Ja (Indic)
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| Ja | |
|---|---|
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| Example glyphs | |
| Bengali |  |
| Tibetan |  |
| Tamil | ஜ |
| Thai | ช |
| Malayalam | ജ |
| Sinhala | ජ |
| Ashoka Brahmi |  |
| Devanagari | 
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| Cognates | |
| Hebrew | ז |
| Greek | Ζ |
| Latin | Z, Ʒ, ẞ |
| Cyrillic | З |
| Properties | |
| Phonemic representation | /d͡ʒ/ /t͜ɕʰ/B /s/C /t͜ɕ/D /t͜s/E /z/F |
| IAST transliteration | ja Ja |
| ISCII code point | BA (186) |
^B in Thai ^C in Lao ^D in Northern Thai, Tai Khün ^E in Tai Lü ^F in Burmese | |
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| Chandrabindu · Anusvara · Visarga · Virama · Nuqta · Avagraha | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Ja is the eighth consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, ja is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter 
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 ज are:[1]
- ज [d͡ʒə] = 8 (८)
- जि [d͡ʒɪ] = 800 (८००)
- जु [d͡ʒʊ] = 80,000 (८० ०००)
- जृ [d͡ʒri] = 8,000,000 (८० ०० ०००)
- जॢ [d͡ʒlə] = 8×108 (८०८)
- जे [d͡ʒe] = 8×1010 (८०१०)
- जै [d͡ʒɛː] = 8×1012 (८०१२)
- जो [d͡ʒoː] = 8×1014 (८०१४)
- जौ [d͡ʒɔː] = 8×1016 (८०१६)
Historic Ja[]
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ja as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ja 
did not have an alterante Fremdzeichen form. The third form of ja, in Kharoshthi (
) was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.
Brahmi Ja[]
The Brahmi letter , Ja, is probably derived from the Aramaic Zayin 
, and is thus related to the modern Latin Z and Greek Zeta. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ja can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period.[2] 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.
| Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE) |
Girnar (~150 BCE) |
Kushana (~150-250 CE) |
Gujarat (~250 CE) |
Gupta (~350 CE) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Tocharian Ja[]
The Tocharian letter 
is derived from the Brahmi , but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.
| Ja | Jā | Ji | Jī | Ju | Jū | Jr | Jr̄ | Je | Jai | Jo | Jau | Jä |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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Kharoṣṭhī Ja[]
The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Zayin , and is thus related to Z and Zeta, in addition to the Brahmi Ja.
Devanagari script[]
| Devanāgarī |
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Ja (ज) is the eighth consonant of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , after having gone through the Gupta letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter જ and Modi letter