Ḷ or Vocalic L is a vowel symbol of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ḷ is derived from the Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ḷ comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.
Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The ॢ sign was used to modify a consonant's value ×108, but the vowel letter ऌ did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]
Historic Ḷ
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ḷ as found in Brahmi was missing in earlier geometric styles, but emerged as a vowel mark during more flowing styles of Brahmi, such as the Kushana and Gupta. In both Tocharian and Kharoṣṭhī, Ḷ is not currently known from any source materials.
Brahmi Ḷ
The Brahmi letter Ḷ is only found as a vowel mark, and is derived from the consonant La, and therefore is probably from the Aramaic Lamed. This would make it related to the modern Latin L and Greek Lambda.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ḷ 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, but Ḷ must be back-formed from later forms to match the reference geometric writing style, and the reference image for the independent letter is just the vowel mark enlarged to the size of a full letter.
Ḷ (ऌ) is a vowel of the Devanagariabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via Gupta. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઌ, and the Modi letter 𑘈.
Devanagari Using Languages
The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ऌ is pronounced as [ḷ]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.
Ḷ (ঌ) is a vowel of the Bengali-Assameseabugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ऌ.
Bengali-Assamese Script Using Languages
The Bengali-Assamese script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, ঌ is pronounced as [ḷ]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali-Assamese vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.
Gujarati Ḷ
Gujarati independent Ḷ and Ḷ vowel sign.
Ḷ (ઌ) is a vowel of the Gujaratiabugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ḷ , and ultimately the Brahmi letter .
Gujarati-using Languages
The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઌ is pronounced as [ḷ]. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.
Ḷ (ఌ) is a vowel of the Teluguabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಌ. Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Ḷ is a non-attaching vowel sign, and does not alter the underlying consonant or contextually shape itself in any way.
Telugu Ḷ vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kḷ, Khḷ, Gḷ, Ghḷ and Ngḷ.
Malayalam Ḷ
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Ḷ.
Ḷ (ഌ) is a vowel of the Malayalamabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter ḷ. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.
Odia Ḷ
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Ḷ.
Ḷ (ଌ) is a vowel of the Odiaabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter ḷ. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.
Comparison of Ḷ
The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Ḷ, are related as well.
^The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms.
^Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession.
^Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
^May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
^The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida.
^Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas.
^Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.
Character encodings of Ḷ
Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Ḷ in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Ḷ from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.
^Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN0-471-39340-1.
