Devanagari's irregular ligatures

# Standard vowels

  A    AA   I    II   U    UU   vR   vRR  vL   vLL
  E    AI   O    AU

# Standard consonants

  KA   KHA  GA   GHA  NGA
  CA   CHA  JA   JHA  NYA
  TTA  TTHA DDA  DDHA NNA
  TA   THA  DA   DHA  NA
  PA   PHA  BA   BHA  MA
  YA   RA   LA   VA
  SHA  SSA  SA   HA

# Extension

  LLA

In principle, consonant conjuncts are assembled from half forms in Devanagari's modern writing style. Therefore consonant letters are grouped according to their half form behaviors.

• Group A: KA KHA GA GHA CA JA JHA NYA NNA TA THA DHA NA PA PHA BA BHA MA YA LA VA SHA SSA SA, 24, having typical half forms.

• Group B: 9, not having typical half forms.

  • Group B1: 6, not having half forms at all.

    • Group B1a: DA (conjunct-rich)

    • Group B1b: NGA TTA TTHA DDA DDHA

  • Group B2: 3, from which "short stems" could be removed to shape special half forms.

    • Group B2a: HA (conjunct-rich)

    • Group B2b: CHA

• Group C: LLA, similar to the group B2b but showing great limitation on forming conjuncts.

• Group D: RA, taking a reph form instead of a half form usually when starting a consonant cluster.

Required

• Akhand conjuncts: K_SSA J_NYA

• Group D (RA)'s special forms: Reph Eyelash (a special half form) Rakar.

• Consonant's 8 forms (combinations of "nukta", "rakar", and "half"):

  • (Basic forms: KA ... HA, LLA, K_SSA J_NYA.)

  • Nukta forms: KxA ... HxA, LLxA.

  • Rakar forms: K_RA ... H_RA, LL_RA, (K_SS_RA J_NY_RA).

  • Rakar nukta forms: Kx_RA ... Hx_RA, LLx_RA.

  • Half forms: K ... H, LL, K_SS J_NY.

  • Half nukta forms: Kx ... Hx, LLx.

  • Half rakar forms: K_R ... H_R, LL_R, (K_SS_R J_NY_R).

  • Half rakar nukta forms: Kx_R ... Hx_R, LLx_R.

• CV ligatures:

  • RA_mU RA_mUU.

  • HA_mvR.

  • SHA_mvR.

  • RA_mvR RA_mvRR RA_mvL RA_mvLL.

Note: Group B1 all have Virama-attached half-involving (half, half nukta, half rakar, half rakar nukta) forms.

Note: Group B2a (HA) has a very special half form, which, according to ITF's current in-house preference, is abandoned in favor of a Virama-attached appearance.

Note: Virama-attached half-involving forms could be excluded if Devanagari's "modern" style of reordering mI is preferred, which is not ITF's in-house preference.

Note: RA_mvR takes a special appearance of <vR Reph>. The rest three are similar.

Extension A

Note: Recommended for UI fonts and above (text, Sanskrit).

A UI font has the minimum numbers of stacking conjuncts in consideration of legibility in small sizes.

• Group B (DA ... CHA), ended with YA: D_YA NG_YA! TT_YA TTH_YA DD_YA DDH_YA H_YA CH_YA.

• Group B (DA ... CHA), ended with VA: D_VA NG_VA! TT_VA TTH_VA DD_VA DDH_VA H_VA CH_VA.

• Group B1 (DA ... DDHA) and TA, geminating: D_DA NG_NGA TT_TTA TT_TTHA TTH_TTHA DD_DDA DD_DDHA DDH_DDHA, T_TA.

• Groups B1a (DA) and B2a (HA), ended with NA: D_NA H_NA.

• Started with group B1a (DA): D_GA D_GHA [D_DA] D_DHA [D_NA] D_BA D_BHA D_MA [D_YA] [D_VA].

  • Suffixed with YA: D_DH_YA D_BH_YA D_R_YA D_V_YA

• Started with group B2a (HA): H_NNA [H_NA] H_MA [H_YA] H_LA [H_VA].

Extension B #DRAFTING

Note: Recommended for text fonts and above (Sanskrit).

• Started with NGA or NYA:

  • NG_KA NG_KHA NG_GA NG_GHA NG_MA? NG_NA?.

  • NY_CA NY_JA NY_NYA.

• SH_CA SH_VA.

  • Half forms: SH_C SH_V.

• SS_TTA SS_TTHA.

  • Suffixed with YA RA VA: SS_TT_YA SS_TT_RA SS_TT_VA SS_TTH_YA SS_TTH_RA SS_TTH_VA.

Extension C #DRAFTING

Note: Recommended only for Sanskrit fonts.

• DA_mvR

• Group B1 (especially NGA) starting all conjuncts.

• NA-ending conjuncts of all consonants.

• K_TA P_TA.

• P_TTA? P_TTHA?.

• Stacking: K_KA K_VA