Nga: The Ranjana Letter

Nga is the fifth and last cell of the velar row, the nasal made at the same point as the four stops before it. Every row of the consonant grid closes this way, with the nasal formed where that row's stops are formed, so the recitation of a class moves through a place of articulation and then shuts it. That design has a consequence a learner notices at once: there are five nasal letters in the chart rather than the one or two most European alphabets carry, and each belongs to its own class rather than standing alone.

In Sanskrit this letter occurs almost entirely before other velars rather than independently, since a nasal assimilates to the consonant that follows it, so the sign is common in clusters and rare on its own. Ranjana writes it as it writes any consonant, hanging from the head stroke and carrying the inherent short a, and it appears most often as the first element of a joined form. Its position in the chart is nonetheless fixed and taught, because the row is recited whole and a class with a missing member would no longer teach the pattern that makes the rest of the grid predictable. The nasal column is also the place where the number of letters in a Brahmic chart surprises a reader most. Five nasals is not an extravagance but a consequence of describing sounds by where they are made, and a chart that grouped them together would have hidden the very relationship it was built to show.