| Newar | |
| Native Name: | Prachalit Nepal |
| Sample: | Shukla Prachalit Nepal.svg |
| Caption: | The phrase 'Prachalit Nepal' in Newar script |
| Type: | Abugida |
| Time: | 10th–20th century |
| Languages: | Nepal Bhasa, Sanskrit, Maithili |
| Fam1: | Proto-Sinaitic script |
| Fam2: | Phoenician alphabet |
| Fam3: | Aramaic script |
| Fam4: | Brāhmī |
| Fam5: | Gupta |
| Fam6: | Siddham |
| Fam7: | Gaudi[1] |
| Fam8: | Nepalese |
| Sisters: | Ranjana Bhujimol |
| Iso15924: | Newa |
| Unicode: | U+11400 - U+1147F |
| Note: | none |
The Newar script, known in the Newar language as Nepal lipi, Nepalakshar and Prachalit, is an abugida, one of the Nepalese scripts that descend from the Brahmi script. It is used to write Nepal Bhasa, Maithili and Sanskrit. Various publications are still published in this script including the Sikkim Herald the bulletin of the Sikkim government (Newari edition).[2]
The Newar script is also known as "Nepalakshar" or "Nepal lipi", which means script of Nepal. This script is referred as "Newa" in Modern-Newar language, and "Newari" in Nepali language. The Newar script is also known as Prachalit script ("popular script"), as it was one of the most widely used script among all of the scripts used in Nepal, with majority of manuscripts and inscription written in it.
The multilingual stone inscription of Pratap Malla dated to 1654 CE, uses "nevāra ākhala" (Newar script) to refer this script in Classical Newar language.[3] Similarly, in a 1747 CE work, Capuchin friar Costantino da Ascoli refers to this script as Nepalese.[4]
The Newar script appeared in the inscription of King Shankaradeva at Jaishideval, dated to 920 CE. Similarly, the first coin in Newar script appeared on a coin of King Shivadeva (1098–1126 CE). The oldest surviving manuscript of the Abhijnana Shakuntala, dated to the 12th century, was written in this script and is now situated at the Asiatic Society of Bengal.[5]
Almost all of Malla dynasty official records and inscription were written in Newar script. It was also used in official documents by early-Shah rulers, as shown by the Nepal-Tibet treaty of 1775, which was written in Newar script. Later since 1906, with rise of Rana dynasty, official documents written in Newar script was declared illegal. Since than, the Newar script started to replaced by Devanagari script.[6]
| Vowels | Diacritic | IAST & IPA | With (ka) | With (ga) | Vowels | Diacritic | IAST & IPA | With (ka) | With (ga) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | pronounced as //ə// | pronounced as //aː// | ||||||||
| pronounced as //i// | pronounced as //iː// | |||||||||
| pronounced as //u// | pronounced as //uː// | |||||||||
| pronounced as //r̩// | pronounced as //r̩ː// | |||||||||
| pronounced as //l̩// | pronounced as //l̩ː// | |||||||||
| pronounced as //eː// | pronounced as //ai̯// | |||||||||
| pronounced as //oː// | pronounced as //au̯// | |||||||||
| pronounced as //ə̃// | pronounced as //əḥ// |
| Phonetics → | Stop | Nasal | Approximant | Fricative | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Voicing → | Voiceless | Voiced | Voiceless | Voiced | ||||||||||||
| Aspiration → | No | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | ||||||||||
| Velar | ||||||||||||||||
| Palatal | ||||||||||||||||
| Retroflex | ||||||||||||||||
| Dental | ||||||||||||||||
| Labial | ||||||||||||||||
See main article: Newa (Unicode block). Newar script was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2016 with the release of version 9.0.
The Unicode block for Newar, called Newa, is U+11400 - U+1147F:
