Editing Gujarati script (section)

==Overview==
[[Image:Guj Script Mahatma Gandhi 1.png|thumb|210px|Excerpt from "[[My experiments with truth]]" - the [[autobiography]] of [[Mahatma Gandhi]] in its original Gujarati.]]
The Gujarati writing system is an [[abugida]], in which each base consonantal character possesses an inherent vowel, that vowel being ''a'' [ə]. For postconsonantal vowels other than ''a'', the consonant is applied with [[diacritic]]s, while for non-postconsonantal vowels (initial and post-vocalic positions), there are full-formed characters. With ''a'' being the most frequent vowel,{{sfn|Tisdall|1892|p=19}} this is a convenient system in the sense that it cuts down on the width of writing.

Following out of the aforementioned property, consonants lacking a proceeding vowel may condense into the proceeding consonant, forming ''compound'' or ''conjunct'' letters. The formation of these conjuncts follows a system of rules depending on the consonants involved.

In accordance with all the other [[Indic scripts]], Gujarati is written from left to right, and is not case-sensitive.

The Gujarati script is basically [[phoneme|phonemic]], with a few exceptions.{{sfn|Mistry|1996|p=393}} First out of these is the written representation of non-pronounced ''a'''s, which are of three types.
*Word-final a's. Thus {{lang|gu|ઘર}} "house" is pronounced ''ghar'' and not ''ghara''. The a's remain unpronounced before [[postposition]]s and before other words in compounds: {{lang|gu|ઘરકામ}} "housework" is ''gharkām'' and not ''gharakām''. This non-pronunciation is not always the case with conjunct characters: {{lang|gu|મિત્ર}} "friend" is truly ''mitra''.
*Naturally [[elision|elided]] ''a'''s through the combination of morphemes. The root {{lang|gu|પકડ઼}} ''pakaṛ'' "hold" when inflected as {{lang|gu|પકડ઼ે}} "holds" remains written as ''pakaṛe'' even though pronounced as ''pakṛe''. ''See [[Gujarati phonology#ə-deletion]]''.
*''a'''s whose non-pronunciation follows the above rule, but which are in single words not resultant of any actual combination. Thus {{lang|gu|વરસાદ}} "rain", written as ''varasād'' but pronounced as ''varsād''.

Secondly and most importantly, being of Sanskrit-based Devanagari, Gujarati's script retains notations for the obsolete (short ''i, u'' vs. long ''ī, ū''; ''r̥'', ''ru''; ''ś'', ''ṣ''), and lacks notations for innovations ({{IPA|/e/}} vs. {{IPA|/ɛ/}}; {{IPA|/o/}} vs. {{IPA|/ɔ/}}; clear vs. [[Breathy voice|murmured]] vowels).{{sfn|Mistry|2001|p=274}}

Contemporary Gujarati uses [[English punctuation]], such as the [[question mark]], [[exclamation mark]], [[comma]], and [[full stop]]. [[Apostrophe]]s are used for the rarely written [[clitic]]. [[Quotation mark]]s are not as often used for direct quotes. The full stop replaced the traditional [[vertical bar]], and the [[colon (punctuation)|colon]], mostly obsolete in its Sanskritic capacity (see [[Gujarati script#Non-vowel diacritics|below]]), follows the European usage.

===Use for Avestan===
{{unreferenced section|date=April 2025}}
The [[Zoroastrians]] of India, who represent one of the largest surviving Zoroastrian communities worldwide, would transcribe Avestan in [[Nāgarī script|Nagri script]]-based scripts as well as the [[Avestan alphabet]]. This is a relatively recent development first seen in the {{Circa|12th century}} texts of Neryosang Dhaval and other Parsi Sanskritist theologians of that era, and which are roughly contemporary with the oldest surviving manuscripts in Avestan script. Today, Avestan is most commonly typeset in Gujarati script ([[Gujarati language|Gujarati]] being the traditional language of the Indian Zoroastrians). Some Avestan letters with no corresponding symbol are synthesized with additional diacritical marks, for example, the /z/ in ''zaraθuštra'' is written with /j/ + dot below.

===Influence in Southeast Asia===
Miller (2010) presented a theory that the indigenous scripts of [[Sumatra]] ([[Indonesia]]), [[Sulawesi]] (Indonesia) and the [[Philippines]] are descended from an early form of the Gujarati script. Historical records show that Gujaratis played a major role in the archipelago, where they were manufacturers and played a key role in introducing [[Islam]]. [[Tomé Pires]] reported a presence of a thousand Gujaratis in [[Malacca]] ([[Malaysia]]) prior to 1512.<ref name="Miller2010">{{cite journal|last1=Miller|first1=Christopher|title=A Gujarati Origin for Scripts of Sumatra, Sulawesi and the Philippines|journal=Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society|volume=36|issue=1|year=2010|pages=276|issn=2377-1666|doi=10.3765/bls.v36i1.3917|url=https://escholarship.org/content/qt4q6906nz/qt4q6906nz.pdf?t=o8eipw|doi-access=free}}</ref>