Ma (Indic)

Ma
Ma
Example glyphs
Bengali
Tibetan
Tamil
Thai	ม
Malayalam	മ
Sinhala	ම
Ashoka Brahmi
Devanagari
Cognates
Hebrew	מ ,ם
Greek	Μ
Latin	M
Cyrillic	М
Properties
Phonemic representation	/m/
IAST transliteration	m M
ISCII code point	CC (204)

This article contains uncommon Unicode characters. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of the intended characters.

Ma is a consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ma 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 म are:^[1]

म [mə] = 25 (२५)
मि [mɪ] = 2,500 (२ ५००)
मु [mʊ] = 250,000 (२ ५० ०००)
मृ [mri] = 25,000,000 (२ ५० ०० ०००)
मॢ [mlə] = 25×10⁸ (२५×१०^८)
मे [me] = 25×10¹⁰ (२५×१०^१०)
मै [mɛː] = 25×10¹² (२५×१०^१२)
मो [moː] = 25×10¹⁴ (२५×१०^१४)
मौ [mɔː] = 25×10¹⁶ (२५×१०^१६)

Historic Ma[]

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ma as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta . The Tocharian Ma had an alterante Fremdzeichen form, . The third form of ma, in Kharoshthi () was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.

Brahmi Ma[]

The Brahmi letter , Ma, is probably derived from the Aramaic Mem , and is thus related to the modern Latin M and Greek Mu.^[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ma 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 Ma historic forms
Ashoka (3rd-1st c. BCE)	Girnar (~150 BCE)	Kushana (~150-250 CE)	Gujarat (~250 CE)	Gupta (~350 CE)

Tocharian Ma[]

The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi , and has an alternate Fremdzeichen form used in conjuncts and as an alternate representation of Mä.

Tocharian Ma with vowel marks
Ma	Mā	Mi	Mī	Mu	Mū	Mr	Mr̄	Me	Mai	Mo	Mau	Mä	Fremdzeichen

Kharoṣṭhī Ma[]

The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the Aramaic Mem , and is thus related to M and Mu, in addition to the Brahmi Ma.^[2]

Devanagari Ma[]

Ma (म) is a 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 મ, and the Modi letter

[1]

[2]

[3]