Laṇḍā scripts

For the proposed Western Punjabi linguistic group, see Lahnda.

The Laṇḍā scripts, from the term laṇḍā meaning "without a tail", is a Punjabi word used to refer to writing systems used in Punjab and adjoining areas. In Sindhi, it was known as 'Wāṇiko' or 'Baniyañ'.

Laṇḍā scripts
Landa script chart
Script type	Abugida
Time period	10th-11th century CE
Direction	Left-to-right
Related scripts
Parent systems	Egyptian hieroglyphs Proto-Sinaitic alphabet Phoenician alphabet Aramaic alphabet Brahmi script Gupta script Sharada script Laṇḍā scripts
Child systems	Gurmukhi, Khojki, Khudabadi†, Mahajani, Multani†, others
Sister systems	Takri script

Development

Punjabi-language manuscript of the 'Ekadashi Mahatam' written in a Punjabi variant of Sharada script, ca.1200–1300

Laṇḍā is a script that evolved from the Sharada script during the 10th century. It was widely used in the northern and northwestern Indian subcontinent, in the Indus River plain, and adjoining areas, comprising Punjab, Sindh, Kashmir, and some parts of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It was used to write Punjabi and various Punjabi dialects like Pahari-Pothwari, languages of Haryana, Sindhi, Saraiki, Balochi, Kashmiri, and Pashto.

The Laṇḍā scripts form a "typologically distinct group," and are closer in norms to its predecessor Brahmi than they are to the Nāgarī scripts to the east, in their general avoidance of conjunct glyphs or marking of the Middle Indo-Aryan geminations distinctive of Panjābī. While possessing full sets of consonants, even separate letters for the common Lāhndā consonant clusters tr and dr, their indication of vowels is less regular; they possess three vowel letters to indicate initial /ə ɪ ʊ/, but no letters or signs in other positions, thus being "alphabetical on the restricted Semitic model of Ugaritic cuneiform."

Functions

Landa scripts were originally used as mercantile shorthand for commercial purposes in the Punjab region and Sindh; they often lacked the full set of vowel sounds, as well as often imperfect correspondence of consonants. This made them liable to misreadings, frequently recognized by the local population through local proverbs referring to its usefulness only to the original writer. Various technical improvements would make certain descendant scripts fully suitable for literary use, primarily motivated by interest in recording religious scripture, particularly in the cases of Gurmukhī in Punjab, and Khojkī in Sindh.

Variants

Pandey (2010) further classifies Laṇḍā scripts into "Panjābī" and "Sindhī" regional subclasses.

• Panjābī: Gurmukhī, Bahāwalpurī, Lamawasī, Multānī (Karikkī, Sarāī, Ochikī Punjābī, Wuch), Thul (in Derajat), Sarika (in Derajat)
• Sindhī (named after the various regions, communities, or occupations with which they were associated): Aroṛā, Baniyā, Bhatiā, Haidarābādī, Karadī, Khudāwādī, Khwājā (Khojkī), Haṭāī, Haṭavāṇikā, Laraī, Lohāṇākī (Lohāṇā), Maimon, Rajaī, Sakkar, Shikārpurī, Sewhanī Bhabhira, Thatta (Thattai), Vaniyā, Wangaī, Wāṇiko

Grammarians of the 19th century variously identified as many as six Laṇḍā forms used in Punjab and as many as twelve in Sindh. Further typological differences used in this subclassification include:

• character repertoire: the Laṇḍā character sets of the Sindhi class possess characters for the implosive consonants of the language;
• character shapes: common letters can be identified by subclass depending on shape;
• collation: Panjābī Laṇḍā shares Gurmukhī's sorting order, starting with vowels, then fricatives sa and ha, then the 5×5 set of occlusives, then sonorants, while Sindhī Laṇḍā follows Devanāgarī more closely; and
• orthographic norms: Panjābī Laṇḍā do not use dependent vowel diacritics, the approximate vowel letter is written after the consonant letter, e.g. the syllable /ki/ is written with the letter 'k' followed by the letter 'i'. After standardization, dependent vowel diacritics were introduced into Sindhī Laṇḍā.

Even within these subclasses, the scripts exhibit further differences.

Fully attested

Ephemera in Landa scripts

• 
  Punjabi postcard dispatched from Jagraon, Ludhiana written in a Landa script, December 1866
• 
  Postcard from Afghanistan written in a Landa script, ca.1871–72
• 
  Page written in a Landa script

Currently, five Laṇḍā-descended scripts have enough information to be supported in Unicode.

1. Gurmukhī is used for Punjabi and sometimes for Sindhi. Originally used in Sikh scripture and writings, it is the only major Landa-descended script in modern day usage. It has preserved the distinctive names of letters (kakkā, khakkhā, etc.) and collation order of Laṇḍā (vowels→fricatives→occlusives→sonorants)
2. Khojkī, an ecclesiastical script of the Isma'ili Khoja community, is considered to be a refined version of Lohāṇākī. Originally developed for Sindhi, it had also been used for Punjabi, Saraiki, and Gujarati as it spread, as well as for Arabic and Persian. Shifts in correspondences of letters most commonly included implosive letters for the tenuis consonants, and tenuis letters for aspirated stops. Such shifts was partly because as Khojkī spread to languages without Sindhī's implosives, the corresponding letters lost their original values, leading to shifts and ambiguity in usage.
3. Standard Khudabadi, formerly used for Sindhi, was derived in the 1860s from Khudāwādī, the script associated with merchant communities of Hyderabad, Sindh, being supplemented with characters from Shikārpurī. It is now obsolete.
4. Mahājanī, a script previously used for the Punjabi and Mārwāṛī, was taught to students from merchant and trading classes for business, and was similar to other accounting scripts like Sarrāfī ("of bankers"), Koṭhīvāl, and Baniauṭī ("of merchants"). Attested mostly from merchant documents, bills of exchange, and letters. It had five vowel letters, a, e, i, o, u, with the letter for i also used for ī, e, ai and the letter for u also used for "ū, o, au". It had neither a dedicated nasalization diacritic, instead using the letter for n, nor script-specific numerals, instead using those of Devanāgarī or Gujarātī, though it does have fraction signs and unit marks, nor script-specific punctuation besides section marks and abbreviation. There are variants of certain letters, and generally did not space between words. It "may not be entirely obsolete."
5. Multānī, former writing system of Sarāikī, is now obsolete. While classed by Pandey (2012) in the Punjabi subclass, it contains implosive characters and clusters similar to those of the Sindhi subclass, that other Punjabi Landa scripts lack. It had 4 vowel letters, a, i, u, e; a was used for ā as well; i was also used for ī as well as commonly as a semivowel in place of the letter y; u was used for ū and o, and e for ai as well as o in some sources. Shifts in sound representation meant that some letters often represented more than one sound, most often with tenuis letters used for aspirated stops, and implosive letters for tenuis sounds, as well as variants of certain letters. Pandey (2012) proposes an "idealized" form for encoding, with more regular correspondences.

Further reading

• Pandey, Anshuman. (2010). L2/10-271R Proposal to Encode the Sindhi Script
• Pandey, Anshuman. (2010). L2/10-013R Preliminary Proposal to Encode the Landa Script
• Pandey, Anshuman. (2009). L2/09-424 Proposal to Encode the Takri Script
• Leitner, Gottlieb Wilhelm (1882). "Vernacular indigenous education in the Panjab". History of indigenous education in the Punjab since annexation and in 1882. Calcutta: Superintendent of Government Printing, India. pp. 28–45.