Saral Nāgarī
Nāgarī (नागरी; naagaree) is also known as ĐevaNāgarī (देवनागरी). It is the name of a script used for writing many of the South Asian (mainly Indian & Nepali) languages. Saral (सरल) means simple.
In Nāgarī, it is possible to form a lot of conjuncts. Scholars like handling complex things, so they may like lots of conjuncts. But lots of conjuncts are counterproductive for reasons mentioned in this page.
Why we should keep things simple?
Following are my opinions, findings and some short of research. If you don't agree please let me know why you don't agree.
| 1. | For general public, it makes no sense to master lots of things about the script they use. For most, a script is just a means/medium for communication, recording or storing information; not a subject of expertise. |
| 2. | There are rules about forming syllables using consonants and vowels. |
| 3. | It may require a little bit of more processing (time) to write/analyse a relatively complex syllable. |
| 4. | Most people who use Nāgarī regularly can't recite/recall Nāgarī Varṇamālā (वर्णमाला; alphabet)! Mainly because there are more Akṣhar/s (letters) in Nāgarī then there are letters in English. |
| 5. | There are modified (altered) consonants and vowels for accommodating Arabic and European pronunciations. |
No typographer or engineer can satisfy few scholars' desire for lots of conjuncts and general public's expectation of a simple script at the same time.
Conjuncts do not convey any additional information and avoiding them do not result in any loss of information.
So except those conjuncts which are in general use, we should not use odd conjuncts. Otherwise Hinđī-baiters may start arguing that Nāgarī is not good for regular use!
So I have never included odd conjuncts in my font files!
The alphabet given here is a logically complete set of regular ĐevaNāgarī alphabet. All Akṣhar/s (अक्षर) & māŧrā/s (मात्रा; vowel-mark/s) representing unique phoneme are included. For a simple alphabet, Nāgarī seems a proper word! If you don't agree, you may call the alphabet given here as - 'Saral Nāgarī'!
Basic Nāgarī Varṇamālā lists all the consonants and the vowels (but no 'māŧrā/s' and stress signs). It includes very few regularly used conjuncts (also known as Akhand/s). If we start collecting all the conjuncts ever used, there will be more than a hundred.
It is really very important and urgent that we take necessary steps to make typing and reading ĐevaNāgarī as easy as possible on different types of computers and devices.
Please let me know if I made any mistake in the above text.
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Updated: Mar 23