Ai is a vowel of Indic abugidas. In modern Indic scripts, Ai is derived from the early "Ashoka" Brahmi letter . As an Indic vowel, Ai comes in two normally distinct forms: 1) as an independent letter, and 2) as a vowel sign for modifying a base consonant. Bare consonants without a modifying vowel sign have the inherent "A" vowel.