Ai is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ai is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ai 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.
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 ×1012, but the vowel letter ऐ did not have an inherent value by itself.[1]
Historic Ai
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Ai as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, and retained the same basic form into later styles of Brahmi. Like all Brahmic scripts, Tocharian Ai 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 Ai are indicated with vowel marks added to the letter A.
Brahmi Ai
The Brahmi letter Ai , is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Ayin, and is thus related to the modern Latin O and Greek Omicron.[2] Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Ai 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 some vowel marks not attested until later forms of Brahmi back-formed to match the geometric writing style.
The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi . Unlike some of the consonants, Tocharian vowels do not have a Fremdzeichen form.
Tocharian consonants with Ai vowel marks
Kai
Khai
Gai
Ghai
Cai
Chai
Jai
Jhai
Nyai
Ṭai
Ṭhai
Ḍai
Ḍhai
Ṇai
Tai
Thai
Dai
Dhai
Nai
Pai
Phai
Bai
Bhai
Mai
Yai
Rai
Lai
Vai
Śai
Ṣai
Sai
Hai
Kharoṣṭhī Ai
The Kharoṣṭhī letter Ai is indicated with the E vowel mark plus the vowel length mark . As an independent vowel, Ai is indicated by adding the vowel marks to the independent vowel letter A.
Devanagari Ai
Devanagari independent Ai and Ai vowel sign.
Ai (ऐ) is a vowel of the Devanagariabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઐ, and the Modi letter 𑘋.
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, ऐ is pronounced as [ai]. 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 Ai
Bengali independent Ai and Ai vowel sign.
Ai (ঐ) is a vowel of the Bengaliabugida. It is derived from the Siddhaṃ letter , and is marked by the lack of horizontal head line and less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ऐ.
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, ঐ is pronounced as [ai]. 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 Ai
Gujarati independent Ai and Ai vowel sign.
Ai (ઐ) is a vowel of the Gujaratiabugida. It is derived from the Devanagari Ai , and ultimately the Brahmi letter .
Gujarati-using Languages
The Gujarati script is used to write the Gujarati and Kutchi languages. In both languages, ઐ is pronounced as [ai]. 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 Ai
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Telugu Ai
Telugu independent vowel and vowel sign Ai.
Ai (ఐ) is a vowel of the Teluguabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter . It is closely related to the Kannada letter ಐ. 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 Ai vowel sign on క, ఖ, గ, ఘ & ఙ: Kai, Khai, Gai, Ghai and Ngai. 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 Ai
Malayalam independent vowel and vowel sign Ai.
Ai (ഐ) is a vowel of the Malayalamabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Grantha letter ai. 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 Ai
Odia independent vowel and vowel sign Ai
Ai (ଐ) is a vowel of the Odiaabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter ai. 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 Ai
Kaithi independent vowel and vowel sign Ai.
Ai (𑂊) is a vowel of the Kaithiabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter , via the Siddhaṃ letter Ai. 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 Ai
The various Indic scripts are generally related to each other through adaptation and borrowing, and as such the glyphs for cognate letters, including Ai, are related as well.
^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.
^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.
^Pyu and Old Mon are probably the precursors of the Burmese script, and may be derived from either the Pallava or Kadamba script
^May also be derived from Devangari (see bottom left of table)
^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.
^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.
^Masaram Gondi acts as an Indic abugida, but its letterforms were not derived from any single precursor script.
Character encodings of Ai
Most Indic scripts are encoded in the Unicode Standard, and as such the letter Ai in those scripts can be represented in plain text with unique codepoint. Ai from several modern-use scripts can also be found in legacy encodings, such as ISCII.
^Ifrah, Georges (2000). The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. New York: John Wiley & Sons. pp. 447–450. ISBN0-471-39340-1.
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