Alphabet Letters
Brahmi La 𑀮
Brahmi Letters
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Origin Mature Brahmi is securely attested in the edicts of Ashoka in the middle of the third century BCE, and the script could be read again only after James Prinsep worked out its values in 1837
La is the dental lateral and the third of the four semivowels, the consonantal counterpart of the syllabic l. In the eastern Prakrit of several Ashokan edicts an inherited r appears as l, a dialect feature that has been used to place the language of particular inscriptions, so the letter carries more information for a reader than its sound alone would suggest. It stands between ra and va in the semivowel group, in the sequence that mirrors the order of the vowels the four semivowels answer to. Its consonantal value is stable across the whole history of the script, and it is one of the letters whose Brahmi form stays recognisable in nearly every descendant alphabet. Like the rest of the consonants it is read with the inherent short a.
Facts
Disputed
Origin PeriodMany epigraphists derive Brahmi from a Semitic prototype, most often Aramaic, adapted in the centuries before the Mauryan empire 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Brahmi's ancestry is disputed among epigraphists. Richard Salomon's Indian Epigraphy (Oxford University Press, 1998) surveys two live positions on the origin of the script attested in the Ashokan inscriptions: one derives Brahmi from a Semitic prototype, most often Aramaic, adapted in the centuries before the Mauryan empire; the other holds that it developed inside India itself. The dispute turns on the corpus, since Brahmi is securely attested only from Ashoka's edicts in the middle of the third century BCE onward, first read again by James Prinsep in 1837, and no earlier specimen on either side is securely dated. Both camps compare Brahmi's letterforms against Aramaic and other Semitic scripts using the same paleographic method, and without an intermediate dated example bridging the gap between any proposed ancestor and the Mauryan era script, neither derivation has been shown to fit the evidence better than the other. Origin PeriodOthers argue for a development inside India, and with no securely dated specimen earlier than the edicts the question stays open 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Brahmi's ancestry is disputed among epigraphists. Richard Salomon's Indian Epigraphy (Oxford University Press, 1998) surveys two live positions on the origin of the script attested in the Ashokan inscriptions: one derives Brahmi from a Semitic prototype, most often Aramaic, adapted in the centuries before the Mauryan empire; the other holds that it developed inside India itself. The dispute turns on the corpus, since Brahmi is securely attested only from Ashoka's edicts in the middle of the third century BCE onward, first read again by James Prinsep in 1837, and no earlier specimen on either side is securely dated. Both camps compare Brahmi's letterforms against Aramaic and other Semitic scripts using the same paleographic method, and without an intermediate dated example bridging the gap between any proposed ancestor and the Mauryan era script, neither derivation has been shown to fit the evidence better than the other. Origins
Origin PeriodMature Brahmi is securely attested in the edicts of Ashoka in the middle of the third century BCE, and the script could be read again only after James Prinsep worked out its values in 1837 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Place of OriginThe Indian subcontinent. The Ashokan edicts carry the script from the Gangetic plain across the Deccan to the far south, while the northwest of the same empire wrote in Kharosthi instead 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Origin of the NameThe letter has no traditional name of its own. It is called by its own sound plus the inherent short a, and the form used here is the name the Unicode Standard gives the character 3Tradition: Modern scholarly naming of the Brahmi letters Sense of the Namethe dental lateral; twenty-eighth consonant of the Brahmi order 3Tradition: Modern scholarly naming of the Brahmi letters Transmission
Manuscript TraditionAttested from the Asokan rock and pillar edicts of the third century BCE, the earliest substantial Brahmi corpus. 2 Identity
Script TypeAn abugida: every consonant sign carries an inherent short a, which a vowel mark alters and the virama cancels, so the unit written is the syllable rather than the single sound 1Tradition: Comparative writing systems PositionTwenty-eighth consonant of the Brahmi order and third of the four semivowels 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy How the Letter JoinsConsonants that meet with no vowel between them are written as a conjunct, the second stacked beneath or ligatured to the first, rather than as two separate signs 1Tradition: Comparative writing systems Attributions
Associated SoundDental lateral, the consonantal counterpart of the syllabic l; in the eastern Prakrit of several Ashokan edicts an inherited r appears as this sound 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceThe letter belongs to the received Brahmi order, and the corresponding sign in the scripts descended from Brahmi across South and Southeast Asia goes back to it 2Tradition: Indian epigraphy Learn More
A Letter That Carries Dialect Information
The lateral does more than record its own sound in the earliest Brahmi. Because the eastern dialects of the Ashokan period substitute it for an inherited r, its frequency in a given inscription is evidence about where that inscription was cut and what language was spoken there. A reader who notices an unexpected lateral in a word that Sanskrit writes with an r has found a dialect marker rather than an error, and the standard handbooks of Indian epigraphy set out the criteria in detail.
In its own right the letter is common enough in both Sanskrit and Prakrit vocabulary. It stands in a wide range of ordinary words and in several productive suffixes, and it is one of the four semivowels, standing third in that group between the r and the labial semivowel in the sequence that mirrors the order of the vowels the four answer to.
Its consonantal value is stable across the whole history of the script, which is not true of every letter: several signs shifted in value in one branch of the family or another as the languages changed around them. This one did not, and its Brahmi form stays recognisable in nearly every descendant alphabet, which makes it a useful fixed point when comparing two scripts that have drifted a long way apart.
Two Laterals, and Then Three
The received Brahmi order holds two laterals apart, the dental one and the retroflex one that stands last among the consonants. Indo-Aryan needs no more. The Dravidian languages of the far south need a third, and Tamil-Brahmi supplied it, adding a letter for a retroflex approximant made with the tongue drawn back without touching the roof of the mouth. That sound is among the most characteristic of Tamil and it has no Indo-Aryan counterpart at all.
Where the additional letter was placed says something about how these alphabets grow. It went at the end of the order, after the retroflex lateral that already closed the consonants, rather than beside the laterals it belongs with phonetically. That is the standing convention: the order is a memorised sequence and additions are filed at the end of it, because inserting a letter in the middle would oblige every reciter to relearn the list.
The same convention governs the retroflex lateral itself, which sits after the aspirate rather than among the laterals, and the dotted letters that the northern scripts later added for Persian and Arabic sounds, which are filed under the letters they modify. An alphabet that is recited grows at its edges, and where a letter sits in the order is often a fact about its history rather than about its sound.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Derived from This
Devanagari La descends from the Brahmi sign of the same value, through the Gupta and Nagari hands of northern India. The two alphabets align letter for letter because both are laid out in the varnamala order, the arrangement the Sanskrit phoneticians fixed by place of articulation.
The Gurmukhi letter Lalla continues the sign Brahmi La writes in the same place of the inherited series. The descent is not direct: it runs through the Sharada script of the northwest and then the Landa hands of the Punjab, and it is stated from position in the order rather than from shape.
Ranjana La continues the sign Brahmi La writes in the same place of the inherited varnamala. The descent is not direct: it runs through the Gupta and Siddhamatrka stages of the northern Brahmi line and then the scripts of Nepal, and it is stated from position in the order rather than from shape.
Siddham continues the Brahmi order letter for letter. The descent runs through the late Brahmi of the Gupta period and the Siddhamatrka hand that grows out of it, so this is a lineage rather than a direct copy of the older shape.
Tibetan la continues the Brahmi la, keeping its value and its place in the inherited order. The descent of the Tibetan script from the Brahmi family is not disputed; which Indic script of that family served as the immediate model in the seventh century is, and this link names the ancestor the atlas holds rather than choosing among the candidates.
Related To
The dental lateral this letter answers to. The two are laterals at different points of articulation, and an alphabet that holds them apart is serving a language that needs both.
One of the two laterals the inherited order already had. Tamil keeps three laterals apart where Indo-Aryan needs only two, and the third sign was added in the far south for the sound the northern alphabet could not write.
The two liquids, which the phonetic tradition treats as a pair and which fall together in several of the dialects the Ashokan edicts were cut in.
Both belong to the four semivowels, standing third and fourth in a group that follows the classed stops as a block.
The vowel this semivowel answers to. The pairing is real in the analysis even though the syllabic l is confined in practice to the forms of a single verbal root.
Both belong to the four semivowels, which stand together after the twenty-five classed stops and before the sibilants.
La answers to Brahmi La, the same alveolar lateral.
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