Akshara
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Akshara (akṣára) is the Sanskrit term for "syllable", in particular the syllable Aum, and by extension, since abugida graphemes express syllables, any grapheme of a script of the Brahmic family. The termis of neutral gender, derived from an adjective meaning "imperishable", from which a feminine ákṣarā appears in the Rigveda with a meaning of "word" or "speech".
A related term is Varnamala (varṇa-mālā), the term for a complete series of graphemes ("alphabet"), but also for any row of letters in a diagram.
There are two main kinds of graphemes in Indian abugidas, vowels and consonants. Vowels only appear as full graphemes word-initially.
See also
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