Language Scripts : Rounded Letters vs Angular Letters

Exploring the history of evolution of scripts used in the Indian Subcontinent.

Have you noticed how the letters of your language looks like?

In my case, the script used in Bengali language (Bangla) is called the Bengali-Assamese script (also called Eastern Nagri ). The alphabets in this script are angular and straight, usually hanging from a horizontal line that we called ‘Matra’/ ‘Shirorekha’ (মাত্রা / शिरोरेखा). Similar traits are found in languages like Devnagari script (used in Hindi, Marathi, Nepali) and Gurmukhi script (used in Punjabi language).

Now let’s take a tour to the south of Indian subcontinent. Unlike the northern languages which mainly derive from Indo-European language family, the southern languages came from a very different family, the Dravidian Language family. If we take a look at the scripts used here, namely - Telegu, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam scripts, we will see how the alphabets are more curvy circular. Interestingly, Odia, even after coming from Indo-European language family and having similarities with Bengali, use the Odia script that have the curvy characteristic in its alphabets.

Why straight, why curved?
The southern regions have ample palm trees available. So before the age of paper, palm leaves were used vastly across those areas as a medium of writing. It is difficult to draw straight lines on palm leaves without ripping the surface along their veins. So the people opted for rounded and curvy form of the letters, which gradually led the modern south Indian languages to develop round and curved alphabets.
On the other hand, birch barks were the primary medium of writing for the north Indian people (including Bengal). Birch barks allowed them to write sharp angular
alphabets, and therefore, the modern day North Indian language scripts have the angular quality in them.

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