Should a Devanagari or Bengali initial like एम. read as an initial, not a title? (एम. एस. वर्मा gives title एम. एस.) #1191

Indian and Bangladeshi lists write a Latin initial by its sound in the native script: M. is एम. in Devanagari and এম. in Bengali. Where the spelled initial is two letters with no vowel sign, H2 (the leading abbreviation title) reads it as a title by shape, as it would Insp. (measured on master ccaf6ad):

बी. reads as an initial because it is one consonant and a vowel sign, and H2 counts the sign as a mark, not a letter; एम is ए + म, two letters. The letters affected are the ones whose English names start with a vowel and are spelled without a vowel sign or virama: एम., एस., एन., एल., आर., एच., एफ. and Bengali এম., এস., আর., এইচ., এল.. Gurmukhi does the same (ਐਮ. ਸਿੰਘ gives title ਐਮ.). Where a virama joins the letters the run breaks and the initial reads right (एक्स. for X, Tamil எம்.).

H2 states the opposite: "an abbreviation in a script whose letters carry combining vowel signs (Bengali, Devanagari) never reads as a title by shape". That holds for an abbreviation with a vowel sign and not for these.

Measured (2026-11-08):

• India's Parliament (OpenSanctions in_sansad, 916 Devanagari names written Family, title Given): 39 (4.3%) have an initial in the title.
• Bangladesh's parliaments 1 to 13 (Bengali Wikipedia's member lists, 1,760 people): 15 (0.9%).

Proposal

Except on H2: in a script with no letter case and an abugida's vowel signs (Devanagari, Bengali, and the other Brahmic scripts), a word of two letters or fewer before the period is an initial, not an abbreviation. Listed abbreviations of that length (डा., ডাঃ) keep their readings through the vocabulary.

Questions

• Is two letters the right bound? A few listed honorifics are as short (डा., प्रो.), and an unlisted two-letter abbreviation that is a title would lose its reading.
• The other Brahmic scripts belong in the same change's grid: Gurmukhi is affected, Tamil is not; Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Gujarati and Odia are untested.