Editing Brahmic scripts (section)

==Characteristics==
{{Calligraphy}}
Some characteristics, which are present in most but not all the scripts, are:
* Each [[consonant]] has an [[inherent vowel]] which is usually a short ‘[[Schwa|ə]]’ (in [[Bengali language|Bengali]], [[Assamese language|Assamese]] and [[Odia language|Odia]], the phoneme is /[[Open-mid back rounded vowel|ɔ]]/ due to sound shifts). Other vowels are written by adding to the character. A [[Diacritic|mark]], known in [[Sanskrit]] as a [[virama]]/[[halanta]]/[[hasanta]], can be used to indicate the absence of an inherent vowel, although it is rarely used.
* Each vowel has two forms, an independent form when not attached to a consonant, and a dependent form, when attached to a consonant. Depending on the script, the dependent forms can be either placed to the left of, to the right of, above, below, or on both the left and the right sides of the base consonant.
* Consonants (up to 4 in Devanagari) can be combined in [[ligature (typography)|ligatures]]. Special marks are added to denote the combination of 'r' with another consonant.
* [[Nasalization]] and [[Aspiration (phonetics)|aspiration]] of a consonant's dependent vowel is also noted by separate signs.
* The [[alphabetical order]] is: [[vowels]], [[velar consonant]]s, [[palatal consonants]], [[retroflex consonant]]s, [[dental consonant]]s, [[bilabial consonant]]s, [[approximants]], [[sibilants]], and other consonants. Each consonant grouping had four [[stop consonant|stops]] (with all four possible values of voicing and aspiration), and a [[nasal consonant]].