Cha (Indic)

← Ca	Cha			Ja →
Devanagari	Bengali	Gurmukhi	Gujarati	Oriya
		ਛ	છ
Tamil	Telugu	Kannada	Malayalam	Sinhala
-	ఛ	ಛ	ഛ	ඡ
Thai	Lao	Tibetan	Burmese	Khmer
ฉ	-	ཆ ཚ	ဆ	ឆ
Baybayin	Hanunoo	Buhid	Tagbanwa	Lontara
-	-	-	-	-
Balinese	Sundanese	Limbu	Tai Le	New Tai Lue
ᬙ	-	ᤇ	ᥡ	ᦉ
Lepcha	Saurashtra	Rejang	Javanese	Cham
ᰇ	ꢘ	-	ꦖ	ꨍ
Tai Tham	Tai Viet	Kayah Li	Phags-pa	Siddhaṃ
ᨨ	ꪌꪍ	-	ꡅ ꡑ
Mahajani	Khojki	Khudabadi	Syloti	Meitei
𑅚	𑈏	𑋁	ꠍ	-
Modi	Tirhuta	Kaithi	Sora	Grantha
𑘔	𑒕	𑂓	-	𑌛
Chakma	Sharada	Takri	Kharoshthi	Brahmi
𑄍	𑆗	𑚐	𐨖
Phonemic representation:			/t͡ʃʰ/
IAST transliteration:			cha
ISCII code point:			B9 (185)

Cha is the seventh consonant of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, cha is derived from the Brahmi letter , which is probably derived from the Aramaic letter ("Q") after having gone through the Gupta letter .

Āryabhaṭa numeration

Further information: Āryabhaṭa numeration

Aryabhata used Devanagari letters for numbers, very similar to the Greek numerals, even after the invention of Indian numerals. The values of the different forms of छ are:

• छ [t͡ʃʰə] = 7 (७)
• छि [t͡ʃʰɪ] = 700 (७००)
• छु [t͡ʃʰʊ] = 70,000 (७० ०००)
• छृ [t͡ʃʰri] = 7,000,000 (७० ०० ०००)
• छॢ [t͡ʃʰlə] = 7×10⁸ (७०^८)
• छे [t͡ʃʰe] = 7×10¹⁰ (७०^१०)
• छै [t͡ʃʰɛː] = 7×10¹² (७०^१२)
• छो [t͡ʃʰoː] = 7×10¹⁴ (७०^१४)
• छौ [t͡ʃʰɔː] = 7×10¹⁶ (७०^१६)

Devanagari script

Cha (छ) is the seventh consonant of the Devanagari abugida. In all languages, छ is pronounced as [t͡ʃʰə] or [t͡ʃʰ] when appropriate. Letters that derive from it are the Gujarati letter છ and the Modi letter 𑘔.

Bengali script

ছ is used as a basic consonant character in all of the major Bengali script orthographies, including Bengali and Assamese.

Gujarati script

Cha (છ) is the seventh consonant of the Gujarati script. It is derived from 16th century Devanagari letter cha (छ) with the top bar (shiro rekha) removed.

Gurmukhi script

Chhachhaa [t͡ʃʰət͡ʃʰːɑ] (ਙ) is the twefth letter of the Gurmukhi alphabet. Its name is [t͡ʃʰət͡ʃʰːɑ] and is pronounced as /t͡ʃʰ/ when used in words. It is derived from the Laṇḍā letter cha, and ultimately from the Brahmi cha. Gurmukhi chachaa does not have a special pairin or addha (reduced) form for making conjuncts, and in modern Punjabi texts do not take a half form or halant to indicate the bare consonant /t͡ʃʰ/, although Gurmukhi Sanskrit texts may use an explicit halant.

Thai script

Cho ching (ฉ) is the ninth letter of the Thai script. It falls under the middle class of Thai consonants. In IPA, cho ching is pronounced as [tɕʰ] at the beginning of a syllable and may not be used to close a syllable. The eighth letter of the alphabet, cho chan (จ), is also named cho and falls under the middle class of Thai consonants. The tenth and twefth letters of the alphabet, cho chang (ช) and cho choe (ฌ), are also named cho, however, they all fall under the low class of Thai consonants. Unlike many Indic scripts, 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, ching (ฉิ่ง) means ‘cymbals (ching)’. Cho ching corresponds to the Sanskrit character ‘छ’.

See also

• Qoph

References

• Kurt Elfering: Die Mathematik des Aryabhata I. Text, Übersetzung aus dem Sanskrit und Kommentar. Wilhelm Fink Verlag, München, 1975, ISBN 3-7705-1326-6
• Georges Ifrah: The Universal History of Numbers. From Prehistory to the Invention of the Computer. John Wiley & Sons, New York, 2000, ISBN 0-471-39340-1.
• B. L. van der Waerden: Erwachende Wissenschaft. Ägyptische, babylonische und griechische Mathematik. Birkhäuser-Verlag, Basel Stuttgart, 1966, ISBN 3-7643-0399-9