Belonging to the group of Northern Indic scripts, Gujerati script is used for the Gujerati and Kacchi languages in the Indian state of Gujerat. With a few additional symbols, Gujerati can also be used to write Sanskrit. As with all Brahmi-derived Indic scripts, Gujerati demonstrates the typical features of that model.¹ Its basic unit is the consonant-based syllable which embodies an inherent vowel. As an offshoot of Devanagari script, Gujerati developed its own distinctive style while retaining the same structural features of Devanagari. Visually, the most striking difference between the two scripts is the absence of the connecting horizontal stroke which is characteristic of Devanagari letters. The overall appearance of Gujerati text also bears an uncanny resemblance to the extinct Kaithi script.

Gujerati is written horizontally from left to right and its basic set of symbols consists of 34 consonants and 11 vowels. At the beginning of a syllable, vowels appear in independent form. When used to replace the inherent vowel of a consonantal syllable, vowels appear in diacritic (or satellite) form before, after, above, below or surrounding the modified syllable. A group of consonants without intervening vowels form a 'consonant cluster' which can often be written with a special symbol called a 'conjunct'. Frequently such a cluster is written by concatenation of the abbreviated forms of its components called 'half forms'. In Gujerati script, half forms are typically missing the vertical stroke of the full form. Taking the shape of a dot placed above a letter, the anusvara indicates a nasal vowel or consonant. Other special symbols are used primarily for words of Sanskrit origin. Unlike other Indic scripts which explicitly indicate the suppression of a syllable's inherent vowel, in Gujerati the vowel of a word-final syllable is assumed suppressed. Traditionally, the end of a sentence is signaled by a vertical stroke. However, in current practice, European punctuation is often used. Likewise, although Gujerati has a native set of symbols for numerals, nowadays Arabic numbers are often used.

¹ For a fuller description of the features of Brahmi-derived scripts, see 'Devanagari'.

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