Au
Au
Example glyphs
Bengali-AssameseAu
TamilAu
Malayalam
Sinhala
Ashoka Brahmi
𑀒
DevanagariAu
Cognates
Hebrewו
GreekϜ (Ϛ), Υ (Ȣ)
LatinF, V, U, W, Y, Ⅎ
CyrillicЅ, У (Ꙋ), Ѵ, Ю
Properties
Phonemic representation/ɐːʊ/ /ou/ /ɔː/
IAST transliterationau Au
ISCII code pointB1 (177)

Au is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Au is derived from the middle "Kushana" Brahmi letter ng, and the Gupta letter . As an Indic vowel, Au 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 ×1016, but the vowel letter औ did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]

Historic Au

There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Au was not found in the earliest forms of Brahmi, but was found in the more flowing forms the Kushana Au and Gupta Au. Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Au Au 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 Au are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.

Brahmi Au

The Brahmi letter Au, is based on the letter O which was probably derived from the Aramaic Waw . That would make it related to the modern Latin F, V, U, W, Y and Greek Upsilon.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Au 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, but only being found in later styles, the reference form of Brahmi Au is back-formed from later styles to match the geometric writing style.

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

Tocharian Au

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

Tocharian consonants with Au vowel marks
KauKhauGauGhauCauChauJauJhauNyauṬauṬhauḌauḌhauṆau
TauThauDauDhauNauPauPhauBauBhauMauYauRauLauVau
ŚauṢauSauHau

Kharoṣṭhī Au

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

Devanagari Au

Au vowel
Au vowel sign
Devanagari independent Au and Au vowel sign.

Au () is a vowel of the Devanagari abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, after having gone through the Gupta letter Au. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter , and the Modi letter 𑘍.

Devanagari Using Languages

The Devanagari script is used to write the Hindi language, Sanskrit and the majority of Indo-Aryan languages. In most of these languages, ओ is pronounced as [au]. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Bengali Au

Au vowel
Au vowel sign
Bengali independent Au and Au vowel sign.

Au () is a vowel of the Bengali abugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter Au, and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ओ.

Bengali Script Using Languages

The Bengali script is used to write several languages of eastern India, notably the Bengali language and Assamese. In most languages, ঔ is pronounced as [au]. Like all Indic scripts, Bengali vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ɔ/ vowel.

Gujarati Au

Au vowel
Au vowel sign
Gujarati independent Au and Au vowel sign.

Au () is a vowel of the Gujarati abugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Au au, and ultimately the Brahmi letter au.

Gujarati-using Languages

The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઔ is pronounced as [au]. Like all Indic scripts, Gujarati vowels come in two forms: an independent vowel form for syllables that begin with a vowel sound, and a vowel sign attached to base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel.

Javanese Au

Telugu Au

Telugu independent vowel Au
Telugu vowel sign Au
Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au () is a vowel of the Telugu abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au. It is closely related to the Kannada letter . Like in other Indic scripts, Telugu vowels have two forms: and independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of Telugu consonant letters. Vowel signs in Telugu can interact with a base consonant in one of three ways: 1) the vowel sign touches or sits adjacent to the base consonant without modifying the shape of either 2) the vowel sign sits directly above the consonant, replacing its v-shaped headline, 3) the vowel sign and consonant interact, forming a ligature.

Telugu Au vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kau, Khau, Gau, Ghau and Ngau. Note that how the vowel sign interacts with the base consonant is dependent on the location of the headline, the absence of a headline, and the presence of a tail to attach to.

Malayalam Au

Malayalam independent vowel Au
Malayalam vowel sign Au
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au () is a vowel of the Malayalam abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, via the Grantha letter Au au. Like in other Indic scripts, Malayalam vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Malayalam usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound.

Odia Au

Odia independent vowel Au
Odia vowel sign Au
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au () is a vowel of the Odia abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, via the Siddhaṃ letter Au au. Like in other Indic scripts, Odia vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Odia usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Odia.

Kaithi Au

Kaithi independent vowel Au
Kaithi vowel sign Au
Kaithi independent vowel and vowel sign Au.

Au (𑂌) is a vowel of the Kaithi abugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter Au, via the Siddhaṃ letter Au Au. Like in other Indic scripts, Kaithi vowels have two forms: an independent letter for word and syllable-initial vowel sounds, and a vowel sign for changing the inherent "a" of consonant letters. Vowel signs in Kaithi usually sit adjacent to its base consonant - below, to the left, right, or both left and right, but are always pronounced after the consonant sound. No base consonants are altered in form when adding a vowel sign, and there are no consonant+vowel ligatures in Kaithi.

Comparison of Au

The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Au, are related as well.

Comparison of Au in different scripts
Aramaic
Au
Kharoṣṭhī
-
Ashoka Brahmi
𑀒
Kushana Brahmi[lower-alpha 1]
Au
Tocharian[lower-alpha 2]
-
Gupta Brahmi
Au
Pallava
Au
Kadamba
-
Bhaiksuki
𑰍
Siddhaṃ
Au
Grantha
𑌔
Cham
Sinhala
Pyu /
Old Mon[lower-alpha 3]
-
Tibetan
-
Newa
𑐍
Ahom
-
Malayalam
Telugu
Burmese
Lepcha
-
Ranjana
Au
Saurashtra
Dives Akuru
-
Kannada
Kayah Li
-
Limbu
Soyombo[lower-alpha 4]
-
Khmer
 / 
Tamil
Au
Chakma
𑄯
Tai Tham
-
Meitei Mayek
Gaudi
-
Thai
-
Lao
-
Tai Le
Marchen
-
Tirhuta
𑒎
New Tai Lue
-
Tai Viet
Aksara Kawi
-
'Phags-pa
-
Odia
Sharada
𑆐
Rejang
Batak
-
Buginese
-
Zanabazar Square
𑨈
Bengali-Assamese
Au
Takri
𑚉
Javanese
-
Balinese
Makasar
-
Hangul[lower-alpha 5]
-
Northern Nagari
-
Dogri
𑠉
Laṇḍā
-
Sundanese
-
Baybayin
-
Modi
𑘍
Gujarati
Khojki
𑈇
Khudabadi
𑊹
Mahajani
-
Tagbanwa
-
Devanagari
Au
Nandinagari
𑦭
Kaithi
Au
Gurmukhi
Multani
-
Buhid
-
Canadian Syllabics[lower-alpha 6]
-
Soyombo[lower-alpha 7]
-
Sylheti Nagari
-
Gunjala Gondi
𑵫
Masaram Gondi[lower-alpha 8]
𑴋
Hanuno'o
-
Notes
  1. The middle "Kushana" form of Brahmi is a later style that emerged as Brahmi scripts were beginning to proliferate. Gupta Brahmi was definitely a stylistic descendant from Kushana, but other Brahmi-derived scripts may have descended from earlier forms.
  2. Tocharian is probably derived from the middle period "Kushana" form of Brahmi, although artifacts from that time are not plentiful enough to establish a definite succession.
  3. Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
  4. May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
  5. The Origin of Hangul from 'Phags-pa is one of limited influence, inspiring at most a few basic letter shapes. Hangul does not function as an Indic abugida.
  6. Although the basic letter forms of the Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics were derived from handwritten Devanagari letters, this abugida indicates vowel sounds by rotations of the letter form, rather than the use of vowel diacritics as is standard in Indic abugidas.
  7. May also be derived from Ranjana (see above)
  8. Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.

Character encodings of Au

Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Au in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Au from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.

Character information
Preview
Unicode name DEVANAGARI LETTER AU BENGALI LETTER AU TAMIL LETTER AU TELUGU LETTER AU ORIYA LETTER AU KANNADA LETTER AU MALAYALAM LETTER AU GUJARATI LETTER AU GURMUKHI LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode2324U+09142452U+09942964U+0B943092U+0C142836U+0B143220U+0C943348U+0D142708U+0A942580U+0A14
UTF-8224 164 148E0 A4 94224 166 148E0 A6 94224 174 148E0 AE 94224 176 148E0 B0 94224 172 148E0 AC 94224 178 148E0 B2 94224 180 148E0 B4 94224 170 148E0 AA 94224 168 148E0 A8 94
Numeric character referenceऔऔঔঔஔஔఔఔଔଔಔಔഔഔઔઔਔਔ
ISCII177B1177B1177B1177B1177B1177B1177B1177B1177B1


Character information
Preview
Ashoka𑀒
Kushana
Gupta
𑌔
Unicode name BRAHMI LETTER AU SIDDHAM LETTER AU GRANTHA LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode69650U+1101271053U+1158D70420U+11314
UTF-8240 145 128 146F0 91 80 92240 145 150 141F0 91 96 8D240 145 140 148F0 91 8C 94
UTF-1655300 56338D804 DC1255301 56717D805 DD8D55300 57108D804 DF14
Numeric character reference𑀒𑀒𑖍𑖍𑌔𑌔


Character information
Preview𑐍𑰍𑆐
Unicode name NEWA LETTER AU BHAIKSUKI LETTER AU SHARADA LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode70669U+1140D72717U+11C0D70032U+11190
UTF-8240 145 144 141F0 91 90 8D240 145 176 141F0 91 B0 8D240 145 134 144F0 91 86 90
UTF-1655301 56333D805 DC0D55303 56333D807 DC0D55300 56720D804 DD90
Numeric character reference𑐍𑐍𑰍𑰍𑆐𑆐


Character information
Preview
Unicode name MYANMAR LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode4138U+102A
UTF-8225 128 170E1 80 AA
Numeric character referenceဪဪ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name KHMER INDEPENDENT VOWEL QAU TAI VIET VOWEL AUE
Encodingsdecimalhexdechex
Unicode6067U+17B343707U+AABB
UTF-8225 158 179E1 9E B3234 170 187EA AA BB
Numeric character referenceឳឳꪻꪻ


Character information
Preview
Unicode name SINHALA LETTER AUYANNA TAI LE LETTER AUE SAURASHTRA LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechex
Unicode3478U+0D966508U+196C43153U+A891
UTF-8224 182 150E0 B6 96225 165 172E1 A5 AC234 162 145EA A2 91
Numeric character referenceඖඖᥬᥬꢑꢑ


Character information
Preview𑘍𑦭𑵫
Unicode name MODI LETTER AU NANDINAGARI LETTER AU GUNJALA GONDI LETTER AU KAITHI LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode71181U+1160D72109U+119AD73067U+11D6B69772U+1108C
UTF-8240 145 152 141F0 91 98 8D240 145 166 173F0 91 A6 AD240 145 181 171F0 91 B5 AB240 145 130 140F0 91 82 8C
UTF-1655301 56845D805 DE0D55302 56749D806 DDAD55303 56683D807 DD6B55300 56460D804 DC8C
Numeric character reference𑘍𑘍𑦭𑦭𑵫𑵫𑂌𑂌


Character information
Preview𑒎
Unicode name TIRHUTA LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode70798U+1148E
UTF-8240 145 146 142F0 91 92 8E
UTF-1655301 56462D805 DC8E
Numeric character reference𑒎𑒎


Character information
Preview𑚉𑠉𑈇𑊹
Unicode name TAKRI LETTER AU DOGRA LETTER AU KHOJKI LETTER AU KHUDAWADI LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode71305U+1168971689U+1180970151U+1120770329U+112B9
UTF-8240 145 154 137F0 91 9A 89240 145 160 137F0 91 A0 89240 145 136 135F0 91 88 87240 145 138 185F0 91 8A B9
UTF-1655301 56969D805 DE8955302 56329D806 DC0955300 56839D804 DE0755300 57017D804 DEB9
Numeric character reference𑚉𑚉𑠉𑠉𑈇𑈇𑊹𑊹


Character information
Preview
Unicode name BALINESE LETTER OKARA TEDUNG
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode6930U+1B12
UTF-8225 172 146E1 AC 92
Numeric character referenceᬒᬒ


Character information
Preview𑴋
Unicode name MASARAM GONDI LETTER AU
Encodingsdecimalhex
Unicode72971U+11D0B
UTF-8240 145 180 139F0 91 B4 8B
UTF-1655303 56587D807 DD0B
Numeric character reference𑴋𑴋


References

  1. Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
  2. Bühler, Georg (1898). "On the Origin of the Indian Brahmi Alphabet". archive.org. Karl J. Trübner. Retrieved 10 June 2020.
  3. Evolutionary chart, Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal Vol 7, 1838
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