoined form of trailing consonants. Most consonants' subjoined forms are identical to the full form, just reduced in size, although a few drop the curved headline or have a subjoined form not directly related to the full form of the consonant.The subjoined form of Ma is one of these mismatched forms, and is referred to as "Ma Phala". The second type of conjunct formation is through pure ligatures, where the constituent consonants are written together in a single graphic form. This ligature may be recognizable as being a combination of two characters or it can have a conjunct ligature unrelated to its constituent characters.

ମ୍ (m) + ଭ (bʰa) gives us the ligature mbʰa:

ମ୍ (m) + ପ (pa) gives us the ligature mpa:

ମ୍ (m) + ଫ (pʰa) gives us the ligature mpʰa:

ମ୍ (m) + ମ (ma) gives us the ligature mma:

References

Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
Bühler, Georg. "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838
Pall, Peeter. "Microsoft Word - kblhi2" (PDF). Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed. Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed. Retrieved 19 June 2020.
"The Bengali Alphabet" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-28.
Andrew Dalby (2004:139) Dictionary of Languages
Some General Aspects of the Syllabics Orthography, Chris Harvey 2003

^note Conjuncts are identified by IAST transliteration, except aspirated consonants are indicated with a superscript "h" to distinguish from an unaspirated cononant + Ha, and the use of the IPA "ŋ" and "ʃ" instead of the less dinstinctive "ṅ" and "ś".

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[Ifrah-1] Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.

[Buhler-2] Bühler, Georg. "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.

[3] Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838

[KNAB-4] Pall, Peeter. "Microsoft Word - kblhi2" (PDF). Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed. Eesti Keele Instituudi kohanimeandmed. Retrieved 19 June 2020.

[5] "The Bengali Alphabet" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2013-09-28.

[6] Andrew Dalby (2004:139) Dictionary of Languages

[7] Some General Aspects of the Syllabics Orthography, Chris Harvey 2003

note