Ahom alphabet

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Ahom script
𑜒𑜑𑜪𑜨
Type
Languages Ahom language, Assamese language (rarely) [1]
Time period
13th century–19th century
Parent systems
Proto-Sinaitic alphabet
DirectionLeft-to-right
ISO 15924 Ahom, 338
Unicode alias
Ahom
U+11700–U+1173F

The Ahom script is an abugida that is used to write the Ahom language, a nearly-extinct (but being revived) Tai language spoken by the Ahom people who ruled eastern part of Brahmaputra valley—about one-third of the length of Brahmaputra valley—in the Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries. It is also called Tai Ahom Script. [2]

Abugida writing system

An abugida, or alphasyllabary, is a segmental writing system in which consonant–vowel sequences are written as a unit: each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary. This contrasts with a full alphabet, in which vowels have status equal to consonants, and with an abjad, in which vowel marking is absent, partial, or optional. The terms also contrast them with a syllabary, in which the symbols cannot be split into separate consonants and vowels. Abugidas include the extensive Brahmic family of scripts of South and Southeast Asia, Semitic Ethiopic scripts, and Canadian Aboriginal syllabics.

The Ahom language or Tai-Ahom Langage is a Tai Kadai language with the script evolved from Tai Nuea, spoken by the Tai-Ahom ma branch of Tai-Yue who ruled the Brahmaputra river valley in the Indian state of Assam between the 13th and the 18th centuries. The language is classified in a Northwestern subgrouping of Southwestern Tai owing to close affinities with Shan, Tai Nuea and, more distantly, Thai.

Ahom people ethnic group

The Ahom, or Tai-Ahom is an ethnic group found today in Assam, Arunachal, and some in Kachin State. They are the descendants of the Tai people who reached the Brahmaputra valley of Assam in 1228 and the local people who joined them over the course of history. Sukaphaa, the leader of the Tai group and his 9000 followers established the Ahom kingdom, which controlled the Bramhaputra Valley and the territory of modern Assam until the British gained control in 1826. Even though the Ahom made up a relatively small portion of the kingdom's population, they maintained their original Ahom language and practiced their traditional religion till the 17th-century, when the Ahom court as well as the commoners adopted the Assamese language, and Ekasarana dharma and Saktism religions.

Contents

History of the script

An Ahom manuscript preserved in the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Pan Bazaar, Guwahati. Tai Script of Ahom Kingdom.jpg
An Ahom manuscript preserved in the Department of Historical and Antiquarian Studies, Pan Bazaar, Guwahati.

The Ahom script was probably derived from the Indic, or Brahmi script, [2] the root of almost all the Indic and Southeast Asian abugidas. It is probably of South Indic origin. [3] The manuscripts were reportedly traditionally produced on paper prepared from agarwood (locally known as sachi) bark.

Brahmi script ancient script of Central and South Asia

Brahmi, developed in the mid-1st millennium BCE, is the oldest known writing system of Ancient India, with the possible exception of the undeciphered Indus script. Brahmi is an abugida that thrived in the Indian subcontinent and uses a system of diacritical marks to associate vowels with consonant symbols. It evolved into a host of other scripts, called the Brahmic scripts, that continue to be in use today in South and Central Asia.

Agarwood type of wood

Agarwood, aloeswood or gharuwood is a fragrant dark resinous wood used in incense, perfume, and small carvings. It is formed in the heartwood of aquilaria trees when they become infected with a type of mould. Prior to infection, the heartwood is odourless, relatively light and pale coloured; however, as the infection progresses, the tree produces a dark aromatic resin, called aloes or agar as well as gaharu, jinko, oud, or oodh, in response to the attack, which results in a very dense, dark, resin-embedded heartwood. The resin-embedded wood is valued in many cultures for its distinctive fragrance, and thus is used for incense and perfumes. The aromatic qualities of agarwood are influenced by the species, geographic location, its branch, trunk and root origin, length of time since infection, and methods of harvesting and processing.

The Brahmi script spread in a peaceful manner, Indianization, or the spread of Indian learning. It spread naturally to Southeast Asia, at ports on trading routes. [4] At these trading posts, ancient inscriptions have been found in Sanskrit, using scripts that originated in India. Asian varieties of these scripts later developed. At first, inscriptions were found in Indian languages, but later inscriptions of southeast Asian languages were found in scripts derived from Indian scripts. Local varieties of the scripts were developed, that did not originate in India. Later, symbols for sounds in Tai languages were developed, and the Indic style of writing was left behind. [5]

It is believed that the Ahom people adopted the script from either Old Mon, or Old Burmese, before migrating to the Brahmaputra Valley. This is supported based on similar shapes of characters between Ahom and Old Mon and Old Burmese scripts. It is clear, however, that the script and language would have changed during the few hundred years it was in use. A printed form of the font was developed to be used in the first "Ahom-Assamese-English Dictionary". [6]

Assamese replaced Ahom during the 17th century. [7]

The Ahom script is no longer used by the Ahom people to read and write in everyday life. However, it retains cultural significance and is used for religious chants and to read literature. [2] Ahom's literary tradition provides a window into the past, of Ahom's culture. [8]

Samples of writing in the Ahom Script remain stored in Assamese collections. [6]

Translation efforts

Unfortunately, fabricated samples of the Ahom script delayed translation of legitimate Ahom texts. Several publications were created based on the fabricated samples, leading to incorrect grammatical analysis and dictionary resources that acted as a barrier to future researchers. A later translation of Ahom Buranji, a major Ahom script was provided by Golap Chandra Barua, the same man responsible for fabricating samples of translated Ahom script. It was discovered years later, by Professor Prasert na Nagara, that the translation was unreliable. Despite these difficulties, along with the lack of native speakers and specific text, studies in Ahom have prevailed, and certain available scripts have been translated and transliterated, using known words, characters and context. [6]

The attempt to revitalize the Ahom culture has encouraged linguists to take interest again in translating Ahom texts. However, main attempts to translate text into Ahom merely rewrites Assamese into the Ahom script, without care for the underlying grammar. The authors of Tai Ahoms and the Stars believe that to properly revive this script, a Tai language must be chosen, Ahom must be recreated from that, tones must be chosen, based on existing Tai languages, and tones must be expressed in the new writing, or "neo-Ahom". [6]

Script characteristics

Like most abugidas, each letter has an inherent vowel of /a/. [9] Other vowels are indicated by using diacritics, which can appear above, below, to the left, or to the right of the consonant. The script does not, however, indicate tones used in the language. [6]

The Ahom language has other characteristics typical of Tai languages, such as:

When speaking and writing Ahom, much is dependent upon context and the audience interpretation. Multiple parts of the sentence can be left out; verb and adjectives will remain, but other parts of speech, especially pronouns, can be dropped. Verbs do not have tenses, and nouns do not have plurals. Time periods can be identified by adverbs, strings of verbs, or auxiliaries placed before the verb. [8]

The Ahom script is further complicated, as the script does not cover all of Ahom's tones, and contains inconsistencies; a consonant may be written once in a word, but pronounced twice, common words may be shortened, and consecutive words with the same initial consonant may be contracted. [6]

Unicode

Ahom script was added to the Unicode Standard in June, 2015 with the release of version 8.0.

The Unicode block for Ahom is U+11700–U+1173F:

Ahom [1] [2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (PDF)
 0123456789ABCDEF
U+1170x𑜀𑜁𑜂𑜃𑜄𑜅𑜆𑜇𑜈𑜉𑜊𑜋𑜌𑜍𑜎𑜏
U+1171x𑜐𑜑𑜒𑜓𑜔𑜕𑜖𑜗𑜘𑜙𑜚𑜝𑜞𑜟
U+1172x𑜠𑜡𑜢𑜣𑜤𑜥𑜦𑜧𑜨𑜩𑜪𑜫
U+1173x𑜰𑜱𑜲𑜳𑜴𑜵𑜶𑜷𑜸𑜹𑜺𑜻𑜼𑜽𑜾𑜿
Notes
1. ^ As of Unicode version 11.0
2. ^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ http://sealang.net/ahom/
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Diller, A. (1993). Tai Languages. In International Encyclopedia of Linguistics (Vol. 4, pp. 128-131). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
  3. 1 2 French, M. A. (1994). Tai Languages. In The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Vol. 4, pp. 4520-4521). New York, NY: Pergamon Press Press.
  4. ↑ Court, C. (1996). Introduction. In P. T. Daniels & W. Bright (Eds.) The World's Writing Systems (pp. 443). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  5. ↑ Court, C. (1996). The spread of Brahmi Script into Southeast Asia. In P. T. Daniels & W. Bright (Eds.) The World's Writing Systems (pp. 445-449). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Terwiel, B. J., & Wichasin, R. (eds.), (1992). Tai Ahoms and the stars: three ritual texts to ward off danger. Ithaca, NY: Southeast Asia Program.
  7. ↑ Assam. (2008). In Columbia Encyclopedia Retrieved April 12, 2009, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/8256016/.
  8. 1 2 3 Hongladarom, K. (2005). Thai and Tai Languages. In Encyclopedia of linguistics (Vol. 2, pp. 1098-1101). New York, NY: Fitzroy Dearborn.
  9. ↑ Hosken, Martin; Morey, Stephen (2012-10-23). "N4321R: Revised Proposal to add the Ahom Script in the SMP of the UCS" (PDF). ISO/IEC JTC1/SC2/WG2.
  10. 1 2 3 Blake, B. J. (1994). Language Classification. In The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (Vol. 4, pp. 1952-1957). New York, NY: Pergamon Press Press.

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References

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