> The Indic branch of IE Family of languages
> consists of more than a dozen living languages. .
At least 26 with a modern literary standard. An accurate total number is
impossible to give because of the blurred boundary between "dialect" and
"language", but it is going to be well up in the hundreds..
>It is believed that
> all these languages use a script called "Devanagari' script
Many different scripts are used. Seven main ones (including Devanagari)
are derived from the old Brahmi script, but Urdu and Sindhi are written in
varieties of the Arabic script, and Kashmirir and other languages can be
written in this script.
>This
> script is a fully developed script with vowels and consonants
> structured in a perfect manner.
No script is "perfect" (and there are several ideas of what a "perfect"
script should be), and the Devanagari is less efficient and more cumbersome
than some of the other Brahmi-derived scripts. Gurkmurkhi was specifically
used by Guru Nanak to make reading the script easier than it would have been
in Devanagari.
>Then, the question that baffles is `How did this script
> develop?'Can any IE scholar throw some light on this riddle?
It came from the Brahmi script. the origins of teh Brhami script are still
not clear. Many linguists favour a North Semitic origin, some a South
Semitic, and Indian linguists suggest it developed independently in India,
despite the lack of archaeological evidence.
If you want to chase this further, look at C P Masica "The Indo-Aryan
Languages" (Routledge 1991) or F Coulmas "Writing Systems" (CUP 2003)
Peter