Ca (Indic)

Ca
Ca
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tibetan
Tamil
Thai	จ
Malayalam	ച
Sinhala	ච
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	צ ,ץ
Greek	Ϻ (Ͷ), Ͳ (Ϡ)
Cyrillic	Ц, Ч, Ћ, Џ
Properties
Phonemic representation	/t͡ʃ/
IAST transliteration	ca Ca
ISCII code point	B8 (184)

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Ca is the sixth consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, ca is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the North Semitic letter tsade (reflected in the Aramaic , "ts"), with an inversion seen in several other derivatives,^[1] 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 च are:^[2]

च [t͡ʃə] = 6 (६)
चि [t͡ʃɪ] = 600 (६००)
चु [t͡ʃʊ] = 60,000 (६० ०००)
चृ [t͡ʃri] = 6,000,000 (६० ०० ०००)
चॢ [t͡ʃlə] = 6×10⁸ (६०^८)
चे [t͡ʃe] = 6×10¹⁰ (६०^१०)
चै [t͡ʃɛː] = 6×10¹² (६०^१२)
चो [t͡ʃoː] = 6×10¹⁴ (६०^१४)
चौ [t͡ʃɔː] = 6×10¹⁶ (६०^१६)

Historic Ca[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ca as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ca did not have an alterante Fremdzeichen form. The third form of ca, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Ca[]

The Brahmi letter , Ca, is probably derived from the Aramaic Tsade , and is thus related to the Greek San. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ca 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 Ca historic forms
Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Ca[]

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.

Tocharian Ca with vowel marks
Ca	Cā	Ci	Cī	Cu	Cū	Cr	Cr̄	Ce	Cai	Co	Cau	Cä

Kharoṣṭhī Ca[]

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Tsade , and is thus related to San (letter), in addition to the Brahmi Ca.

Devanagari script[]

Ca (च) is the sixth consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . In Marathi, च is sometimes pronounced as [t͡sə] or [t͡s] in addition to [t͡ʃə] or [t͡ʃ]. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ચ and the Modi letter

[1]

[2]

[3]