Ña or Nya is the tenth consonant of Indic abugidas. It is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter.
Historic Nya
There are three different general early historic scripts - Brahmi and its variants, Kharoṣṭhī, and Tocharian, the so-called slanting Brahmi. Nya as found in standard Brahmi, was a simple geometric shape, with variations toward more flowing forms by the Gupta. The Tocharian Nya did not have an alterante Fremdzeichen form. The third form of nya, in Kharoshthi was probably derived from Aramaic separately from the Brahmi letter.
Brahmi Nya
The Brahmi letter, Nya, is probably derived from the altered Aramaic Nun, and is thus related to the modern LatinN and Greek Nu. Several identifiable styles of writing the Brahmi Nya can be found, most associated with a specific set of inscriptions from an artifact or diverse records from an historic period. 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.
The Tocharian letter is derived from the Brahmi, but does not have an alternate Fremdzeichen form.
Nya
Nyā
Nyi
Nyī
Nyu
Nyū
Nyr
Nyr̄
Nye
Nyai
Nyo
Nyau
Nyä
Kharoṣṭhī Nya
The Kharoṣṭhī letter is generally accepted as being derived from the altered Aramaic Nun, and is thus related to N and Nu, in addition to the Brahmi Nya.
Ña is the tenth consonant of the Devanagariabugida. It ultimately arose from the Brahmi letter, after having gone through the Gupta letter. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter ઞ, and the Modi letter ?.
Devanagari-using Languages
In all languages, ञ is pronounced as or when appropriate, similar to the phoneme in English canyon.. Like all Indic scripts, Devanagari uses vowel marks attached to the base consonant to override the inherent /ə/ vowel:
Ña
Ñā
Ñi
Ñī
Ñu
Ñū
Ñr
Ñr̄
Ñl
Ñl̄
Ñe
Ñai
Ño
Ñau
Ñ
ञ
ञा
ञि
ञी
ञु
ञू
ञृ
ञॄ
ञॢ
ञॣ
ञे
ञै
ञो
ञौ
ञ्
Conjuncts with ञ
Devanagari exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts. In modern Devanagari texts, most conjuncts are formed by reducing the letter shape to fit tightly to the following letter, usually by dropping a character's vertical stem, sometimes referred to as a "half form". Some conjunct clusters are always represented by a true ligature, instead of a shape that can be broken into constituent independent letters. Vertically stacked conjuncts are ubiquitous in older texts, while only a few are still used routinely in modern Devanagari texts. The use of ligatures and vertical conjuncts may vary across languages using the Devanagari script, with Marathi in particular preferring the use of half forms where texts in other languages would show ligatures and vertical stacks.
Ligature conjuncts of ञ
True ligatures are quite rare in Indic scripts. The most common ligated conjuncts in Devanagari are in the form of a slight mutation to fit in context or as a consistent variant form appended to the adjacent characters. Those variants include Na and the Repha and Rakar forms of Ra. Nepali and Marathi texts use the "eyelash" Ra half form for an initial "R" instead of repha.
र্ + ञ gives us the ligature rña:
ञ্ + र gives us the ligature ñra:
ञ্ + न gives us the ligature ñna:
Devanagari Jña
One of the most common true ligatures in Devanagari is the conjunct jña ज्ञ. This ligature is a required form for most Devanagari languages, and the conjunct even has its own half form that freely joins other letters in horizontal conjuncts. ज्ञ্
ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature jña:
र্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature rjña:
भ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature bʰjña:
ब্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature bjña:
छ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature cʰjña:
च্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature cjña:
ढ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ḍʱjña:
ड্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ḍjña:
द্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature djña:
घ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ɡʱjña:
ग্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature gjña:
ह্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature hjña:
ज্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature jjña:
झ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature jʰjña:
ख্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature kʰjña:
क্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature kjña:
ल্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ljña:
म্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature mjña:
न্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature njña:
ञ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ñjña:
ङ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ŋjña:
फ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature pʰjña:
प্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature pjña:
श্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ʃjña:
स্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature sjña:
ष্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ṣjña:
थ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature tʰjña:
त্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature tjña:
ठ্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ṭʰjña:
ट্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature ṭjña:
व্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature vjña:
य্ + ज্ + ञ gives us the ligature yjña:
Stacked conjuncts of ञ
Vertically stacked ligatures are the most common conjunct forms found in Devanagari text. Although the constituent characters may need to be stretched and moved slightly in order to stack neatly, stacked conjuncts can be broken down into recognizable base letters, or a letter and an otherwise standard ligature.
The Bengali script ঞ is derived from the Siddhaṃ, and is marked by no horizontal head line, and a less geometric shape than its Devanagari counterpart, ञ. The inherent vowel of Bengali consonant letters is /ɔ/, so the bare letter ঞ will sometimes be transliterated as "nyo" instead of "nya". Adding okar, the "o" vowel mark, gives a reading of /ɲo/. Like all Indic consonants, ঞ can be modified by marks to indicate another vowel than its inherent "a".
nya
nyā
nyi
nyī
nyu
nyū
nyr
nyr̄
nye
nyai
nyo
nyau
ny
ঞ
ঞা
ঞি
ঞী
ঞু
ঞূ
ঞৃ
ঞৄ
ঞে
ঞৈ
ঞো
ঞৌ
ঞ্
ঞ in Bengali-using languages
ঞ is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.
Conjuncts with ঞ
Bengali ঞ exhibits conjunct ligatures, as is common in Indic scripts, with a mix of both stacked and linear ligatures.
চ্ + ঞ gives us the ligature cña:
জ্ + ঞ gives us the ligature jña:
ঞ্ + চ gives us the ligature ñca:
ঞ্ + ছ gives us the ligature ñcʰa:
ঞ্ + জ gives us the ligature ñja:
ঞ্ + ঝ gives us the ligature ñjʰa:
ষ্ + ঞ gives us the ligature ṣña:
Gurmukhi script
Ñaññā is a consonant of Gurmukhi. It is represented in Shahmukhi with ں nun gunnah or ن nun.
Gujarati script
Ña is a Gujarati consonant, from the Devenagari letter without the top bar.
Yo Ying is the thirteenth letter of the Thai script. It falls under the low class of Thai consonants. In IPA, yo ying is pronounced as at the beginning of the syllable and at the end of syllable and in Old Thai, it was pronounced as , Thai consonants do not form conjunct ligatures, and use the pinthu—an explicit virama with a dot shape—to indicate bare consonants. In the acrophony of the Thai script, ying means ‘woman’. Yo Ying corresponds to the Sanskrit character ‘ञ’.
