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Visarga |
InSanskrit phonology,Visarga (IPA:[ʋisɐrɡɐ(hɐ)]) is the name of thevoiceless glottal fricative, written inDevanagari as 'ः'[h]. It was also called, equivalently,visarjanīya by earlier grammarians. The wordvisarga (Sanskrit:विसर्ग) literally means "sending forth, discharge".
Visarga is anallophone of/r/ and/s/ inpausa (at the end of anutterance). Since/-s/ is a common inflectionalsuffix (of nominative singular, second person singular, etc.), visarga appears frequently in Sanskrit texts. In the traditional order of Sanskrit sounds, visarga andanusvāra appear between vowels and stop consonants.
The precise pronunciation of visarga in Vedic texts may vary betweenŚākhās. Some pronounce a slight echo of the preceding vowel after the aspiration:aḥ will be pronounced[ɐhᵄ], andiḥ will be pronounced[ihⁱ]. Visarga is not to be confused withcolon.
| Transliteration | Symbol |
|---|---|
| ISO 15919 /IAST | ⟨ḥ⟩ |
| Harvard-Kyoto | ⟨H⟩ |
The visarga is commonly found in writing, resembling the punctuation mark of colon or as two tiny circles one above the other. This form is retained by mostIndic scripts.
According to Sanskrit phonologists, the visarga has two optionalallophones, namelyजिह्वामूलीय (jihvāmūlīya or the guttural visarga) andउपध्मानीय (upadhmānīya or the labial visarga). The former may be pronounced before⟨क⟩,⟨ख⟩, and the latter before⟨प⟩, and⟨फ⟩, as inतव पितामहः कः (tava pitāmahaḥ kaḥ?, 'who is your grandfather?'),पक्षिणः खे उड्डयन्ते (pakṣiṇaḥ khe uḍḍayante, 'birds fly in the sky'),भोः पाहि (bhoḥ pāhi, 'sir, save me'), andतपःफलम् (tapaḥphalam, 'result of penances'). They were written with various symbols, e.g. X-like symbol vs sideways 3-like symbol above flipped sideways one, or both as two crescent-shaped semi-circles one above the other, facing the top and bottom respectively.[1] Distinct signs forjihavamulīya andupadhmanīya exists inKannada,Tibetan,Sharada,Brahmi andLantsa scripts.
In theBurmese script, the visarga (variously calledရှေ့ကပေါက်shay ga pauk,ဝစ္စနစ်လုံးပေါက်wizza nalone pauk, orရှေ့ဆီးshay zi and represented with two dots to the right of the letter asး), when joined to a letter, creates thehigh tone.
Motoori Norinaga invented a mark for visarga which he used in a book about Indian orthography.
In theJavanese script, the visarga, known as thewignyan (ꦮꦶꦒ꧀ꦚꦤ꧀), is represented by two curls to the right of a syllable asꦃ: the first curl is short and circular, and the second curl is long. It adds a /-h/ after a vowel.
In theKannada script, the visarga (which is called visarga) is represented with two small circles to the right of a letter ಃ. It adds anaḥ sound to the end of the letter.
This script also has separate symbols forardhavisarga absent in most other scripts, jihvamuliya,ೱ, and upadhmaniya,ೲ.
In theKhmer script, the visarga (known as thereăhmŭkh (រះមុខ; "shining face")) indicates anaspirated/ʰ/ sound added after a syllable. It is represented with two small circles at the right of a letter asះ, and it should not be confused with the similar-lookingyŭkôlpĭntŭ (យុគលពិន្ទុ; "pair of dots"), which indicates a short vowel followed by a glottal stop like their equivalent visarga marks in theThai andLao scripts.
In theLao script, the visarga is represented with two small curled circles to the right of a letter as◌ະ. As in the neighboring relatedThai script, it indicates aglottal stop after the vowel.
In theMalayalam script, the visarga is represented with two small circles to the right of a letter asഃ. It indicates a /h/ after a letter. Visarga is considered as a vowel in Malayalam, where its independent form is written as അഃ. Unlike other languages, visarga need not necessarily occur at the end of a word. Examples include ദുഃഖം, മനഃപ്രയാസം, പുനഃസൃഷ്ടി.
In theOdia script, the Bisarga is represented with a vertical infinity sign to the right of a letter asଃ. It indicates the post-vocalic voiceless glottal fricativeaḥ [h] sound after the letter, Unlike other languages, the bisarga can appear in middle of words, such as ନିଃଶ୍ବାସ, ନିଃସ୍ବ, ନିଃସନ୍ଦେହ, ନିଃଶେଷ etc. All words with Bisarga aren't borrowed from Sanskrit.
In theSinhala script, visarga is represented with two small circle to the right of a letter as ඃ.
In theTamil script, similar to visarga (which is calledāyuta eḻuttu (ஆயுத எழுத்து),āytam (ஆய்தம்),muppāl puḷḷi,taṉinilai,aḵkēṉam,ak), transliterated asḵ, is represented with three small circles to the right of a letter asஃ. Its used to transcribe an archaic/h/ sound inherited from the proto Dravidian *H that has either become silent or geminates the next letter in unlearnt speech, or pronounced as/k/ or/h/ in careful speech. Like Sanskrit, it cannot add on to any letter and add aspiration to them. It should be always placed between a single short vowel and a hard consonant (க்,ச்,ட்,த்,ப்,ற்) for exampleஅஃது (aḵtu),எஃகு (eḵku). The āytam in modern Tamil is used to transcribe foreign phones like ஃப் (ஃp) for [f], ஃஜ (ஃj) for [z], ஃஸ (ஃs) for [z, ʒ] and ஃக (ஃk) for [x], similar to a nuqta.
In theTelugu script, there are two visargas. One is represented with two small circles to the right of a letterః. It brings an "ah" sound to the end of the letter.
In theThai script, the visarga (known as thevisanchani (วิสรรชนีย์) ornom nang thangkhu (นมนางทั้งคู่)) is represented with two small curled circles to the right of a letter as◌ะ. It represents aglottal stop that follows the affected vowel.
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