Ai (Indic)

Ai
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tamil
Thai	ไ
Malayalam	ഐ
Sinhala	ඓ
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	ע
Greek	Ο, Ω
Latin	O
Cyrillic	О, Ѡ, Ѿ, Ꙋ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation	/ɐi/ /ɔi/ /ɛː/
IAST transliteration	ai Ai
ISCII code point	AD (173)

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Ai is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ai is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ai comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.

Āryabhaṭa numeration[]

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 ×10¹², but the vowel letter ऐ did not have an inherent value by itself.^[1]

Historic Ai[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ai as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, and retained the same basic form into later styles of Brahmi. Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Ai has an accompanying vowel mark for modifying a base consonant. In Kharoṣṭhī, the only independent vowel letter is for the inherent A. All other independent vowels, including Ai are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi Ai[]

The Brahmi letter Ai , is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Ayin , and is thus related to the modern Latin O and Greek Omicron.^[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ai 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 some vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.

Brahmi Ai historic forms

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

Tocharian Ai[]

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi . Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian consonants with Ai vowel marks

Kai	Khai	Gai	Ghai	Cai	Chai	Jai	Jhai	Nyai	Ṭai	Ṭhai	Ḍai	Ḍhai	Ṇai
Tai	Thai	Dai	Dhai	Nai	Pai	Phai	Bai	Bhai	Mai	Yai	Rai	Lai	Vai
Śai	Ṣai	Sai	Hai

Kharoṣṭhī Ai[]

The Kharoṣṭhī letter Ai is indicated with the E vowel mark plus the vowel length mark . As an independent vowel, Ai is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A .

Devanagari Ai[]

Devanagari independent Ai and Ai vowel sign.

Ai (ऐ) is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઐ, and the Modi letter