Ol Chiki script

Ol Chiki
ᱚᱞ ᱪᱤᱠᱤ
Script type
Alphabet
CreatorRaghunath Murmu
Time period
1925 — present
DirectionLeft-to-right Edit this on Wikidata
LanguagesSantali language
ISO 15924
ISO 15924Olck (261), ​Ol Chiki (Ol Cemet’, Ol, Santali)
Unicode
Unicode alias
Ol Chiki
U+1C50–U+1C7F
 This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.
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Writing systems used in India
Brahmic scripts
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The Ol Chiki (ᱚᱞ ᱪᱤᱠᱤ) script, also known as Ol Chemetʼ (ᱚᱞ ᱪᱮᱢᱮᱫ; ol 'writing', chemetʼ 'learning'), Ol Ciki, Ol, and sometimes as the Santali alphabet is the official writing system for Santali, an Austroasiatic language recognized as an official regional language in India. It was invented by Pandit Raghunath Murmu in 1925. It has 30 letters, the design of which is intended to evoke natural shapes. The script is written from left to right, and has two styles (the print Chapa style and cursive Usara style). Unicode does not maintain a distinction between these two, as is typical for print and cursive variants of a script. In both styles, the script is unicameral (that is, it does not have separate sets of uppercase and lowercase letters).

The shapes of the letters are not arbitrary, but reflect the names for the letters, which are words, usually the names of objects or actions representing conventionalized form in the pictorial shape of the characters.

— Norman Zide, A portal for Santals[1]
  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference portal was invoked but never defined (see the help page).